Counteroffers Are Rising: What Lawyers Should Do in the 48 Hours After Resigning

Robert Walters’ Australian Legal Market Overview 2026, updated on 31 July 2026, reports that counteroffers are on the rise as organisations seek to prevent further attrition. The same report notes that employers have struggled to hire lawyers with 3 to 8 years’ post-qualified experience across most practice areas. Source

For lawyers, that changes what resignation looks like. Handing in a letter is no longer the end of a conversation. It is the opening of a short negotiation, and most of it plays out inside about two days. This article covers what happens in those 48 hours, what a counteroffer usually changes, and what it usually does not.

Key Summary

• Counteroffers are rising: Robert Walters reports counteroffers on the rise as employers work to prevent further attrition. Source
• Mid-level lawyers feel it most: hiring at 3 to 8 years’ PQE has been difficult across most practice areas, with competition driven by rising workloads and a shortage of lawyers. Source
• Counteroffers are common, but they hold less than half the time: in a Robert Half survey of 500 Australian hiring managers, 85 per cent had made a counteroffer, and fewer than 50 per cent said the employee ultimately stayed. Source
• Money is rarely the root cause: in that survey, 40 per cent of employers named limited career progression as the main reason people resign. Source
• Replacing you is slower than it was: legal salaries rose 4.0 per cent in the year to 31 December 2025, ahead of national wage growth of 3.4 per cent, while legal job advertisements fell 5.3 per cent year on year and time to fill has stretched. Source
• Some things do not pause while you decide: notice periods, restraint clauses, client handover duties and bonus timing all keep running.

Why Counteroffers Are Rising in the Australian Legal Market

A counteroffer is a pricing decision. It reflects what a firm believes it will cost, in time and money, to replace you. Three market conditions have pushed that calculation in the candidate’s favour.

1) The shortage sits exactly where firms feel it

Robert Walters describes the market as most favourable for lawyers at 3 to 8 PQE, with competition at that level driven by increasing workloads and a shortage of lawyers. Source Lawyers Weekly reported similar conditions in January 2026, describing continued demand for mid-level lawyers with 3 to 8 years’ PQE and a market that recruiters expect to remain candidate short. Source That band matters because it is the band that carries files with limited supervision. Losing one person there can move a whole team’s capacity.

2) Fewer roles advertised, and a smaller active pool

ALPMA reported a 5.3 per cent year on year fall in legal job advertisements to December 2025, alongside hiring described as deliberate rather than expansive, and time to fill stretching as both sides become more selective. Source Fewer advertised roles can look like a soft market. It is not the same thing as an easy market to hire in, because the active candidate pool has shrunk as well.

3) Retaining you has become cheaper than replacing you

When a replacement takes months rather than weeks, a pay rise starts to look like the lower cost option. That is the logic behind the numbers: in a Robert Half survey of 500 Australian hiring managers, 85 per cent had made a counteroffer to an employee who had received a job offer elsewhere. Source That survey covered finance, accounting, technology and human resources rather than law, so it is best read as a signal of employer behaviour across professional services, not a legal sector statistic.

What Actually Happens in the 48 Hours

The sequence is fairly consistent. Knowing it in advance removes most of the pressure, because pressure in this window comes from being asked to decide faster than you can think.

The first two hours: the holding conversation

You resign. Your supervising partner or team leader asks you not to do anything yet, and asks for a day. Nothing is offered at this point. The purpose is to buy time and to find out what the other role is. This is the moment where people commonly give away their negotiating position by naming the firm, the number, or the start date.

The first day: the escalated meeting

A more senior person joins. The conversation shifts to your value, your future, and what has been in progress behind the scenes. Expect references to a review that was already coming, a promotion round, or a practice group plan. Some of that will be real. Some of it will be assembled in the last few hours.

By day two: the number and the promise

The offer arrives, usually as a pay increase plus a commitment about progression, workload, or flexibility. The pay is specific. The commitment often is not. That asymmetry is the single most useful thing to notice, because the pay is what your firm can decide today, and the commitment is what someone else will have to deliver later.

Four questions to settle before you answer

• Is this money new, or brought forward? If the rise was already scheduled for the next review, the counteroffer has changed the timing rather than the outcome.
• Is the progression commitment dated and in writing? A partnership or senior associate conversation “next quarter” is an intention. A date, a process and a named decision maker is a commitment.
• What changes on Monday? If workload, resourcing or supervision drove the decision to look, ask which files move, who picks them up, and when.
• What happens to flexibility? Robert Walters notes that the push to return to the office has become a sticking point for many candidates, and that four-day in-office requirements are proving a barrier to attracting talent. Source If office days were part of why you looked, a pay rise does not address it.

Example scenario

A commercial litigator at 5 PQE resigns after eighteen months of carrying two departed colleagues’ files. Within a day the firm offers a 12 per cent increase and a partnership pathway conversation “next quarter”. The pay is real and available immediately. The pathway conversation has no date, no process and no named decision maker, and no file has been reallocated. The useful question is not whether the money is good. It is whether anything that caused the resignation has changed.

The Mechanics That Do Not Pause While You Decide

A counteroffer conversation can feel like the whole picture. Several other things are running at the same time, and they can shape your options more than the number does. None of the following is legal advice, and your own contract and jurisdiction will govern.

