The Spring Budget’s batch of changes to taxation has resulted in law firms posting more vacancies for tax lawyers in February, than any other month over the last two years.
On 6 March, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced his Spring Budget, which came with a lot of changes including the introduction of a British ISA, a small cut in National Insurance, and the abolition of the non-dom tax regime.
According to a report by professional recruiter Search and market data analysts Vacancysoft, record levels of tax lawyer vacancies were posted in law firms in February in London and nationally.
The report predicts vacancies for tax lawyers will surge to 32.5 per cent by the end of 2024.
In the City, vacancies for this role have surged by 87.5 per cent this February compared to the same month last year.
In a breakdown of the role, lawyers with a focus on the private client sector are dominating these vacancies, as they have accounted for 81.3 per cent of the role (year to date). This is an area that does well, but these figures were even up from the 74.5 per cent accounted for those vacancies in 2022.
There has been an increase in recruitment for trusts lawyers. This type of speciality made up 2 per cent of the total vacancies in 2022, rising to 5.6 per cent this year.
On a wider view of the country, the South represented 39.5 per cent of total vacancies over 2023, and this is expected to jump to 44.9 per cent by the end of this year.
The report did note that when analysing activity by a firm, it was noticeable how much less the London-centric firms are when recruiting. The report explained that across 2023, the leading firm in London recruiting these lawyers was Russell Cooke (five roles), compared to outside London, it was Irwin Mitchell (55 roles).
Commenting on the data, David Holden, director of private practice as Search said: “With increased demand for specialists in private client and trust law, we’re witnessing an upward pressure on salaries for these roles. This is creating new career opportunities but also a competitive hiring environment where firms must offer more than just financial incentives to attract top talent.”