Morning Briefing: Talented lawyers tempted to in-house teams

Corporates are shifting spending away from elite law firms towards attracting top talent in-house.
Specialist legal recruitment firm Laurence Simons says that companies are increasing the salaries of in-house lawyers while cutting back on bonuses and external law firms.
In London, the recruiter says that average salaries have increased by 12 per cent in 2016 to £165,190 (AU$324,557) but bonuses have eased from 39 per cent of salary in 2015 to 31 per cent in 2016.
Laurence Simons’ global managing director Clare Butler told The Law Society Gazette that in order to save on external law firm fees, companies are “building stronger and broader in-house teams, which means recruiting lawyers from private practice at a premium.”
 
EY bolsters global capabilities of legal services division
The legal services operations of Ernst & Young has been given a boost at three of its locations.
EY Law’s units in Canada, Chile and Argentina have all added new senior hires and bring the total number of legal practitioners in the firm to 1,700 across 73 countries.
 
Korean lawyers say waitresses have been unlawfully detained
Human rights lawyers are accusing the South Korean authorities of unlawfully detaining 12 waitresses and a manager who have defected from North Korea.
Officials in Seoul have been criticized from both sides of the border, with North Korea accusing the south’s security services of kidnapping the 13 people – they are in a secure government facility – and South Korean lawyers wanting access to them but being told they do not require their help.
A closed court hearing was due to take place this week for the 12 women and 1 man to testify that they defected of their own free will but they did not turn up.
Lawyers for a Democratic Society say that a new judge should take over the case as the original one did not make a further request for the women to appear.
 
Legal comparison site gears up for launch
A legal services comparison website will be launching in the UK this August with more than 130 legal service providers already signed up.
In a similar way to Australia’s LawyerQuote, The Law Superstore says it will match consumers to the legal services they need “be they service, location or price.” Users will be able to rate providers based on their experience.