A Seller’s Market: How Covid-19 Sparked a War for Talent

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically affected many aspects of work, not the least of which is hiring. While law firms and in-house legal departments practically stopped hiring in 2020, both resumed hiring at an accelerated pace in 2021. But everything from sourcing candidates to interviewing to onboarding new hires is different now.  

The most interesting recent hiring twist is the increasing number of companies and law firms requiring all employees and new hires to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. In the last two months, our search firm has worked with several companies that will only consider vaccinated candidates. With the rise of the Delta variant, this trend has gathered steam, with more and more employers now requiring vaccines for all workers and new hires. Most of the nation’s largest law firms, including Texas-based firms ranging from Akin Gump to Vinson & Elkins, now require employees to be vaccinated to work in the office.