Phil Flora Appears on the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog Podcast Discussing the Unprecedented Battle for Legal Talent and Leopard’s Data

Hear Leopard Solutions’ Vice President Phil Flora on how the legal market is reacting to the unprecedented battle for talent on Greg Lambert’s 3 Geeks and a Law Blog podcast.

Phil discusses a number of issues in the legal hiring market on the podcast, including how law firms and others are managing, recruiting and retaining talent in such an active market.

Phil and Greg began the conversation discussing where law firms were in hiring before the pandemic and where they are now.

When the pandemic began, many law firms prepared for the worst by furloughing or laying off lawyers and legal professionals. Many of these same firms then found themselves at a disadvantage when the hiring spree began in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Phil spoke about the numbers Leopard tracks over this time on hiring and movement in the legal industry, noting that pre-pandemic, there were 6,000 to 7,000 open jobs at any given moment, while currently, that number is around 12,000+ and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

Phil and Greg also spoke about how offering lawyers more money has traditionally been a common retention approach for many law firms but additional compensation isn’t necessarily the motivating factor of all lawyers today.

Phil noted that there are a lot of “greats” going on in the market, including the “Great Pause”, the “Great Resurgence” and the “Great Reflection” to name a few. In order for law firms to win the race for talent in the competitive hiring market of today, they’ve had to pull out all the stops both financially and creatively to attract the top-level talent that they need to staff the influx of matters they have.

And while offering employees more money and signing bonuses is one way to retain employees, that’s not the only factor keeping lawyers at their current firms. This includes more work flexibility, leadership opportunities, educational advancement, mentoring and even more social awareness by their firms.

However, without a long-term strategy in place to combat departures, firms are at risk of losing their own talent as quickly as they hire laterals.

Listen to the full podcast.

For more on the the legal hiring market and what’s to come, download your copy of the State of The Legal Industry report. The report provides a comprehensive look of trends and changes within the legal industry during 2021 featuring exclusive data from Leopard Solutions and commentary from leading legal industry professionals.

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