The decisive fact in the decision of legal companies to establish a Belfast base has received support funding by Invest Northern Ireland, a regional development agency. The agency has offered Axiom up to £1.1million spread over an eight year period. The firm has also received a substantial award from the Department of Employment and Learning which could total up to £500,000 for skills development.

Last year A&O, one of the big five ‘Magic Circle’ law firms (and the seventh largest in the world), received £2.5million for establishing a major legal support services centre in Belfast. In return, the firm intends to provide up to 300 legal jobs by 2014.

The new Axiom centre will employ 15 lawyers immediately with plans to provide over 100 legal jobs by 2014. The Invest Northern Ireland funding was vital to Axiom’s decision to choose Belfast which beat off stiff competition from other UK cities as well as Cape Town and Delhi.

The company also paid tribute to the high quality of legal recruits as being a major contributory factor.  Arlene Foster, the Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister said Axiom’s choice was a ‘testament to the reputation of Northern Ireland’s workforce’.

The law was nicknamed the ‘Tesco Law’ in reference to the likelihood of supermarkets selling legal services. The number of applications is as much as five times the expected volume, which could indicate a fundamental shift in the market for law services and the legal jobs market. Currently, the UK market for legal services is worth £23 billion a year but if, as intended, the legislation leads to more members of the public taking up legal services, the sector could experience substantial growth and a new generation of legal jobs could soon be appearing in the market.

Major supermarkets and banks are among those currently considering a foray into legal services and with their financial resources and direct access to customers, they could quickly become major players. This should lead to a substantial increase in legal jobs as firms look to take on qualified staff to provide the legal expertise to customers. Sudden growth of this kind also has the potential to drive up salaries within the sector.

For lawyers who are looking for a role that will help shape communities and society in the future there is plenty of opportunity in the public sector. On both a national and local level, organisations need legally trained staff to help shape new legislation and policy and ensure it complies with current laws. The influence of legal advisors on the final shape of all new policies is vital and always has a significant impact.

For advocates, a public sector legal job offers the chance to make a compelling case not just on behalf of institutions themselves but also for an organisation’ s clients. Lawyers interested in social justice often enjoy the prospect of being assigned a rich and diverse range of cases to argue.

For lawyers who enjoy working with detail and process, there is also a wealth of employment prospects in the public sector. Demand for legal staff working in planning and property is always consistently high and can involve issues ranging in size from individual household application to multi million pound investment projects.

Badenoch and Clark is a leader in the field of public sector legal jobs and always has a range of positions available, whatever a lawyer’s chosen area of interest.

The findings were revealed following research by Legal Week in the wake of legislation which came into effect in October 2011, preventing compulsory retirement before the age of 65. The research also revealed that partners over the age of 60 were, on the whole, underrepresented at the biggest law firms.

This significant change in employment practice may have considerable impact on legal jobs in the future. Concerns have been expressed that later retirements could lead to fewer opportunities for promotion to partner and hinder the career development of law firm associates. A reverse knock-on effect may mean fewer opportunities at the biggest companies for people starting on their legal career.

However, the companies concerned are major international institutions and initial signs were that there would still be considerable flexibility that would not adversely affect career prospects. Wim Dejonghe, Allen & Overy’s managing partner implied that there would remain plenty of opportunity with the firm: ‘We are a global institution and there are a great variety of ways in which the careers of our partners are played out. To have an inflexible mandatory retirement age globally that forces partners to leave the firm at a particular point in time no longer made any sense.’

There is an increasing trend amongst firms in the West Midlands to hire candidates of the right calibre with a good client portfolio even if they don’t necessarily have a live vacancy. This is particularly prevalent in personal injury and family law as firms look to drive new business sales.

We’ve seen an increase in lateral hires at partner level across northern England. This is because firms are diversifying into more niche practice areas that are less affected by economic volatility such as intellectual property, IT and technology and partners with followings are particularly.

Demand for short term locums is rising within the public sector across the West Midlands particularly within community services law. This is because approval processes for hiring have been fast tracked in order to provide resources for business critical roles.

With some departments in central government realising that it is generally more cost effective for them to deal with complex legal work in house rather than outsourcing to a law firm, there has been an uplift in demand for commercial lawyers in central government. The Government Legal Service is now recruiting for a number of departments, with a focus on commercial law and litigation as a result.

Some areas of public sector law that have been quiet for some time, such as planning and property, have become noticeably busier. Employers are increasingly turning to non-qualified, junior staff as a cost effective way to alleviate the pressure on their legal teams and help them run more efficiently as a result.

Highlights for 2011 included:

•    In 2011, banking volatility led to uncertainty on hiring, with demand fluctuating month on month whilst technology companies ramped up their in-house legal teams.

•    A reluctance to train existing members of staff spawned an increased demand for senior level and lateral hires.

