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During our research for this issue, we kept coming across one major theme – people and how best to manage them. Against a background of high work levels, expansion in Central and Eastern Europe and into Asia, as well as little concern for the arrival in Spain of US heavyweight Latham & Watkins, the recurrent issue was human resources.
Al margen de aspectos como el elevado grado de trabajo que se acumula en los despachos, la expansión hacia Europa del Este, Europa Central y Asia, la apertura del despacho americano Latham & Watkins en Madrid; el tema que realmente parece permanecer de forma preocupante en la agenda de la mayoría de los despachos ibéricos es la problemática relacionada con el reclutamiento de abogados. El problema es que justo cuando la economía española parece para muchos alcanzar su punto culminante, el número de abogados júnior disponibles y dispuestos en el mercado parece haber disminuído.
Para algunos, la llegada de Latham a España se ve como un nuevo catalizador hacia una mayor competitividad entre profesionales. Uno de los despachos líderes en España ya ha subido los sueldos y mejorado las condiciones de trabajo de sus empleados como medida de retención de personal por segunda vez consecutiva en un año.
Otros, sin embargo, auguran buenas noticias. Igual que con la llegada de los despachos ingleses hace diez años, un socio de M&A me dijo que quizás la llegada de Latham provocaría un incremento en los honorarios, algo que sin su llegada no hubiera sido posible.
At the annual legal conference organised by the leading Spanish business daily, Expansión, the best attended session was not on strategy but on management of people. We heard managing partners Maite Díez from Baker & McKenzie and Pedro Pérez-Llorca speak eloquently and objectively about the people challenges their firms face.
Afterwards, one participant told me: “We sometimes forget that there are two areas of competition – people as well as clients.”
The problem is that just as the Spanish economy is moving towards what many see as the top of this cycle – the number of really capable junior lawyers coming onto the job market is at a low.
Not that it is so different internationally. As our News Focus on China shows, the Spanish law firms opening in Shanghai have not found it easy. While there is bureaucracy to overcome, the real challenge has been to recruit the right staff – both local and expatriate. Those lawyers interested in an international secondment would much rather go to London or New York. And back at home it is not just head hunters that are out looking for talent. A number of firms have started attending international recruitment fairs, the most recent of which took place in New York.
One top Spanish firm has successfully recruited a quality Chinese / Spanish lawyer for its Madrid office. On hearing the news a competitor law firm told me, “We will need to give her a call.”
Maite Díez, as one of Iberia’s very few lady managing partners, has a pragmatic solution: changing the work culture in law firms in order to work more efficiently and allowing more attractive / flexible working conditions, especially for working mothers. Although this will not happen quickly. Perhaps, the biggest immediate impact of Latham’s arrival in Spain will be on salaries. One top firm has just increased its salaries and enhanced working conditions for the second time in a year.
Although there is some good news. As with the arrival of the English law firms in the last decade, one Spanish M&A partner told me that the arrival of Latham & Watkins will now allow him to put up his prices again.
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