The first quarter of this year showed further positive signs of recovery for the senior executive search industry around the world with annual growth of 30.2 per cent in new executive search mandates and a 22 per cent rise in revenues – revealed new data from the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).

Market information collected by InterExec, a London-based executive management company that works closely with top headhunters, reveals that activity in the non-executive director (NED) sector is increasing, with demand for these types of roles on the rise.

Having seen a significant upturn in interview activity since the beginning of September, Prism Executive Recruitment conducted a market survey in early November with a prequalified sample of candidates and employers, with responses from 45 employers and 153 candidates.

Recent results announcements by Accenture and IBM were a wake-up call for anyone thinking the consulting industry has been able to shield itself from the effects of the global downturn. The reality looks more like the consulting industry will have declined 10-15% by the time the industry emerges from recession. However, extensive research just published by Top-Consultant.com shows that hiring will be kick-started within the coming months following an 18 month period in which recruitment activity slumped. The majority of consulting firms believe a hiring upturn will be underway by early 2010.

Associates across the nation rank the prestige of their peer firms.

While there are no reliable signs of recovery in demand for consulting, the rate at which the market is contracting has slowed, according to the latest report from sourceforconsulting.com, a management consulting industry watcher.

The recession is taking a steep toll on the legal profession, an industry long seen as immune from the ups and downs of the economy.Trying to weather the financial crisis, the nation's largest law firms are laying off attorneys and delaying hiring.More than 3,000 lawyers have been laid off in the first three months of 2009.A lot of people go into the law because it's one of those professions where you're always going to have work. There aren't typically big layoffs. Realistically, experts don't think people saw this coming.

The job market for lawyers, hit hard by the recession, seems to reach new lows every day. But that has not done much to discourage the thousands who are lining up to become the next generation of attorneys.

Results of a new survey have revealed that almost three quarters of recently-recruited management consultants in MCA member firms were educated in state schools.The Management Consultancies Association surveyed members of the Young MCA, the organisation’s group for consultants with up to 5 years experience, in response to a call for evidence by the Cabinet Office’s Panel on Fair Access to the Professions.

Ernst & Young LLP moved into the number three spot on The 2009 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list. Ernst & Young also ranked number 1 on The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees, and number 2 on The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities.A total of 401 companies, an increase of 14 percent from last year, vied for the honor this year, underscoring the increasing emphasis on diversity management among progressive companies.

Many junior lawyers have to work within large and often devolved organisations. Law firms have increased in size very quickly and a recession drives consolidation in the legal sector. Size brings specialisation. In these types of multinational or national law firms, it's no good having legal generalists and functional generalists - as firms have grown in size, the traditional role of the lawyer has fragmented. It is now supplemented by non-lawyer specialists who are taking over many of the non-technical bits of a lawyer's role; those that have more to do with managing the business than advising the client.

Nature of the work: These professional investigators work for law firms, research businesses, the federal government and corporations. They scour various sources to make sure an idea or invention is original and they typically specialize in areas such as electronics, computer science, chemistry and mechanical engineering.

Do law firms do a poor job of predicting which law students have the ability and personality to thrive in a large firm? Since the 1970s, BigLaw has relied on the same metrics in choosing their incoming classes. This equates to a disproportionate value on grade point averages, law school prestige, and law journal membership.The findings of an October 2008 study of a “top 25” law firm question if these factors are really the best predictors of future success. Researchers compiled a list of 200 different attributes, attempting to identify which qualities were shared by the firm’s highest performers. The results indicate that the type of law schools the lawyers attended was less significant than were other factors — e.g., whether someone had been a college athlete, performed well in specific law school classes, or enjoyed “group hobbies”. Other elements, such as fluency in a foreign language, were inversely correlated with career success (though, as globalization accelerates, this finding could well be turned on its head).

Despite the economic slowdown, accounting firms expect hiring to be a continuing challenge.Projections indicate that for the next 30 years, there will be fewer young people entering the workforce to replace those that are retiring.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) forecasts an 18 percent increase in accounting and auditing jobs between 2006 and 2016, well above the 10 percent growth rate it expects for total U.S. employment.The accounting industry has long struggled with a shortage of accountants. During the 1990s, many students rejected accounting in favor of what were perceived as more glamorous and lucrative jobs on Wall Street.

