Articles From the Team
Ultimate career direction: what you need to do to get to where you want
Don’t just plan for the here and now…
BCL Legal specialises in finding the perfect role for successful lawyers who want to focus on driving their careers forward.
The potential downside of something ‘good’
The UK is full of great law firms to work for. It’s a far cry from 20 years ago when most of the big commercial firms had a staff turnover that’d make your eyes water. The majority of firms nowadays have got their act together and work hard to nurture their home-grown and hired talent, and they like to shout about it too.
Sometimes, this leads to complacency amongst lawyers who are working for good firms, doing good work and being well paid (as far as they’re aware) – with no idea what else is out there.
Your career: how to stay ahead of the game
It’s always good to stay ahead of the game. Most of the lawyers we place are people with whom we hold existing relationships.
BCL Legal maintains ongoing relationships with thousands of lawyers who are perfectly settled in their current role at the moment but have a strong sense of their ultimate career direction and what they need in order to get there.
What your legal recruiter should do to set the above in motion
We catch up with these lawyers regularly, keeping them up-to-date on their relevant market: the trends we’re seeing, new players, moves within the local market; advice on approaching appraisals; and, salary trends.
We look behind the CV and the LinkedIn profile, we get to know these people and we understand what motivates them and what sort of opportunity will help them to achieve their aims more effectively. It might be where they are now, but equally, it might be somewhere else.
When an instruction comes in for the perfect opportunity, they’re right at the top of our call list; before we advertise the role on the website and on jobs boards, before it gets sent out to our mailing list and before we start searching our database…
So, how about a different kind of New Year’s Resolution? Stop thinking about the now, and start thinking about the future (as well). You spent long enough studying and training to qualify as a lawyer, so you owe it to yourself to plan effectively.
Developing an ongoing relationship with a good legal recruiter’s a solid investment in your career. It enables you to make properly informed decisions at every stage.
I’m a Senior Associate at BCL Legal, and a qualified solicitor myself, with nearly 20 years’ experience of working with lawyers to achieve their aims. For an informal chat, please contact us.
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For more information please contact BCL Legal or email us at info@bcllegal.com.