Our expert views

Lateral hiring is at record levels. Business cases are more rigorous than they have ever been, and the investment in finding and landing senior talent has never been higher. And yet integration outcomes remain stubbornly inconsistent. The hire is getting more sophisticated but what happens next often is not.

For a long time, the war for talent was a skills race. Which candidate had done the launch, led the transformation, shipped the product. The logic was simple: find the person who has already done the thing you need done. That logic no longer holds.

Ask most HR leaders to describe strategic workforce planning and you'll get a familiar answer: forecasting headcount, modelling future demand, identifying gaps.

Pushback from leadership is often framed as resistance to HR. In practice, it usually points to something else. It signals that HR is not yet shaping decisions at the level it could be.

As we move further into 2026, fresh from recent travels and conversations, it’s increasingly clear that the market is shifting even faster than many expected.

Offshore law firms have spent the past two decades oscillating between three models

Explore 2026 legal salary benchmarks across EMEA, with insights on hiring trends, in-demand roles, and market shifts to support your talent strategy.

 Over the past 15 years that Hydrogen has been placing lawyers into offshore jurisdictions, the market has changed significantly. Career success was often linked to working in major financial centres such as London or New York but that view has shifted.

Oceanology International London 2026 brought together leaders, innovators and specialists from across the global subsea and offshore energy sectors.