Law firms have remained cautiously optimistic about job prospects for future trainee solicitors despite new research, which found that there will be significantly fewer graduate jobs this year. According to research published by High Fliers the UK’s top graduate employers have slashed their recruitment targets by 17 per cent for 2009. The hardest hit sector is investment banking where entry-level vacancies have been cut by a whopping 44 per cent in 2008-09. Retailing and accountancy and professional services are also suffering with vacancies dropping by 26 and 15 per cent respectively for the same period.

As the ailing U.S. economy prompts companies to cut costs, it also has spawned legal problems. As a result, clients are pressuring the law firms they hire to trim fees.That means more routine work like legal research, due diligence and document review is being done in India at roughly half the cost as in the U.S., outsourcers say. Starting associates at big U.S. firms often bill more than $200 an hour. But an experienced lawyer in India bills at $75 to $100 an hour, roughly the bottom rate for some U.S. paralegals.

McKinsey & Company has been ranked the most prestigious consultancy to work for by visitors of Vault.com, the New York-based career information media company that is one of the 47 confirmed exhibitors at The Consultancy Careers Fair, which is to be held October 9th and 10th at The Barbican in London.

There is no doubt that Accounting is the most cross border of all professions. Firstly it has the distinct advantage of being numbers based, some would say factual. It is this foundation that curtails the issues of interpretation in a way that the legal profession simply can’t match. The drive towards convergence in accounting standards is also more complete now than ever before. US quoted companies must comply with US Gaap and Sarbanes Oxley. EU quoted companies comply with IFRS. Neither set of rules is far apart and there is a goal of convergence on both sides of the Atlantic. These two great trading blocks, controlling vast amounts of the world’s financial capital, have dictated accounting methods which most of the world seems intent on following.

Investment banks faced a difficult start to 2008, but showed signs of improvement. Revenues of leading banks remained negative in the first quarter, largely due to write-downs. Excluding write-downs, however, first-quarter revenues were actually 18 percent higher than in the previous quarter, according to the report, Investment Banking and Capital Markets, by The Boston Consulting Group.

A shortage of experienced accounting and finance professionals continues to affect employers around the world. For the second consecutive year, more than half (56%) of the finance and human resources managers surveyed worldwide reported difficulty finding skilled job candidates.

But do you know what working as a lawyer actually involves? And are you sure of the steps you will have to take to qualify as a solicitor or barrister?

The United Nations and Allen & Overy have emerged as the most popular employers among students who are interested in a career in the law. Market research company Trendence interviewed 1,500 students for The Graduate Recruitment Review Law Edition 2008, the definitive document of student opinion.

Market jitters have resulted in a delayed start to management consulting recruitment this year but as detailed in Top-Consultant.com's 2008 Management Consultancy Recruitment Channel Report, recruiters are expecting overall to make more hires in 2008 than in 2007, in spite of the market conditions at the turn of the year.

A law degree isn't necessarily a license to print money these days. For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as 0,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that's suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don't score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed 0,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market.

Getting a career in law starts with painstaking, solid research. Identify the criteria that are important to you (eg, size, location or practice areas) and find firms/chambers that match. Never underestimate how pleased recruiters are when they meet a well-briefed candidate. Use the websites of the firms/chambers. Usually their websites are an excellent source of information about deals, cases and personalities, and they'll give you an impression of what the firm/chambers is like. Recruiters spend a lot of time disseminating information, so use it. You're more likely to get a job if you do.

Career publisher Vault Inc. released the 2008 edition of its best-selling Vault Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz ranks highest in overall prestige for the fifth straight year. For the 2008 edition of the Vault Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms, a record 18,800+ attorneys rated the country’s law firms based on each firm’s prestige. Attorneys were not permitted to rate their own firms.

Recent market turmoil in the U.S. may be putting a lid on hiring in some parts of the financial-services sector, but there is always room for another accountant. Hiring at the Big Four accounting firms is running at record levels, and recruiting efforts are being ramped up as growing demand collides with a talent shortage. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said job postings for accounting majors in 2006 more than doubled from 2004.

