Articles From the Team

How important are academics In 2016?

As the new academic year for many undergraduate university students is about to begin, there are many who are about to take their first step in obtaining a law degree and begin to realise their ambitions of becoming a lawyer. Whilst this is the start of the journey for many, there are an equal amount of former students whose journey have come to an end and have now graduated. Some will no doubt have partied hard and still managed to achieve first class degrees (we all know someone!) and then there are the vast majority of us who found difficult to strike a balance between partying and studying and look back with regret and slight apprehension moving forward and trying to successfully find a role to suit.

I specialise in the recruitment of Paralegals, NQ’s and experienced Solicitors seeking personal injury roles. In my experience I have found, there is room in the legal profession for all varieties of graduates. There is no doubt that some departments in some law firms require would be University Challenge contenders to work on complex, multi faceted, cross jurisdictional matters involving billions of pounds. But the majority of law firms need clever, switched on people with a good handle on the Civil Procedure Rules. And let’s face it, any one who completes a degree, (GDL in some cases) and the LPC is clearly bright.

In many cases, those who don’t have stellar academics to show off about are often extremely bright, it’s just that they didn’t necessarily apply themselves to their academic studies in the way that they should have! Whilst in the bleak recession, law firms were not in the habit of recruiting much and when they were, the bar was very high in terms of academics and pedigree. Firms were looking for red brick university attendees, at least a high 2.1 and ideally a city firm background.

Fast forward to the present day and in light of having undergone various reforms, defendant firms are in recruitment overdrive. Many firms are willing to look at candidates with less than stellar academics! The recession has left us with too few lawyers with expertise in certain key areas such as defendant personal injury and law firms are competing for candidates that have experience in these areas. With masses of work coming in and not enough lawyers to do the work, firms are now looking to recruit paralegals without applying a stringent outlook on academics. Much is the same for Solicitors too as national law firms are looking to poach good NQs and qualified solicitors from small and medium sized regional firms. Candidates with 2.2s from former polytechnics who trained with small firms are getting interviews and job offers from bigger national practices.

So, if you are an ambitious paralegal, a nervous newly qualified or an experienced practitioner with or without a stellar academic background looking to step up to a larger firm with a better salary, better training and better career prospects please get in touch with BCL Legal or call 0845 241 0933.