Corporate, construction and workplace relations were the most active areas for lateral partner movement in the past three months, according to ALB data.

54 partner movements were reported to ALB in the months of April, May and June (to date). Corporate/M&A movements amounted to 22 percent of this activity and workplace relations amounted to 17 percent. Construction also proved to be active, accounting for 17 percent of activity while related practice area projects/infrastructure accounted for 4 percent. A list of the most common practice areas and their prevalence is shown below.

Doron Paluch, director of Burgess Paluch legal recruitment, said that he was not surprised to see corporate/M&A at the top of the list. He says the movement of partners in this area is more due to strategic reasons rather than any buoyancy in market conditions.  “While it has been widely reported that M&A activity is significantly down, partners in many cases are bringing a substantial client following to their new firms,” he says. “There are very few areas where firms would have enough work to keep a new partner fully busy – so generally the partner would need to be bringing work with them. That is especially typical in the corporate area.”

However, Paluch says that he has not seen the same pattern in construction practices, where the figures also showed a significant level of lateral recruitment activity. “That may be just a random [outcome] on the numbers – if you run the figures again in a couple of months time, it may well be different,” he observed.

Paluch added that he was seeing some more positive signs in the market more generally. “Firms have been very cautious for a very long time – and will probably continue to be so,” he said. “However, we’re starting to see the first positive signs in a very long time – there’s been a little bit of a pick up.”

Partner movements by practice area: April to June (to date) 2013(*)

 * figures rounded to zero decimal places