2018 Hiring Trends │ LEGAL, COMPLIANCE & RISK

We saw steady hiring for in-house legal roles in 2017 with minimal growth and an abundance of replacement hires, particularly in the financial services sector. A notable exception was in the technology and pharmaceutical industries where we saw growth in the demand for junior to mid-level hires. An acute shortage of qualified bilingual lawyers continued to cause stiff competition in the market, and we anticipate similar hiring patterns moving into 2018.

Compliance continued to be an active sector with increased demand among teams specialising in anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime and surveillance, and we are seeing more growth compared to 2016 as larger financial institutions are making greater efforts to build and develop their defences. We expect these trends to continue in 2018 with a continued emphasis on AML and financial crime compliance for which stricter regulations will soon be implemented. Given these new regulations, we anticipate greater demand from the buy side and start-up fintech companies.

Credit risk

In the credit risk sector, most foreign businesses focused on recruiting candidates on a replacement-only basis, and firms reduced credit risk personnel in Japan by offshoring certain roles to lower-cost locations. Companies that are actively hiring in the credit risk sector are seeking candidates that specialise in both liquidity and operational risk.

Market risk

In the field of market risk, recruitment by both Japanese and foreign-affiliated companies is stable, and banks are increasing the number of positions in highly specialised fields such as model validation.

Both Japanese and foreign-affiliated companies were also interested in hiring Japanese and non-Japanese multilingual junior-level candidates to develop their talent pipelines, a trend we expect to continue into 2018.

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