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Inflation versus salaries
Prices have outrun professional pay since June 2020.
CPI alone +28.8% vs professional pay +20.1% since June 2020: pay is behind by 8.7 points.
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Insights
Where the work is going, and the people who win it.
Market notes on pay, hiring and capital flows for BD, marketing and client leaders.
32 pieces
The future of law: capital flows and AICharles joins Damien van Brunschot and Kim Wiegand on the Resolution Room podcast to talk capital flows and AI in law.
October Market Pulse: vacancy and active hiring overviewEvery live vacancy across the growth disciplines in Australian professional services and private capital, counted on one day. 90 roles live: 47 in firms, 43 in funds. Who is hiring, for what, where, and at what level.
Will 2027 be a strong year for hiring in Australia?Every year since 2002 that the Australian job ads index rose from September to November, hiring grew the following year. It is rising now. Here is where I expect the demand to land.
Private equity in Australian law has been years in the makingThe question is not whether an approach from private equity is attractive. It is what the firm wants capital to achieve, and what that asks of BD.
Private equity is building a new Big Four. The test is who stays.The Grant Thornton and CBIZ deal shows private capital can assemble professional services scale faster than any partnership. The proof point will not be the AI investment. It will be whether the senior people stay through the integration.
A $9m tender and a role that should not be filled as designedBrief taken on Friday, role rebuilt over the weekend, operator secured within a week. Two days after she started, the tender landed.
Follow the money: the BD work that follows storage and data centresForget the batteries. This is about the second, third and fourth order effects, and the firms that position BD talent against them now.
Your AI transcript is the CV you did not writeA CV is a polished performance document. The way you think with AI is not. For the first time, how people reason is visible, and it will be read.
The BD and marketing pyramid may become a diamondTechnology compresses execution. Value shifts to judgement, orchestration and commercial credibility. The firms that moved first already have the longest tenure.
A bonsai does not become remarkable quicklyFifty placements into one firm’s BD, marketing and client team over fifteen years. The number is not the point. What followed each appointment is.
Hiring may be about to change. Here is what I am seeing.Rates are going to rise and consumer confidence sits where it did in 2022. Hiring will not stop. It will concentrate, and the people who own a pipeline will be the ones in demand.
The thirty year bond and your clients’ pipelineLiquidity has already moved. That is the lead indicator. Deal flow, refinancing and mandates are the lag. Firm revenue and hiring come after that.
Distribution hiring: what fund managers are asking for nowWholesale and adviser distribution demand is strong in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Firms want proven capital raisers, candidates want answers before they move, and time to hire has stretched. A note on the market as we see it.
Spend, inflate, collect, repeat: why money stays expensive and why that is a reason to hire nowInflation and rates stay high into 2028 at least. The firms hiring now, on the assumption of higher for longer, get first pick of the talent.
How to build BD credibility and spot opportunities for partners over the breakThe edge in BD comes from spotting quieter signals hiding in plain sight, with lead time. A story about tea in The Economist shows how it works.
Legal BD to private capital: the transfer is already happeningIn one month three of the legal BD people we have placed moved into private capital, one as a distribution associate at a private capital manager. Here is why the skills carry, what does not, and what it means for fund managers and for the people doing the moving.
Senior BDs in law are moving upstream, closer to capitalAutonomous vehicles, digital assets, robotics, energy storage, consumer AI. Different sectors, same pattern: code, data, automation and fast moving regulation. Legal demand is moving from execution to design, and BD roles are following it.
Attributed revenue is not portable client valueBig Law has become a market for portable revenue. Or, more accurately, for the promise of it. The better question is how much of it will actually move.
The BD hire who can coach partnersTraining partners to sell only sticks when someone inside the firm reinforces it daily. That is a hiring profile, and it is rare.
Commercial BD is on the riseCommercially focused BD roles are on the rise, dramatically. Here is why it is happening, and how to position for one.
Could everyday AI use help BD teams win more work?Deidentified and aggregated at firm level, the way teams already use AI could show what wins work, and where coaching would lift win rates.
Why the counter offer is usually the wrong answerYou resign, and suddenly there is money on the table that was not there at your last review. Before you take it, ask why it took a resignation to find it.
How to secure a pay rise in professional servicesFirms do not pay for effort. They pay for a case. Here is how to build one that a partner can take to the remuneration committee.
The CV that gets readEvery application to Dalton Handley is read by Charles. Here is what he is looking for in the first thirty seconds, and what gets in the way.
Two interview questions that changed my lifeAt 21 I was asked how much I wanted to earn, told it was the wrong answer, and then asked what I would spend it on. If you are under 30 and wondering how to get ahead with AI about to change everything, this is for you.
Interviews are conversations, not examsPreparation should never mean scripting answers. Understand the role, sharpen your proposition, and make it about the client’s problems.
Interest rates are a retention problem, not just a pay problemFirms look at CPI when they set pay rises. Their people look at the mortgage. Our data says 76 percent are open to opportunities and 78 percent say salary is a key driver.
Firms are asking for a different kind of BD personA trend is accelerating across law firm BD and client hiring. The brief is now commerciality: people who can find opportunities, coach high performing partners and turn relationships into measurable growth.
Stepping up in professional services: what it takes and what you should be paidThe BD and marketing career ladder, with what each rung pays and what it takes to climb it. Bandings are orientation, not gospel. Titles vary by firm. Packages in AUD including super.
Do you need a CMO, or a head of BD?Firms reach for the CMO title when what they are actually short of is revenue. Here is how to tell which hire you need.
Client listening is a hiring decisionEvery firm says it listens to clients. The ones that act on what they hear have put someone senior in charge of it.
Tackling redundancy and re entering a competitive job marketRedundancy in a tight market is hard. It is not the end of a career. A practical guide for BD, marketing and communications people who find themselves out of work.
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Pay, hiring and capital flows, as the market moves. Hear it first, or write to charles@daltonhandley.com.
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Builder of teams delivering $3bn+ in growth. BD, clients, origination and distribution across professional services and private capital.
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