Career publisher Vault Inc. has released the 4th edition of its popular Vault Guide to the Top 40 Accounting Firms, and after a one year absence from the top spot, PriceWaterhouseCoopers again ranks first overall in prestige, a ranking they have held for three of the guide’s four editions. Last year’s top ranked firm, Ernst & Young, ranks #2 in the latest edition of the guide to the nation’s top accounting firms. The firms appearing in the guide are chosen based on the results of Vault’s employee surveys, the opinions of industry leaders and on various factual data, including firm size in terms of annual revenue. All told, 750 industry professionals filled out Vault's Accounting Survey from January through March 2007. Vault averaged the prestige scores for each firm and ranked the Top 40 in order, with the highest average score belonging to the No. 1 firm: PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Ingenieure sind heiß begehrt in der Beraterbranche. Warum? Es ist die Mischung aus fachlichem Wissen und der ‘Art zu denken’, die aus Ingenieuren die A-Besetzung für Consulting-Projekte macht.

Der Anteil der Frauen, die als Anwältinnen in Großkanzleien arbeiten, ist zwischen 2004 und 2007 um 1,7 Prozent angestiegen. Das fand eine aktuelle Umfrage der azur-Redaktion unter 19 deutschen Wirtschaftskanzleien heraus.

Das Auswärtige Amt ist zum fünften Mal in Folge beliebtester Arbeitgeber der Top-Juristen, wie die aktuelle Studie „Das Deutsche Absolventenbarometer 2007 – Law Edition“ ergab.Die Untersuchung des Trendence-Instituts will die Berufs- und Lebenspläne der kommenden Juristenelite, ihre Präferenzen und Prioritäten beim Berufseinstieg und ihre Einschätzung der Attraktivität von Arbeitgebern erfassen. An der deutschlandweiten repräsentativen Studie beteiligten sich knapp 1400 überdurchschnittlich leistungsstarke Studierende und Referendare der Rechtswissenschaften sowie Volljuristen.

Deutschlands Beraterbranche sonnt sich im Boom. Doch was leisten die professionellen Berater wirklich? Wie entwickeln sich die Budgets für Consulting-Dienste? Und wie nachhaltig ist der Erfolg der bestens bezahlten Unternehmensberater?

The last years have seen a dramatic growth in hiring targets at many of the world’s best-known consulting brands. In the last year this has even spread to the top strategy consulting firms. Yet 2007 is seeing a perceptible change in emphasis, from mass recruitment to a more targeted approach. The implications are profound, for candidates and recruiters alike.

PwC Global CEO Sam DiPiazza said the firm is committed to developing more local Chinese talent and to supporting the accounting profession in China, following an announcement that PwC has appointed 55 new partners for its mainland China and Hong Kong practice.

Yet again consulting salary increases have failed to meet many consultants' expectations. The Top Consultant's recruiter survey, which was undertaken, last month, has revealed that base salaries increased by just 5% on average this year. This paltry rise is only just above the 4.4% of RPI and much lower than the rise in the cost of housing in London.

Auch im vergangenen Jahr ist die Zahl der Fachanwälte gegenüber dem Vorjahr erneut angestiegen. Zum 1.1.2007 gab es in der Bundesrepublik insgesamt 27.953 Fachanwälte. Das entspricht einer Quote von fast 20 % und einem Zuwachs gegenüber dem Vorjahr von 3,03 %.

UK staff loss at consulting firms is running at 15-20% and both employers and consulting employees expect this figure to deteriorate in 2007, according to Top-Consultant.com's 2007 Retention Report: A key challenge for the Management Consultancy sector, based on surveys of 140 consulting recruiters and more than 700 consultants from a wide range of firms - from the Big Four to niche consultancies.

Employees will earn application developer and application designer certifications from Accenture and MIT MIT's Professional Education Programs office.

The global thought leadership ranking for consulting firms, White Space, has undergone a dramatic reallocation of the top positions during the first quarter of 2007.

