2024 Hiring Trends in Law Firm Risk & Compliance

As we step into the final quarter of 2024, law firms have increasingly been met with the challenge of optimising their Office of the General Counsel teams to stay up-to-date with the ongoing policy and regulatory changes within law firm risk and compliance. A few of the key trends that I have noticed over the past nine months are:

Increase in Focused Risk Management roles

There is an increase in demand for experienced general risk professionals within the law firm space. As opposed to Conflicts, AML or regulatory lawyers and managers (these roles have increased notably in the past five years), law firms are now required to think outside the box and require professionals who can collaborate on the use of AI and technology platforms to automate, streamline and enhance the risk management process as well as monitor and analyse risk metrics in order to develop a firm-wide risk framework.

Increase in the need for Sanctions Professionals

The ongoing and escalating international conflicts have required law firms to adapt in regard to their AML offering. In particular, this has directly led to an increase in hiring demand for Sanctions professionals. There are many differences between the AML and Sanctions guidelines as set out by the SRA. For example, the sanctions regime applies to all authorised firms whereas the AML regime applies only to those firms that provide services in scope of the AML regulations. As there are significantly less legal professionals experienced within Sanctions as opposed to AML, we have seen increased salaries on offer as firms fight to attract the best talent. We have also observed several law firms training their junior AML Analysts on the sanctions regime in order to keep up with demands from fee-earners.

Analysts looking for variation

While several firms are looking to train their analysts in additional aspects of law firm risk and compliance (as opposed to solely AML and Conflicts), in turn, numerous junior analysts are keen to gain as much learning and development from their roles as possible. Candidates are no longer just thinking about the law firm recruiting and the salary on offer, but they are thinking about the type of work they will be exposed to and how this will impact them. Analysts understand that law firm compliance is an evolving space and they look for variation from their roles to help them grow their future compliance career. This can also be seen in the number of non-qualified candidates looking to undertake the SQE (either by firm sponsorship or independently) in order to increase their career exposure and earning potential in the long term.

Managerial Roles

We have seen many law firms struggle to hire experienced managers across all areas of law firm risk and compliance, including AML, conflicts and regulatory compliance. A number of firms have decided to take on a technically experienced senior analyst or advisor who shows enthusiasm in looking for the next step up, as opposed to a manager with the experience of having direct reports. I think it is important for law firms to ask themselves what they require from a compliance manager, hence all managerial roles are different.

Are you looking for a technical expert or someone solely responsible for a large group of junior analysts? If the answer is the former, then there is a compelling argument that technical excellence should take precedence over people managing capability. This also acts as a cost-effective solution. We have seen that it is very rare (in this market and at this level) that you can find both.

The risk and compliance market is constantly evolving and law firms are consequently required to adapt and grow their teams by offering comprehensive training on areas of increased importance such as Sanctions and the introduction of AI. In order to stay ahead of the curve, law firms are required to offer not only an attractive salary and high quality of work but also investment in their employees by fostering a culture which encourages ongoing training, development and career progression for its skilled risk and compliance employees.

If you require any assistance in hiring for your law firm risk & compliance team, please do not hesitate to reach out: emily.hickman@redlawrecruitment.com.