Lost time, Lost Talent: Why FS Firms Must Accelerate Interim Legal Hiring

As financial services face mounting pressure to stay agile and cost-efficient, demand for interim legal talent is surging. But outdated, lengthy recruitment processes may be undermining access to the high-calibre interim lawyers they urgently need.

In recent years, the financial services sector has seen a notable rise in the demand for interim lawyers. This trend is driven not only by the need to fill skill gaps within departments, cover parental leave, and support ongoing projects, but also by the increasing difficulty in securing secondees. Some banks try and tie their panel law firms into arrangements where they get a quota of free secondees, but only the large banks seem to profit from this arrangement with top-tier US and UK law firms. Even then, these free resources are in short supply and are often only available for 3 to 6 months.

With cost-containment the theme for 2025, financial services companies are also hiring interim lawyers in lieu of securing permanent budget (‘try-before-you-buy’). However, lengthy recruitment processes that might be deemed more suitable for permanent hires often prohibit a company’s ability to hire the best interim lawyers available in the market.

The talent tug-of-war

 While the legal job market, both interim and permanent, may not be as active as it was post-Covid, the war to hire the most talented interim lawyers remains rife for certain skill sets. Derivatives (notably equity derivatives) and structured products lawyers are hot commodities, particularly those who have specialised experience that matches bespoke client requirements. A slow hiring process increases the risk that interim lawyers will accept a position at a competitor.

Hesitation may also lead interim lawyers to turn their attention to alternative employers. Agile resources often want to partner with decisive organisations that value their expertise. Investment banks are often a good example of this – once they meet a few interim lawyers, they hone in on a preferred option ordinarily after one interview. An offer may materialise or a request for a second round ‘meet and greet’, but often nothing more than this. The investment banks know what they want and move quickly to close out an efficient recruitment process.

 Buy-side firms, principally private equity firms, tend to take a lot longer, and this is often attributed to the deal-oriented work the lawyers would be conducting and the fact that they need to meet several internal stakeholders (but even these processes can and should be streamlined). Ultimately, the way a company coordinates an interview process can shape an interim lawyer’s overall impression, positively or negatively, of how the business operates more generally.

Move quickly, hire wisely

Depending on the reason for hiring an interim lawyer, making a swift hire could be crucial to the business. But a slow interview process could result in businesses having to spend more money outsourcing work to law firms, there could be increased legal and compliance risks, or, particularly if a legal team is stretched, be faced with attrition within the legal team due to negative work/life balance.

 Processes should be streamlined. It is common for permanent processes to take several months to complete, but interim processes should take a week or two (with onboarding taking a few more weeks). Similarly, some companies like to conduct legal tests to ascertain technical ability for permanent headcount – this is time-consuming for an interim role and will often deter interim lawyers from the interview process. If companies are concerned about quality/cultural fit, they can improve hiring efficiency by leveraging networks of interim lawyers provided by specialist alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) and legal search firms. These interim lawyers are pre-vetted, and ALSPs/legal search firms can provide an honest commentary on suitability for roles.

The bottom line

It is important to keep in mind that the pool of candidates for interim lawyers is considerably smaller than that for permanent roles. If an interim lawyer meets your criteria, move quickly with an offer or risk the individual securing a new role with a competitor – there might not be another similar candidate available. There are very clear trends across the interim legal financial services market, with many investment banks looking for the same type of consultant (notably if there is a particular project or trend in the market). Take May/June of this year, for example – banks are going through transformation projects which include team restructures and redundancies. This has resulted in an uptick in the demand for interim employment lawyers. The best will get snapped up quickly (twinned with competitive day rates).

Streamline the process by limiting interviews to one or two rounds – ensure all decision makers are present in the interviews, or stack them back-to-back for efficiency. Get quality assurance by partnering with specialist interim providers who have access to pre-vetted interim lawyers that can be drafted in at short notice.