WSJ seeks legal business reporter

The Wall Street Journal is looking for an energetic, enterprising reporter to cover the ups and downs of the country’s biggest law firms and the broader legal business.

The successful candidate will be able to unearth news of mergers and bankruptcies, mine data for trends in fees and hiring, and dive deeply into the ever-changing strategies of the lawyers who bring the landmark, high-dollar cases against companies and other deep-pocketed institutions. The job also involves coverage of intellectual property disputes rocking the smartphone business and other industries, as well as the use of technology and big data in the practice of law and corporate litigation.

These stories are happening against the backdrop of a prolonged downturn in the $100 billion global corporate-law industry, a downturn that is forcing a restructuring of the industry that has felled big-name firms like Dewey & LeBoeuf and has shaken other firms such as lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs.

Covering that transformation is a core area for the Journal. These stories regularly appear on the section fronts and Page One and anchor our weekly Law Journal. The successful candidate will be an aggressive cultivator of sources with a keen eye for scoops and enterprise features and the ability to bring prominent lawyers, judges and legal characters to life.

Experience in legal reporting or a Rolodex of related sources is a plus but not a must.

To apply, go here.