Written by Jamie Finch | Legal Specialist Recruitment Consultant at Eden Rose USA
The US Labor & Employment market has given law firms a reason to pay attention.
In its second-quarter 2026 analysis, Thomson Reuters Institute reported that demand for Labor & Employment legal services increased by 3.4% year on year, placing the practice among the strongest-performing areas of legal demand during the quarter.
Across the wider law firm market, legal demand grew by 3%. Demand for work performed by associates increased by 4.3%, while demand for non-equity partners increased by 6%.
These figures do not automatically translate into more vacancies. However, they raise an important question for Labor & Employment practices: if demand continues to grow, do firms have the right people in place to deliver the work?
That is where I believe recruitment strategy becomes particularly important.
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, Q2 2026 Law Firm Financial Index.
Growth in legal demand does not necessarily mean every firm will expand its headcount. Some will look to recruit, while others may focus on productivity, existing team capacity or the types of matters they want to pursue.
For Labor & Employment practices, the recruitment challenge is understanding exactly where additional expertise could make a difference.
A firm managing a growing litigation caseload may need an associate who can take ownership of employment disputes. Another may require experience in wage-and-hour class and collective actions, California PAGA litigation or employment counseling. A firm looking to expand its presence in a particular market may instead consider a senior attorney or partner who can help develop client relationships and build the practice.
These are different commercial objectives. The recruitment strategy should reflect that.
There are also signs that law firms have become more active in the lateral market.
NALP’s research found that lateral hiring across its reporting sample of US law firms increased by 16.4% in 2025, with partner hiring rising by 17.8% and associate hiring by 17.1%.
The findings cover the wider legal market, rather than Labor & Employment specifically, and hiring outcomes varied by firm size and location. Nevertheless, they show that firms were recruiting at both associate and partner level, rather than concentrating growth in one group alone.
Source: NALP, U.S. Law Firm Lateral Hiring Shows Broad Growth in 2025.
For me, the important point is not that every firm should now be hiring. It is that firms need to understand where they want to grow, what their current teams can deliver and which hires would support those objectives.
A larger team is not automatically a stronger practice.
The value of a hire depends on the work a firm needs to deliver, the experience already within the team and the capabilities it wants to develop. In Labor & Employment, that might mean strengthening management-side litigation, adding specialist wage-and-hour experience or recruiting an attorney who can handle a broader mix of counseling and contentious matters.
The more clearly a firm defines the gap it needs to fill, the more focused its recruitment process can become.
Senior hiring can support more than immediate capacity. The right attorney may bring experience in a particular area, established client relationships, the ability to mentor junior lawyers or opportunities to collaborate with other practice groups.
For partner recruitment, the conversation needs to go further. Both sides should understand the firm’s plans for the practice, the work available, expectations around business development, the support provided and how success will be measured.
A portable book of business can be important, but it should not be the only consideration. The wider platform and the realistic opportunity to develop a practice matter too.
One of the recurring challenges in specialist recruitment is timing.
When a position becomes urgent, a firm may find itself approaching the same limited pool of attorneys as several competitors. Starting conversations earlier can give firms a clearer picture of the market, realistic compensation expectations and what might genuinely persuade a suitable attorney to consider a move.
For candidates, those relationships also create the opportunity to explore the market without feeling that they need to make an immediate decision.
Recruitment works better when both sides have time to understand the opportunity properly.
I would not describe the available evidence as proof of an impending hiring boom across US Labor & Employment practices. Demand data and recruitment data measure different things, and the experience of individual firms will vary.
However, the combination of rising Labor & Employment demand and broader growth in lateral hiring makes this a market worth watching closely.
My expectation is that successful recruitment strategies will be built around clear business needs, realistic expectations and a strong understanding of the talent available in each market.
For law firms, that means looking beyond whether a vacancy needs to be filled and asking what the right hire should help the practice achieve.
For attorneys, it means assessing opportunities beyond title and compensation. The quality of the work, the people around you, progression, flexibility and the firm’s longer-term direction can all influence whether a move makes sense.
At Eden Rose USA, my focus is Labor & Employment legal recruitment. That specialism matters because understanding a candidate’s experience is only one part of the process.
It is also about understanding the differences between practice areas, the demands of individual firms, the expectations attached to each role and what both sides want to achieve.
Our aim is to build relationships that go beyond a single vacancy, helping firms make informed hiring decisions and attorneys assess opportunities that align with their ambitions.
If you are a Labor & Employment attorney considering your next step, or a law firm planning the next stage of its practice, I would welcome a confidential conversation. Email me at jamie.finch@edenroselegal.com