Notice, garden leave and handover

Once notice is given, the clock generally starts. Some firms move a departing lawyer to garden leave, restrict system access, or begin reallocating files immediately. If you are weighing a counteroffer, it can help to know in advance whether your firm treats resignation as a negotiation or as an exit.

Restraints, and what the 2027 ban does and does not cover

The Australian Government announced in the 2025 to 2026 Budget that non-compete clauses for low and middle income workers will be banned, with the reforms intended to take effect from 2027, following consultation and legislation passing parliament. Source Two points are worth keeping in view. The measure is not yet law, so an existing restraint is not disabled by the announcement. And client non-solicitation and co-worker non-solicitation clauses are treated as separate restraint types, and are not stated to be covered by the announced ban. Source For lawyers, that distinction matters, because client contact is usually the restraint that bites. We covered this in more detail in our 2026 update on the 2027 non-compete ban.

Confidentiality and client contact

Professional obligations continue through a notice period. The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules govern confidentiality and the duties owed to current and former clients, and they apply regardless of where you are going next. Source Client lists, precedents and matter material stay with the firm. Where you are unsure about client communication during a transition, the safer course is to raise it with your firm and take advice before acting.

Bonus timing and deferred remuneration

Bonus eligibility often depends on being employed and not under notice at the payment date. Where a counteroffer is presented as an uplift, it is worth checking what happens to any bonus you would otherwise have forfeited, and whether the uplift is base salary or a one-off retention payment. The difference compounds over the next several years.

Why this matters for firms

Conclusion

Counteroffers are rising because mid-level legal talent is hard to replace, and because retaining a lawyer is currently faster than recruiting one. That is a real shift in leverage, and it is reasonable for lawyers at 3 to 8 PQE to expect one. Source

The decision itself is simpler than it feels. Write down the reasons you started looking, then test the counteroffer against that list rather than against the number. If the reasons were pay alone, a counteroffer can work. If they were progression, workload, supervision or flexibility, ask what specifically changes, by when, and who is accountable for it. Our related piece on the cost of a better offer in law works through the same trade-offs, and our lateral partner process guide covers the longer timeline at senior level.

Disclaimer: This blog is a general overview and should not be construed as professional legal, financial or medical advice.

FAQs

• Should a lawyer ever accept a counteroffer?
  

  Sometimes. A counteroffer can work where pay was the only reason you looked, and where the increase is base salary rather than a one-off retention payment. It works less well where progression, workload, supervision or flexibility drove the decision. In a Robert Half survey of 500 Australian hiring managers, fewer than 50 per cent said the employee ultimately stayed after accepting a counteroffer, and 30 per cent said the person left within a year.



• How long do I have to respond to a counteroffer?
  

  There is no fixed rule, and pressure to decide quickly is common. Asking for 48 hours and for the offer in writing is a reasonable request. It also gives you time to tell the incoming firm what is happening, which is better handled early than after a deadline has passed.



• Can I withdraw my resignation if I change my mind?
  

  Generally a resignation cannot be withdrawn without the employer agreeing to it, although special circumstances can apply where a resignation was given in the heat of the moment. This is fact specific and depends on your contract and the circumstances, so take advice before relying on it. In practice, most firms accepting a counteroffer will simply treat the resignation as withdrawn by agreement.



• Does the 2027 non-compete ban mean my restraint is unenforceable now?
  

  No. The Australian Government announced in the 2025 to 2026 Budget that non-compete clauses for low and middle income workers will be banned, with the reforms intended to take effect from 2027, following consultation and legislation passing parliament. Until that happens, existing restraints continue to operate on their own terms. Client and co-worker non-solicitation clauses are also treated separately and are not stated to be covered by the announced ban.



• Will accepting a counteroffer damage my reputation in a small practice market?
  

  It can affect how you are viewed by the firm you turned down, particularly in specialised practice areas where the same people hire repeatedly. The way it is handled matters more than the decision itself. A prompt, direct call to the incoming firm is better received than silence or a late email.



• What should I ask my current firm before deciding?
  

  Ask whether the increase was already scheduled for the next review, whether any progression commitment has a date, a process and a named decision maker, which files or responsibilities change and when, and whether flexibility or office day arrangements are affected. Ask for the answers in writing.

Information Sources

• Robert Walters, Australian Legal Market Overview 2026 (updated 31 July 2026)
• ACS Information Age, Employers relying on counteroffers to retain staff (17 June 2026), reporting a Robert Half survey of 500 Australian hiring managers
• ALPMA, Key Market Signals Shaping Australia’s Legal Workforce in 2026 (29 April 2026)
• Lawyers Weekly, Demand for legal talent will require deliberate, impactful hiring in 2026 (30 January 2026)
• The Treasury, Non-compete clauses and other restraints (updated 7 October 2025)
• Law Council of Australia, Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules
• Gorilla Jobs, The 2027 Non-Compete Ban: A 2026 Update for Lawyers on Restraints and Lateral Moves
• Gorilla Jobs, The Cost of a Better Offer in Law: When Higher Pay Isn’t the Better Move
• Gorilla Jobs, The Lateral Partner Process Demystified: NDAs, Conflicts, and the 12-Month Timeline