Welcome Vanessa Vance

Warren Recruiting is pleased to announce the addition of Vanessa Vance, Esq.

Vanessa brings over two decades of legal industry knowledge and hands-on experience to Warren Recruiting. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University and South Texas College of Law, having received Distinguished Student and Dean's List honors at both. Vanessa worked her way from associate to partner where she was responsible for the hiring and management of a large team of support staff and associates, as well as an enormous docket of active litigation files. She has a real-world, first-hand perspective as to the innate issues related to being an associate and partner in various-sized law firms, and this insight makes her well-equipped to successfully assist clients and candidates seeking both attorney and partner placements.

Vanessa has been a frequent speaker at many CLE seminars. She is a certified mediator and a member of the State Bar of Texas. In addition, she is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Houston Bar Foundation and Litigation Counsel of America, and a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas. Vanessa was previously named Texas Rising Star by Law & Politics & Texas Monthly Magazine and One of Houston's Professionals on the Fast Track by Houston's H Magazine.

Vanessa resides in Houston with her husband and two sons, and Golden Retriever Power Princess Dominique. They enjoy all outdoor activities, especially biking, snow skiing, boating, baseball and traveling.

How can Vanessa help you upgrade your career?

New Year, New Economy, New Job

Over the last two years, we have heard nothing but negative news about the state of our economy regarding companies making continual layoffs as well as the unemployment rate for our country continue to creep towards 10%. Towards the end of 2010, Warren Recruiting started to see a sharp increase in the number of open jobs we had from our clients. We began to receive calls from clients that hadn’t hired in over a year, letting us know that deal flow had picked up and they need more people.

Across the nation, companies are beginning to add new employees to their workforce. In a recent USAToday article published 1/6/2011, “Through 2011, employers will add 183,000 jobs a month — vs. 94,000 a month in 2010, according to the average forecast of 28 economists surveyed by USA TODAY.” If you have been sitting and waiting for things to improve before you make your next career move, stop procrastinating because things are finally getting better and it’s a new year and time for a new opportunity!

A Strong and Healthy 2010

Despite a few recent layoff announcements from Mayer Brown and a couple other big law firms, we are seeing a huge increase in overall hiring. As predicted in the first quarter of 2009 by Morgan Warren, founder of Warren Recruiting, the increase in 2010 hiring is being seen in all ranks of attorneys and staff. The largest concentrated growth is from mid size law firms who are looking for talented, seasoned attorneys and staffers to handle a myriad of cases and deals.

The IP, Bankruptcy, Litigation and Partner level searches are back to 2008 (very high) levels. Real Estate and Finance is still lagging a bit however the growth of new opportunities has been on the rise. Warren Recruiting remains optimistic that 2010 will continue to be a very strong year for talented law professionals.

On an international level, we have seen a dramatic drop in new opportunities particularly within Asia who is suffering from over expansion in 2009 and is looking to absorb the glut of attorneys hired in the past three years. The challenges in Greece have not had a noticeable impact in the EU nor do we anticipate seeing any direct impact.

Let us know if you have specific questions about particular verticals within the legal space.

A new model for a new economy

Over the past decade we’ve witnessed unprecedented growth in the legal economy prompted by a number of change factors including technology, a strong global economy and the infusion of top managers. The technology responsible for this growth includes the Internet, VOIP, outsourced cheaper partners, better research tools and the ubiquitous blackberry.

The economy fueled by cheap debt, a robust capital market and low taxes led to an increased need (Mr . Supply meets Ms. Demand) of top legal talent. The technology leaps which was referenced earlier was also responsible for the surge in IP Attorneys which then fed the Corporate Attorneys and is now feeding the restructuring attorneys.

Along the way the law firms hired outsiders to help them lead their companies. These outsiders joined the firms with of a wealth of management speak and were responsible for significant maturity in financial, marketing, human capital and supply chain issues. Amidst the efficiencies achieved perhaps no greater was that of the economy of scale which led to the growth of the mega-firms. These mega-firms with hundreds of lawyers, regional and international offices, and a wide spectrum of service offerings.

The megafirms also hired Madison Avenue ad agencies who helped craft unique messages about the brand (aka the firm). These sophisticated firms also changed their names from an alphabet soup of partners names to a single strong name like Coke or Amazon.

With the current recession in full swing, these change factors are being put to the test. Can the reduced fees sustain the cost of operating the mega firms? Will the regional firms become dominant again? If there were economies of scale a few years ago, one would logically assume it’s more important than ever. This of course means the firms are going to have to find new ways to cut costs and further leverage these change factors.

Warren Recruiting is looking forward to seeing the impact of the Change Factors and helping the legal landscape evolve.