2023 Axiom In-House Hiring Survey: The Digital Transformation

The In-House Hiring Journey

Cutbacks, reductions in force, decreased profits – a recessionary environment is long on adversities and short on opportunities. For employers, however, downturns do offer a few silver linings. For the past few years, the legal hiring market has been hot, with attorney hiring skyrocketing by more than 110% in both 2021 and 2022. 

This fierce war for lawyers resulted in unprecedentedly high compensation and, for employers, a real dearth of talent. As the legal hiring market cools in step with the economy, it should be a hirer’s market, with an abundance of legal talent from which to make net new hires or to “up-level” already filled positions.

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So why is it still so hard for legal departments to hire the right lawyers? 

And make no mistake – it’s hard: 99% of both senior in-house counsel and legal operations professionals report that it is difficult to find and hire the right lawyers to effectively address their needs. 

Casual observers of the market – and even some C-suite executives – might argue that budget cuts and headcount freezes render this hiring dilemma moot. But in-house legal leaders know that because their team is so significantly understaffed, finding ways to access additional resourcing support is a very real and current problem. 

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Finding and hiring the right legal talent may be more complicated in a cost-constrained market, but it is no less important.  

This report intends to uncover the legal talent hiring perspectives among two important audiences, each of whom is critical to legal talent procurement: senior in-house counsel (GCs, CLOs, DGCs, AGCs, and Senior Counsel) and in-house legal operations professionals. 

In undertaking this research, it was Axiom’s goal to identify the resourcing pain points faced by both audiences in this recessionary environment. But we also endeavored to dive a bit deeper – beyond the typical resourcing headlines – in order to:

• Gain insight into how each of these critical stakeholders approaches legal hiring
• Understand pain points along the hiring journey (where they are shared and how they differ)
• Identify areas for improvement, particularly where those areas can be tech-enabled 
  

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As a result, this research also explores the benefits of leveraging a digital platform to improve, facilitate, and/or accelerate the legal hiring journey.

The headline finding? Legal professionals are hungry for a digital hiring platform. The report that follows addresses both the potential advantages of such a platform and the concerns that might hinder adoption.