An interesting survey summary hit my desk in early April: Despite
mixed economic reports, nearly half of law firms and corporate legal
departments nationwide expect to hire additional lawyers in the next
12 months.
That information arrived the same morning as the U.S. Department
of Labor’s report that 80,000 jobs were cut in March. Talk about mixed
news.
At first, I thought at least there’s one industry anticipating job
growth. But then I read deeper into the survey results and my outlook
changed.
According to the survey by Robert Half Legal, the legal profession is
expecting to add attorneys to its ranks specifically because the economy is doing poorly. Three practice areas are expecting growth —bankruptcy, litigation, and ethics and corporate governance.
When you sit down and think about it, that makes a lot of sense. Job
losses have been widespread across all sectors. Credit is tightening.
Businesses and consumers, alike, are feeling the pinch. Next stop:
your friendly, neighborhood law firm in search of assistance.
So what will it take for this region to spur job growth and change its
stars from shooting to shining? Innovation.
It’s no longer prudent to simply build a fort during the down cycles
and wait for the economy to turn around. Rather, if Northeast Ohio is
to rise up and stake its claim, business leaders must identify new areas
within existing industry sectors — or create new ones — that are
designed to solve the pain consumers and businesses face on a daily
basis.
Many of America’s periods of true innovation occurred during recessionary times, most recently when the iPod was introduced in the
aftermath of the dot-com collapse. Why shouldn’t this time period
offer the same opportunities? Rising energy costs have people talking
about green initiatives. Tightening credit has people thinking about
creative financing mechanisms. And the housing market collapse has
forced a new look at real estate.
It almost seems inevitable that if we focus our energies on taking a
fresh look at everything instead of staring bug-eyed at our books, we
should land on solutions that solve everyday problems in a new way,
thereby creating new jobs to deliver those products and services and
drag us out of the regional economy quagmire.
Besides, what other choice do we have?
Contact Editor Dustin Klein at [email protected]