Ab dem Jahr 2008 können Anwälte mit ihren Mandanten Honorareaushandeln, die sich nach dem Erfolg im Prozess richten.

Explaining golf to someone can be as simple as "hit the little white ball and try and get it into the hole in as few strokes as possible". As we all know it is never really that simple… or is it? By taking a back-to-basics approach you look at how a step-by-step approach to teaching golf tallies remarkably closely with the way business projects can be addressed.

Big Four firms have rebuilt their consulting practices and this group is once again a force to be reckoned with, as evidenced in their thought leadership performance, according to a new report, which evaluates thought leadership published by the top global consulting firms.

The UK consulting industry is once again enjoying double-digit growth rates, according to the latest official figures. Following several years in which public sector spending kept consulting afloat, it is now very much private sector demand that is fuelling its continued expansion.

Schneller und dynamischer als erwartet haben die deutschen Unternehmensberater in die Erfolgsspur zurückgefunden. In den Jahren 2002 bis 2004 hatte die Beraterbranche eine Wachstumsschwäche zu verkraften. Der Umsatz in der Consultingbranche stieg im Jahr 2006 im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 11,4 Prozent auf 14,7 Milliarden Euro (2005: 13,2 Milliarden Euro). 82 Prozent der Marktteilnehmer gaben ein Umsatzplus an (2005: 57 Prozent), davon 34 Prozent sogar einen Zuwachs von über fünfzehn Prozent. Dies sind Ergebnisse der Marktstudie „Facts & Figures zum Beratermarkt 2006/2007“des Bundesverbands Deutscher Unternehmensberater BDU e.V..

Consulting candidates and purchasers of consulting services both face a similar problem when it comes to broadening the range of consulting firms they will consider joining or engaging. Because the industry is not regulated, there is no official register of consulting firms – and therefore no obvious place to research new players in the industry. Finding out about the most exciting new consulting start-ups can be an uphill challenge. Indeed, at a meeting of the IMC’s consultancy purchasing group, identifying new niche firms was highlighted as one of the key challenges facing the buyers of consulting services.

Work prospects are looking good for UK graduates interested in a career in management consulting, according to the annual TARGET Graduate Trends Survey released by graduate careers publisher GTI.

McKinsey & Company bietet Bachelor-Absolventen ein neuartiges Programm zum Einstieg in die Unternehmensberatung an.

Für den Verbraucher wird es künftig einfacher werden, gleich auf den ersten Blick zu sehen, ob sich „sein“ Anwalt regelmäßig fortbildet. Ab Januar können Rechtsanwälte das bundeseinheitliche Zertifikat „Qualität durch Fortbildung“ beantragen. Das Zertifikat bescheinigt den Nachweis einer regelmäßigen und umfassenden anwaltlichen Fortbildung.„Die hohe Kompetenz in der Rechtsberatung ist das entscheidende Qualitätsmerkmal, das die Rechtsanwälte auf dem Rechtsberatungsmarkt auszeichnet“, sagt Dr. Bernhard Dombek, Präsident der Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer.

Die Anwaltsdichte hat 2005 im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 4,7 % zugenommen. Aufgrund des Rückgangs der Einwohnerzahlen (von 2003 auf 2004 um 31.000) liegt der prozentuale Zuwachs höher als der Zuwachs an Rechtsanwälten insgesamt. Auf das gesamte Bundesgebiet bezogen ergibt sich eine Anwaltsdichte von 622 Einwohnern pro Rechtsanwalt.Die höchste Anwaltsdichte weist das Bundesland Hamburg (234 Einwohner pro Rechtsanwalt) auf, gefolgt von Berlin (332), Hessen (387) und Bremen (417).Die geringste Anwaltdichte weisen die neuen Bundesländer auf.

Many of the world's leading Global Strategy houses & consulting firms are growing their operations in the United Arab Emirates - at a rate that is creating significant career opportunities for those with the strong academic backgrounds that such firms demand. Dubai and Abu Dhabi in particular are experiencing phenomenal growth rates and seeing firms recruit consulting professionals on a major scale. Talented consultants are being hired from around the world to meet the needs of firms in this region - making this the ideal opportunity to go and work abroad as the next step in your career.