Legal Recruitment

The period of economic slowdown has proved to be very difficult especially for legal sector, where professionals lose out on salary and other fringe benefits. The entry level law graduates have to bear the extra burden of sustaining in a shifting job market besides launching a successful legal career. But now things seem to be settled for good and it’s time to take on the task of making a striking career in law.

In-House Job Vacancies

With the banking and financial sector recovering from the credit crunch, in-house legal professionals are once again in high demand. The opportunities are expanding with everyone from blue chip financial companies to large corporations on a recruiting drive. They are seeking law graduates for litigation, corporate law, employment law, contract law and international law.
Law graduates will find an in-house legal job advantageous. The advantages include the work-life balance, high salary that a large company provides, tremendous growth and other fringe benefits. Each corporation has different options and the nature of responsibilities you’ll be assigned may also differ.

By carefully evaluating the benefits of an in-house career, qualified lawyers can decide whether an in-house career path is suitable for them or not.

Private Practice

Many of the qualified lawyers choose to go for private practice. Depending on their work experience, they start their private practice in a court of law as associates and work alongside more experienced legal professionals. In private practice, the work culture is very different from that of a company. The working hours are long and irregular and the work covers a wide range of aspects. The road to success in private practice is very stressful but the remuneration is fabulous. Most of the lawyers in private practice set their own law firms in the long run or end up with a partnership in existing law firms.

When a door is closed another opens. This phrase stands quite true with regard to the legal sector. Although currently in the throws of economic recession, law graduates are still in good demand in certain areas.

Economic slowdown has its worst effect on property; extensive redundancies are made in this specific sector. The residential property market is almost closed. But in commercial property, new sales and acquisitions and finance and development have kept the market alive. Solicitors can find jobs in commercial property sector, as landlord and tenant work is holding out.

Caseload of general insolvencies has created a huge demand for solicitors with insolvency and contentious property litigation experience. However, the demand is much higher for solicitors, who have commercial insolvency or corporate recovery experience rather than personal insolvency. Recruitment agencies and legal firms are also reporting that there are a number of jobs available for contentious construction solicitors. A candidate with arbitration experience is especially sought after these days.

Another area with legal jobs in these turbulent times is employment law. As commercial firms are continuously making redundancies and a new employment legislation is being considered by the government, jobs in the field of employment law service are surging. It is certainly difficult to believe that current demand in employment legal service is so high that a single recruitment agency can never fulfill it on its own.

Personal injury sector has remained steady throughout the economic downturn. Yet, this particular sector has moved ahead to take advantage of those law and LPC graduates, who are looking for training contracts. These graduates can work like case handlers for the small and fast track work. Areas such as wills and probate, family and crime seek more paralegal graduates than there are today.

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WEBWIRE – Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Contact Information

James Batt

Director

BCL Legal

0845 241 0932

jamesbatt@bcllegal.com

Manchester headquartered BCL Legal – one of the leading legal recruitment consultancies outside London – is bucking the current downturn in both the legal and recruitment sectors by placing a total of 435 lawyers for the year from November 2008 – an increase of 13 on the period 2007/2008. The figure is thanks, in a large part, to the 40% rise in the number of partner level placements that the company has completed within the North West private practice sector.

This impressive growth, in such tough trading conditions, is especially encouraging following the recent news that profits have sunk on average 33% at the region’s law firms (source: Pricewaterhouse Coopers). BCL Legal, which also has offices in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Reading, primarily attributes much of this year’s success to rising confidence in the Insurance, Commercial Litigation, Employment and Personal Injury sectors.

Other key factors include increased numbers of high calibre legal professionals at all levels who have been actively seeking new positions – thanks to redundancies and ongoing job insecurity. As well as clients using the current situation to reassess their recruitment requirements by strategically employing the best possible staff to help drive them forward once the recession comes to an end.

James Batt, Director of BCL Legal, said; ‘Although the figures appear modest on first glance, they are great news as this year has been particularly tough for both the recruitment and legal professions. The results are also encouraging as it shows business confidence is picking up, slowly. There is no doubting that the market is still difficult but most private practice law firms and organisations are now firmly focused on making 2010 a success.
James concluded; ‘Although this year’s performance gives us a solid platform for growth as the economy continues comes out of recession, we are not resting on our laurels as we realise that new challenges will continue to test both us and our clients for the foreseeable future.’

Current BCL Legal clients include; BAE Systems, Ofwat, Pannone, DWF and Hill Dickinson.

For more information about permanent and temporary jobs in law and the legal sector, including solicitor and paralegal jobs, please contact BCL Legal Recruitment – http://www.bcllegal.com

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