A few things have changed since June. What hasn’t changed is the speed of hire for ESI professionals—it has not slowed down at all. The hiring timelines seen in May and June (three to six days from resume sent to offer extended for project managers and analysts and three to six weeks for director and executive-level hiring) are steady. The only thing slowing some folks down is seasonal lag—an inability to schedule interviews as quickly because of summer vacations. We also see a lot of interest in passive candidates who are waiting out the summer before switching jobs. As fast as things are moving, expect to see a spike in demand for candidates in the late summer/early fall in anticipation of fall litigation.

The big change from June revolves around a significant increase in senior manager and director-level discovery professionals coming to market. There is suddenly an immense number of people actively looking for opportunities with base salaries ranging from $175K to $275K. However, there are not nearly as many jobs open for these individuals as there are for mid-market professionals.

Many of these candidates are very motivated by the desire not to return to the office, so they are on the hunt for remote work-from-home opportunities. This represents an opportunity for service providers and consulting firms who generally have more room in their staff ecosystems for professionals of this caliber to join and have the greatest flexibility regarding WFH permissions compared to their law firm and corporate counterparts. If you are thinking about retooling your leadership and/or management staff in e-discovery, now is the time. If you are a law firm, vendor, or anyone adopting a fully flexible work-from-home model post-pandemic, you have a unique opportunity to attract talent before September, particularly law firm talent where many leaders no longer want to return to the office and are motivated purely by a desire for the remote work lifestyle.