We expect a degree of uncertainty to remain throughout 2012 driven by lower confidence in certain markets that will ultimately affect the UK and continued focus on regulation. Key predictions include:

•    With a reduced level of economic activity going into 2012 it is likely that recruitment will slow down within transactional practice areas such as banking and corporate. However once stability and growth return we would expect hiring to pick up.

•    Recession-proof practice areas such as litigation, arbitration, white collar crime, restructuring, insolvency and regulatory are predicted to have higher levels of recruitment activity, particularly in the first half of 2012.

•    High street firms are increasingly favouring newly qualified lawyers with up to 2 years PQE as market rates for this level of experience are relatively low and affordable. We anticipate this demand will continue into 2012 as the pressure on cost control fails to abate.

•    We predict that the financial services legal market will stay relatively flat with low levels of candidate activity as lawyers tend to stay put during periods of economic volatility.

•    It’s expected that a number of restructures and mergers within central government legal departments will put the dampeners on the creation of new roles. Local government is likely to become increasingly reliant on locum cover to maintain business as usual in the face of cuts and we anticipate an increase in demand for corporate governance specialists in the first half of 2012 as local authorities get to grips with changes due to the Localism Act.

How do our predictions stack up against yours?

Tell us what you expect to see from an attraction, retention or talent management point of view within the law and the legal function during 2012 in the comment box below:

Around 80 per cent of people in legal jobs and other roles are working sick, according to alarming research published today (February 3rd).

With the help of Professor Cary Cooper, Ellipse found that while technology has changed the way people work in the UK, absence management procedures have not kept up the pace.

Both found that the impact of always-on technology means that people are not taking the time genuinely needed to recover, instead continuing to work.

Professor Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, said that illness is just a "fact of working life", but it's not always an inevitability.

"Firstly, by looking at ways of flexible working to help those who are able to work but perhaps not able to come into the office or work set hours," she added.

"Secondly, we need to encourage employees to not feel obliged to come in to work when they are ill as we know a culture of presenteeism is damaging."

It comes after a report by Right Management found that counselling is becoming a regular aid for people in jobs as stress comes from both in and outside of the workplace.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has published a report on conditions in the workplace for employees, such as those in legal jobs, to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee year.

It found that the value of output in the economy has increased four times since 1952 – the year of the Queen's coronation – because of a rise in productivity.

However, the length of the average working week has fallen by ten hours because of a rise in part-time work. In the 1950s, only four per cent of people worked part-time, while this has now increased to around on in four employees (totalling 6.5 million workers).

Despite no evidence of high job satisfaction in the CIPD report, the organisation did state that only a small minority of employees said that they would go the "extra mile" for the company they work for.

Significantly, workplace stress has grown in the last couple of decades, with a rise in technology resulting in information overload and "blurred boundaries" between work and social time.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic advisor at the CIPD, said there are several concerns when looking at how the workplace has evolved.

"In our more unequal society, with the threat of unemployment an underlying concern even during good times, people do not seem much happier about their working lives and many exhibit the symptoms of work-related stress," he noted.

"Whatever the future of work, the lesson of the past six decades is that increased productivity and prosperity isn't enough to enhance the common good in the workplace or society in general."

It comes after Direct Line announced that commuting is on the rise, with 29 per cent of those travelling to work by car saying there is no other feasible way of getting to the office.

Steve Price, head of Direct Line car insurance, said that the working day is far from nine until five because of this.

New research has shown that middle managers in legal jobs and other roles are under the most pressure and have the worst work-life balance.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) Employee Outlook report revealed that 49 per cent of people in these management positions are under excessive pressure every day or once or twice per week.

This compares to a survey average of 37 per cent, with only 44 per cent of middle management satisfied with their work-life balance.

Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, explained that middle managers are often "caught in the middle" while carrying those who are underperforming.

"While middle management will undoubtedly bear its share of job losses in organisations needing to reduce head count, it is also important to remember the crucial role these managers play in managing change, translating the objectives of senior managers into actions, and motivating others," he added.

It comes after a study by Roffey Park revealed last week that the expectations of executives do not match those of their line managers.

The legal sector continues to ride out the recession in a fairly stable manner and with salaries up on last year and consultancy contracts still available those in search of legal jobs should remain optimistic.

Figures revealed recently show that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) continues to employ the services of legal consultants, despite looking to reduce its spend on outsourced experts.

According to the Law Gazette, the MoJ has spent over £40 million on external advisors since May 2010 with legal consultants being called upon to provide guidance on legal aid cuts, longer sentences for knife crime and halving punishments for criminals making an early plea.

Spend on consultants in 2012 may change, though, as the MoJ looks to bring its spending in line with the government's cost cutting measures.

A spokesperson for the MoJ told the publication: "While consultants can offer a fast and flexible way of obtaining necessary skills, we are committed to providing the taxpayer with value for money and always follow established government guidelines."