Recruitment and Professional Development departments shrink in US firms

Fifty-one per cent of law firm recruiting and professional development departments lost staffers as a result of job cuts since 2008, according to a new survey by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). Nearly 53 per cent of respondents said that their professional development departments had seen their budgets decrease by over 10 per cent, and only 12 per cent of respondents said that their departments had added staff in the past two years. Altman Weil consultant James Wilber commented that firms need the right balance between saving money and continuing to invest in their futures through recruiting and professional development. According to Wilber, firms that stopped recruiting altogether for several years in the early 1990s saw their reputations suffer.

Recruitment and Professional Development departments shrink in US firms law.com Tue, Nov 2, 2010