Crime Solicitor Recruitment - end of an era?
We are slowly starting to see the writing on the wall for the criminal solicitor firms and jobs that we have been dealing with for many years. One of our important strands of work when we first set up was crime, as a result of our specialist knowledge of the market, and our ability to speak the same language.
However, what has happened in the last few months is quite astonishing from a recruiter's perspective. We have had duty solicitors call us in tears after firms have called them into advise that there is no future at the firm, others call up to say that their firms are not sure of their future, and wondering where their next mortgage payment is going to come from, duty solicitors informed that their salaries and package levels are going to be reduced as soon as the new measures come in or with immediate effect, firms making widespread redundancies of anyone earning over a certain level, and generally a state of despondency has arisen.
I have spoken to solicitors who have clearly been under the influence when calling and sounding slightly suicidal, and I have also spoken to a load of people calling our free careers advice lines wanting to enter the profession to practice in crime, and my advice has had to be that they cannot have chosen a worse time to do this.
Others have called to see if there is any way out of crime and into other fields, and of course everyone else is looking at the same options - the CPS, the various government agencies undertaking prosecution work, local authorities etc..
It is amazing how fast this has come about - from one month of fairly buoyant crime recruitment, some firms expanding and others taking on more staff into nothing more than a quagmire of chaos in some areas.
Of course all of the above is anecdotal, but with more and more crime solicitors registering every day, including some who detail the redundancies that are taking place at their firms at present, it is clearly not a very healthy time to be in this strand of the profession!
One glimmer of light has been the sudden emphasis on higher rights in job applications, as firms are currently starting to see that getting into the higher courts is one way they can increase their turnover, and I suspect barristers need to start looking over their shoulders...
www.crime-solicitor.co.uk, www.ten-percent.co.uk - both useful resources for further information.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
We are slowly starting to see the writing on the wall for the criminal solicitor firms and jobs that we have been dealing with for many years. One of our important strands of work when we first set up was crime, as a result of our specialist knowledge of the market, and our ability to speak the same language.
However, what has happened in the last few months is quite astonishing from a recruiter's perspective. We have had duty solicitors call us in tears after firms have called them into advise that there is no future at the firm, others call up to say that their firms are not sure of their future, and wondering where their next mortgage payment is going to come from, duty solicitors informed that their salaries and package levels are going to be reduced as soon as the new measures come in or with immediate effect, firms making widespread redundancies of anyone earning over a certain level, and generally a state of despondency has arisen.
I have spoken to solicitors who have clearly been under the influence when calling and sounding slightly suicidal, and I have also spoken to a load of people calling our free careers advice lines wanting to enter the profession to practice in crime, and my advice has had to be that they cannot have chosen a worse time to do this.
Others have called to see if there is any way out of crime and into other fields, and of course everyone else is looking at the same options - the CPS, the various government agencies undertaking prosecution work, local authorities etc..
It is amazing how fast this has come about - from one month of fairly buoyant crime recruitment, some firms expanding and others taking on more staff into nothing more than a quagmire of chaos in some areas.
Of course all of the above is anecdotal, but with more and more crime solicitors registering every day, including some who detail the redundancies that are taking place at their firms at present, it is clearly not a very healthy time to be in this strand of the profession!
One glimmer of light has been the sudden emphasis on higher rights in job applications, as firms are currently starting to see that getting into the higher courts is one way they can increase their turnover, and I suspect barristers need to start looking over their shoulders...
www.crime-solicitor.co.uk, www.ten-percent.co.uk - both useful resources for further information.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
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