Legal Recruitment Blog

NQ Solicitor? Don't panic. Expect to work hard finding a suitable job Every year we get called by NQ solicitors with the following questions: 1. When should I register? 2. How much should I be paid? 3. What does NQ or PQE mean? 4. I am not sure if my current firm will be keeping me on - what should I do? Our answers depend on individual circumstances, but in a nutshell: 1. As early as you can. Unless specialist. register with a number of job boards and agencies. Very important to get wide coverage of all options. Give no-one consent to send out your CV without your permission. 2. Depends on circumstances. Visit our website for salary reviews or email to ask us. 3. Newly Qualified and Post Qualification Experience. 4. Look around as much as possible and use any job offers to lever an offer out of your existing firm if you want to stay. Visit our website at https://www.ten-percent.co.uk/newly-qualified-solicitors/ for further advice. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment ...

23/04/08 I’m just about to qualify but the legal job market is awful – help! Every year since 2000 legal recruitment has been on a wave. Some months there can be lots of recruitment, lots of legal jobs, and lots of opportunities for all levels of the profession. There seems to be almost a collective enthusiasm about taking on more staff, expanding operations and generating new work. Other months, it can be completely flat, with no work for anybody, no placements and very little going on. This can be fuelled by media speculation and hype about the state of the market or actual events in reality, for example, the Iraq war of 2003. In the current climate I predict that there will be a glut of newly qualified conveyancing solicitors coming onto the market who will struggle to find work, or will find work, or will have to take salary reductions with their current firm or look at other areas within their existing firms as opposed to looking to move on to new legal jobs. Well, what do you do...

Question While I know the usual gripes on here that people cant get a training contract, im wondering if anyone is in the same boat as me, or similar anyway? I am 8 weeks off qualifying, doing my final "seat" in employment law but at the same time i have a full conveyancing caseload that I have to deal with in any spare time i get (which is not much!) with no help. This week and next I have the final business part of the psc course to do including an exam, its the busiest time of year in conveyancing as everyone wants to move before Christmas and to top it all off, my partner runs his own business which i help out with on evenings and weekends and again this is our busiest time of year. Im tearing my hair out meeting myself backwards trying to get everything done i need to get done and on top of all that there’s Christmas shopping to do! I know theres an end to this in that in 8 weeks time I'll finally be fully qualified and all this hassle will be over and I really shoul...

02.05.07 Yikes, I'm Newly Qualified, and don't have a job! If you are reading this and are due to qualify in the next 9 months, register for our services by clicking here. As soon as you qualify, you are a valuable commodity to your firm. You may think that you have no skills, are worthless, and unable to justify a salary you would like. People will tell you that it is very hard to find work as a newly qualified solicitor, and you should wait at least 3 years before moving.  Do not worry! It is a common tactic towards the end of a training contract for employers to "put you down". This is to prevent you thinking about pastures new. They talk about loyalty, vague partnership promises, and usually discuss the high level of the firm's overdraft with you. They then charitably offer you a position with the firm paying a low salary, but in line with your experience, and tell you to think yourself lucky to have employment at all. This is where Ten-Percent Legal Recruitme...