It’s a perennial problem for most law firm leaders. The need to attract the best young lawyers gets harder every year, as more firms in Australia and New Zealand compete to secure the top talent. For years, law firm leaders across Australia and New Zealand have been unable to effectively attract young lawyers. So they tell themselves the same story: “there simply aren’t enough good young lawyers available”.
It’s an easy and comforting explanation. It’s much easier to blame the market, rather than facing up to some harsh realities about your firm or your talent sourcing process. After all, vacancies remain open for months, recruitment processes drag on, and competitors seem to be hiring the young legal talent you wanted; it is tempting to conclude that the market has run out of talent. However, what if this is not actually the case?
What if the challenge facing many firms isn’t a shortage of young lawyers at all? What if the real problem is that firms are looking for talent in the same places, using the same methods, and then wondering why they keep seeing the same results? Some might argue that this is the law firm leader’s very own version of insanity!
In our experience, the issue is often not a lack of talent. It’s a lack of visibility into where that talent is and what it takes to attract it. Put simply, most legal leaders and law firms don’t know what the best young lawyers actually want.
What Top Young Candidates Want
The best young lawyers remain ambitious, but they are increasingly selective about where they choose to build their careers. They want flexibility, strong wellbeing policies, quality work and a clearly defined career pathway. Culture matters too. They want to work alongside people who share similar values and career aspirations, which is one reason referrals and alumni networks continue to be such a powerful source of talent.
Your Recruitment Process Matters
Young lawyers don’t just assess the opportunity. They assess how the firm operates throughout the recruitment process. Slow communication, unclear processes and delayed decisions are often interpreted as signs of how the firm itself functions. At a time when talented candidates may be considering several opportunities at once, momentum matters. When one firm’s process slows, another firm’s process moves forward.
Relationships Create Better Hiring Outcomes
Many firms are successfully recruiting lawyers with three to five years’ post-qualification experience by combining technical assessment with internal networks. Existing employees often know potential candidates through university, previous firms or professional connections. These warm introductions can make the initial conversation easier and, importantly, help firms assess cultural fit before a hiring process formally begins.
How Firms Get Ahead
The firms attracting the strongest young talent are not waiting until they urgently need to fill a vacancy. They are building visibility of the market ahead of time through technology, market mapping and direct engagement. They also treat recruitment as a leadership issue rather than an administrative task, with clear ownership, stronger in-house capability and better-informed hiring decisions.
You Can’t Hire What You Can’t See
The legal talent market is more active than many firms believe. Talented young lawyers are available and many are open to the right opportunity, but they are not always applying for advertised roles or appearing on traditional recruiter shortlists. Firms that improve their visibility of the market, act decisively and engage talent proactively are often the ones that secure the best candidates. The challenge is not always a shortage of talent. More often, it is a shortage of visibility.
If you want to see the full market of legal talent that you could hire from, then get in touch with us today.
This is a summary of an article that originally appeared in The Capital Letter on July 22, 2026. The article can be viewed by subscribers of the Capital Letter here: How law firms can attract the best young talent | Capital Letter