A recent article in the Financial Times discusses the increase in demand for “business crime” lawyers in the US and UK over the past decade. In the US, “white collar” attorneys are concentrated in the New York and Washington, DC markets due to the focus on the financial industry and federal regulation, respectively.

Only 99 white-collar specific positions were posted in NY and DC between 2015 and 2018, according to data from Firm Prospects, LLC.

This represents just 10% of the total litigator job postings in NY and DC during the same period. This does not necessarily mean that white collar is not a “hot” practice area. The relatively low number is probably the result of a couple factors:

• A lot of white collar attorney positions aren’t posted. Firms in NY and DC typically desire experienced white collar attorneys with government or regulatory experience (e.g., US Attorney’s Offices, the DOJ, the SEC, etc.). White collar litigators at firms interact with attorneys at these government agencies frequently enough that it may be easy to identify candidates through referrals, thus making a job posting unnecessary.

• Some firms may hire “general litigators” to do white collar work as part of their practice. Some firms may not be able to rely on white collar work on its own to support their litigation practice. Therefore anyone hired to do white collar work may also practice in other types of litigation and regulatory work.