Why the market for tech transactions lawyers is heating up

29 October 2012 — For those of you on our job lists, especially those of you on our tech-specific and IP job lists, you have seen the surge in postings for tech transactions lawyers. These jobs are being placed by law firms, corporations and recruitment agencies. In fact, we have seen a greater surge of direct postings from law firms and corporations with some of the smarter recruitment agencies slowly picking up the pace as they see the potential for this job market.  There is an an enormous demand and everybody is paying big bucks to recruit these lawyers.   This mirrors the surge we have seen on our “Big Data and Analytics” listserv for lawyers and others who “get” Big Data, a job listserv we created only a year ago and which know boasts 2,200+ subscribers.

Here are a few points from an excellent article in The Recorder (link below) and we totally agree:

1. This drive for tech transactions lawyers is primarily due to the rising value of patents as a strategic asset and the growing number of blockbuster patent acquisitions. Companies looking for more ways to monetize their patent assets need lawyers to do it.  And we have seen an overall demand by corporations to simply build/expand their IP legal departments so this is all a natural progression.

2.  Law firms are facing stiffer competition for the lawyers who can bridge the gap between the M&A and IP worlds.

3. The market for tech transaction talent is evolving into two groups: firms that primarily do traditional day-to-day tech transactions, often at lower rates, and those that specialize in supporting big M&A deals, at much higher billing rates.

4. A growing number of experienced tech transaction attorneys are leaving the big law firms to either start their own firms, go in house, or work on a contract basis.  With respect to this last point, it has made firms like Axiom Legal and Virtual Law Partners the “go to” sources for these types of attorneys.

And it is not just the postings on our two job sites … here at The Posse List and our sister company, Project Counsel. Just a cursory scroll through the job pages of LinkedIn and job sites like SimplyHired and Bullhorn will show you this surge.

For a good background article, here is a link to The Recorder piece (click here).