“The Clash famously sang that they fought the law and the law won. It seems the legal sector will have to box clever in this particular war for talent.

Big law firms are getting bigger in line with their international presence. As these firms are able to offer greater economies of scale, they are seeking the same efficiencies from the recruiters they deploy. But talent shortages remain, and as law firms find it harder to recruit overseas talent, the sector finds itself looking inward to reassess untapped potential.

“There seems to be a lot of consolidation and merger activity in the private practice market,” says Charles Elderton, partner at legal recruiter Chadwick Nott.

He says a by-product of such consolidation is the cutting of costs and thereby margins, with law firms passing these efficiencies down the supply chain to recruiters.

There are potentially up to 200,000 in the labour market that are paralegals, and yet there is no particular qualification for them and no definition of what they do

He adds that law practices are now looking to grow in size to survive expanding not just into the UK but also internationally.

Last month, Allen & Overy announced it would become the first magic circle law firm to enter Africa with the opening of a Casablanca office next month.

Naveen Tuli, managing director of Laurence Simons, anticipates other UK law firms increasing their African presence due to investment in the continent from China, but adds both UK and US multinational firms are looking to the BRIC economies and the Middle East to expand their business.

While UK talent may seek pastures new, attracting overseas lawyers could be about to get tougher, according to Kevin Hogarth, global HR director, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

“If recently proposed reforms to sever the permanent residence eligibility for those on Tier 2 visas are implemented, the attractiveness of the UK for potential applicants will be significantly reduced.”

Even without restricting routes to overseas talent, persuading lawyers to move roles is always difficult, says Sarah Langton, head of recruitment at Clifford Chance, as lawyers tend to move jobs less than other professionals, meaning law firms need to look to passive candidates.

And it’s not just experienced lawyers who are in short supply, says Linda Adams, HR manager at Dundas & Wilson. “Due to the recession there is a shortage of highly skilled and experienced junior lawyers. This is due to them having been unable to secure a role on qualification and therefore the market is now suffering a drought at this level.”

Kate Francis, recruitment and resourcing manager at Osborne Clarke, told Recruiter the situation has not been helped by law firms cutting the number of training contracts on offer.

According to Alan Woods, chief executive of Skills for Justice, the sector’s future rests on opening up as many career paths to talent as possible.

“There are more than 100,000, potentially up to 200,000, that are in the labour market in legal services that are paralegals, and yet there is no particular qualification for them and no definition of what they do. What we’re doing is thinking about how we can get apprenticeships into the sector so you can become a paralegal apprentice.

“There are some people that might not want to go down the graduate route to get into law they may be happy to have a career based upon being a paralegal, but at the moment in the law and the legal services sector it is all about those people that are either solicitors or barristers and what we need to do is open the profession up to more than just a degree route.”