This article examines the recruitment challenges facing the legal information profession in law firms, particularly the lack of new graduate hires. By way of a literature review examining the role of the legal information professional itself, alongside analysis of 37 recent job specifications, the author identifies a significant barrier to entry: the profession's evolution toward knowledge management and commercial research has created requirements for the role that new graduates cannot meet. One example is that 94.6% of the positions considered require previous experience in similar environments, creating a situation where entry-level positions are inaccessible to new entrants. This article argues that without deliberate efforts by law firms to create genuine routes for graduates to enter the legal information profession, the profession runs the risk of shrinking and ultimately stagnating.
Joel Davie (Mon,) studied this question.