The Real Timeline for Recruiting a General Counsel in Perth (And How to Plan for It)

If you need a new General Counsel in Perth, plan on five to seven months from the day you brief a search to the day they walk in the door. Around three of those months are the search itself. The rest is usually notice period, and it is the part most organisations forget to budget for.
The Real Cost of a Legal Resource Gap: What Western Australian Organisations Are Getting Wrong

Most Western Australian organisations do not notice their legal resource gap until it has already cost them money. It rarely shows up as a line item. It shows up as a contract signed on unfavourable terms, a regulatory deadline met at the last minute, or a senior lawyer who quietly resigns after a year of 60-hour weeks.
Planning Your 2027 Legal Capability: A Conversation Starter for Western Australian Leaders

The best time to decide what legal support your organisation needs in 2027 is now, before budgets lock in and the year’s work arrives unannounced. For most West Australia organisations, the final quarter of 2026 is when next year’s priorities, projects and spending are set. Legal capability is often left out of that conversation until a problem forces it back in.
GC Remuneration Survey – 2026
Our next piece of anchor research,
benchmarking General Counsel
remuneration across Western Australia.
AI and the West Australian legal market

There is no shortage of commentary about how AI will transform the legal profession.
Some of it will prove right. Some of it almost certainly will not.
What is clear is that AI is already changing how legal work is performed. But from what we are seeing across the WA market, it is not reducing the importance of good Lawyers. If anything, it is changing what “good” looks like.
The 3–7 PQE shortage, explained

If there is one part of the Western Australia legal market where demand consistently outweighs supply, it is the 3–7 PQE Lawyer.
It is not a new challenge, but it has become increasingly noticeable. Whether we are speaking with General Counsel looking to strengthen an in-house team or Partners seeking their next Senior Associate, the same issue arises: experienced mid-level Lawyers are increasingly difficult to find.
So, where have they gone?