Over the last 12 months, the legal technology job market hit both a decade-long low and an all-time high for hiring, job movement and salary demand. In April 2020, the job market began its "Great Pause." Subsequently, the second and third quarters of 2020 saw fewer legal technology job openings than any two quarters since 2010. Flash forward to the second quarter of 2021, and there is more talent demand than supply, rapid salary growth to attract and retain employees, broadly increased job opportunity derived from changes related to work-from-home (WFH) adoption, and a resulting never-before-seen level of turnover among middle-market positions that has the entire industry in a hiring frenzy.

This article gives historical context to the events that brought us to the current climate and provides guidance on how employers and employees can successfully navigate the ensuing complexities of job searching and hiring in the post-pandemic pandemonium.

Space & Time

The pandemic's effect on the interpersonal interaction between employee and employer is radically changing the culture and talent acquisition process of organizations, law firms and corporations alike. For most companies, pre-pandemic, office culture had been defined by space: Are we bullpen or open floor plan style? Who has the corner office, and how does that impose status? Are the attorneys and the legal technology staff on the same floor, or even in the same building? Through the course of lockdown, office culture became defined instead by time: Who is made available to whom, when, and for how long?