Articles From the Team
When will 2014’s NQ season end?
The nights have drawn in, winter is with us and we are part way through November. Yet our client’s appetite for recruiting NQ level solicitors shows no sign of abating.
I manage a team of consultants at BCL Legal who specialise in assisting Midlands based law firms with recruitment into businesses service focused teams. In practical terms we work on all roles from NQ to Partner that include corporate, commercial, litigation, real estate, pensions, employment, banking, planning and tax work.
Over the last few years we have consistently been the most successful consultancy at placing NQ solicitors into roles with leading firms in the Midlands. Despite another record year, we are still currently handling approximately 47 positions that are appropriate for NQ solicitors. This number does not include the roles that my colleagues who focus on in-house, insurance or residential conveyancing are handling.
Many of these positions are new instructions received in the last few weeks. Usually these are positions that firm’s thought they had filled with an internal candidate – until it transpired that the internal candidate actually preferred to practice another area of law and so moved on accordingly.
The churn that this is creating in the market place is helping to ensure that candidates who have not yet secured a position still have hope, that candidates who have taken a role in a less favoured discipline may yet be able to secure a preferable role and that the future looks very good for March 2015 qualifiers.
It looks increasingly likely that this years’ NQ season will never end. A lot of our late instructions will not be filled quickly because of a lack of candidates. This will ensure that there will be opportunities for September 2015 qualifiers to be considering their options earlier than usual.
I would advise that anyone who took a position in a less favoured discipline or who is due to qualify next year gets in touch as soon as they can. My team and I are more than happy to discuss potential options within the market to help ensure that you are fully appraised of the opportunities that are out there. All conversations are treated confidentially and there are no strings attached.
Clearly the most popular area for continuing recruitment is real estate. However, there are numerous corporate, commercial, banking and commercial litigation positions still available. Additionally there are some more niche’ opportunities to specialise in things like pensions and tax.
Get in touch if you would like to find out more about your options. They are bound to be broader than you think.
For more information please contact BCL Legal or call us on 0845 241 0933.