Kelly Law Registry Research

Some will stay, others will go...

Citing more challenges and more money as their reasons for doing so, a full 41 percent of this group (legal worker) is seeking a job change, and most of them are supremely confident in their ability to locate one. Of these, nearly all will be making a change within three years. Even among the oldest respondents, many are considering a change, and most of them are equally confident regarding their job prospects. Legal workers employed by non-profit organizations are likeliest to be planning a job change. Seventy percent of paralegals expect to be changing jobs, compared to 54 percent of lawyers.

More than half of these extremely well educated respondents have an annual household income of more than $100,000, and they are working an average of 48 hours per week. These legal workers can best be described as a restless but confident group willing to make changes in order to take on new challenges and make more money. Clearly they are willing to assume whatever responsibilities are necessary in order to do so, including additional training and education. In some circles they may be referred to as “risk-takers” except that their abiding confidence in their own abilities precludes the concept of risk.

Respondents working as sole practitioners as well as those working on a corporate or agency legal staff are more likely than respondents working in other positions to be thinking of making a change. While the likelihood of making a change decreases with job tenure, it is interesting that, of those “on the job” 15 years or more, 12 percent are thinking of making a change, and eight percent of respondents older than 65 years of age are planning on a job change. A strong majority of respondents planning on a change believe they will change employers, which was more or less consistent across all categories. Of those planning on a change, 22 percent had already started pursuing a new position.