Interesting piece by Kate Gibbs the editor of new Australian online legal magazine, "The New Lawyer" this morning…
She’s penned a piece entitled
When will the recession be over?: Kate Gibbs, editor of The New Lawyer, says firms should be more realistic about how long this recession will last.
Here’s how she starts the article…..
The idea that chief executives are feeling optimistic about the imminent end of the global economic crisis, as the CEO Institute has suggested, is a shaky one. The mass redundancies, the frenzied pressure to have staff working more flexibly, the forced deferrals
of trainee programs, all point to a wretched outlook.
Law firms keep hypothesising about when the recession will be over. Allens Arthur Robinson Sydney-based partner Guy Alexander said he expects the M&A market in Australia to see an improved flow over the next quarter.
Meanwhile, Mallesons Stephen Jaques Shanghai M&A partner Martyn Huckerby told The New Lawyer he’s expecting a “rapid pick up in transactions” in the next six to twelve months. Both reflect a general optimism sweeping through the business districts of Sydney and Melbourne that things can only get better.
According to the CEO Institute research, released on Thursday last week, 58 per cent of the chief executives surveyed believe there
will be a return to normal during 2010, with 35 per cent expecting the business outlook to worsen this year.
Ken Gunn, CEO Institute chairman, said members were more positive about the outlook than had been expected, with 27 per
cent expecting things to improve this year.
We note the spin in the CEO Institute survey – 35 per cent is actually quite a large portion. Fifty-eight per cent think there
will be a return to normal in 2010, which could be at least a year and a half away.
There is a sort of forced optimism……
Link to the New Lawyer pdf at http://static.rbi.com.au/Common/ContentManagement/newlaw/PDF/20090407.pdf to read the full piece. You’ll need to scroll down to page 2
We agree exactly .. and it’s not only in Australia, there is that sense of the same forced optimism throughout the Asia Pacific region. Is this because things are so bad in Europe and the US that all major international law firms have to be optimistic about something.
