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FULL CASELOAD: Spencer Fane's Jason Smith says the busy workload at his Springfield office results in the firm's other offices frequently providing case assistance.
McKenzie Robinson | SBJ
FULL CASELOAD: Spencer Fane's Jason Smith says the busy workload at his Springfield office results in the firm's other offices frequently providing case assistance.

Attorneys Wanted: Law offices contend with hiring hurdles

Posted online

If money were no object, District Defender Rod Hackathorn with the Missouri State Public Defender’s office would double the number of attorneys on his staff in Springfield. However, that would be a near impossible task as Hackathorn said he’s struggled for months to hire just two people to bring the office’s attorney count to 25.

“It’s hard to know if it’s the [coronavirus] pandemic impacting it or not, but at this time it’s the worst I’ve ever seen it,” he said of hiring challenges in his office. “I’ve been supervising this office since 2003, so I’ve done a lot of hiring over the years. I’ve never seen it where you almost have no applicants. I’ve had these two open positions since the first of July, and I can count on one hand the number of applicants we’ve had available to even interview.”

Hackathorn said the staff of his office, which covers Greene, Christian and Taney counties, has grown to its current total of 33 to keep up with the area’s population rise. Christian County alone gained over 11,400 residents between 2010 and 2020, a 14.8% increase, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data.

“Right now, almost all of the attorneys in our office have somewhere around 120 open cases at any one time,” he said, noting the public defender’s system has difficulty keeping the Springfield office sufficiently growing. “It’s not because our directors haven’t realized it needed it. But you have to have extra positions to be able to grow.”

The hiring challenges also exist in private practice law firms. Jason Smith, office managing partner with Spencer Fane LLP, said his firm struggles to attract new talent to Springfield. Smith leads the firm’s Springfield office, which includes 18 attorneys. Spencer Fane ranked No. 3 on Springfield Business Journal’s list in May of the area’s largest law firms, with 17 local attorneys.

Smith said the local office’s hiring numbers have stayed steady in recent years.

“It seems like every year we’re going to probably lose someone to attrition of some sort,” he said. “We’re also usually adding someone each year.”

While declining to disclose starting pay for attorneys at Spencer Fane, Smith said his firm is among those struggling to compete with pay rates at large firms in big cities. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the annual average wage for attorneys in Springfield is $115,830.

A survey of mostly larger law firms was released in April by the National Association for Law Placement. It noted the median base salary for first-year associates was $165,000 as of Jan. 1. That’s up $10,000 from 2019, when the survey was last conducted. The number of attorneys employed in the firms surveyed generally ranged from 101 to over 700. Regionally, the highest median first-year associate base salaries were in the Northeast, at $175,000, followed by the South and West, both at $170,000. The lowest median salaries of $130,000 were for first-year associates in the Midwest, according to the survey.

“When they can pay their people substantially more than what we’re paying, that just makes it difficult in the Springfield market to attract top talent,” Smith said.

“That’s been a little bit compounded by COVID. Now, those new candidates coming out of law school, they’re probably going to have opportunities to maybe work for those bigger firms in those bigger cities and make that kind of money. But they may not have to be physically located in those cities, where the cost of living is higher.”

Pandemic impact
Crista Hogan, executive director of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, said the frequency at which she receives phone calls from attorneys seeking hiring help has doubled since the pandemic.

“I would say eight out of 10 times, if a lawyer reaches out to me for specific assistance, it’s because they’re looking for someone to hire,” she said. “They want to know if I know anybody or how they run an ad with the Bar Association. It happens a lot.”

The pandemic also has expanded the need for legal services – particularly from businesses, she said.

“It’s just been nonstop from initially what do they need to do to keep employees and customers safe, to now issues with regards to vaccinations, mandates and masking,” she said. “It’s been one long continuum.” 

Officials say the legal industry isn’t facing the same job shortage challenge that has plagued some areas of the workforce, such as the restaurant and hospitality sectors. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July. Resignations peaked in April and have remained high for the last several months, with a record-breaking 10.9 million open jobs at July’s end.

Spencer Fane employs just under 400 attorneys across its 22 offices nationwide, according to its website. Smith said attorneys occasionally transfer from Springfield to other large markets, noting one undisclosed employee is about to move to the firm’s Denver office.

“But you don’t usually see people coming from other bigger markets and wanting to transfer to Springfield,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily help with our recruiting efforts.”

While Smith said the Springfield office has stayed as busy throughout the pandemic, he frequently leans on resources from the firm’s other offices to keep up with caseloads.

“Those aren’t permanent fixes,” he said. “Those are more just plugging the gap when we’re maybe down people or are too busy to handle things. At any given time, I probably have people from other offices helping me out with one or two cases.”

Keep waiting
At the public defender’s office, Hackathorn said he’s still waiting on others to apply for the attorney openings. A couple of offers were made to the first small group of applicants, but both were rejected. He said starting pay is a deterrent. An attorney at the office averages $48,408 a year.

While Hackathorn is uncertain how industry hiring struggles will improve in the foreseeable future, he believes the public defender’s system needs to boost its recruitment efforts to reach prospective hires.

“I’d like to see even more outreach going to law schools and trying to reach people early and promote more of what we do, since we’re already competing for a small number of applicants anyway,” he said.

Hogan said a lot of job opportunities in the legal field existed before the pandemic and will remain after it ends. According to BLS data, U.S. employment is expected to grow 7.7% from 2020 to 2030. In the legal industry, job growth is projected at 8.3% over the same period.

Still, Hogan’s concerned that Springfield won’t be a destination for those looking to start their law career, even if it’s their hometown.

“They grow up and graduate from law school and don’t want to come back to Springfield because it’s just not progressive enough in their eyes,” she said. “It’s more a quality-of-life issue and how they want to frame their life.”

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