The recent climate of redundancies and salary freezes apprears to be improving and we are seeing much more positivity within the legal profession. Salary reviews have started to be reinstated and the North has seen a large increase in the amount of recruitment activity. This hasn’t meant increases in all disciplines, but on the whole, there is a feel of cautious optimism.
Business is booming in Personal Injury and this discipline has appeared pretty recession proof. As a result, salaries for Personal Injury fee earners have remained competitive. The Defendant PI market, particularly in the North West, continues to grow, with competition amongst the firms for the strongest candidates pushing up salaries. Claimant fee earners' salaries are also pretty competitive with both solid basic salaries and lucrative bonuses. The MOJ portal* has started to impact on the level of recruits required, with more pre litigated, non qualified fee earner roles and fewer opportunities for more technically advanced fee earners, as cost is driving down the market.
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It’s a mixed story for Debt. Firms are busy but fee earners have been required to work harder on files and monies have been difficult to recover. As a result, Commercial Debt has seen limited recruitment and little movement in salaries. Opportunities have tended to be at the larger practices with a focus on property related debt at the paralegal and trainee legal executive level, but salaries have been on the low side.
This year has been much more positive for Property fee earners with an increase in recruitment activity in both Residential and Commercial Property: however salaries are still suffering. Many will have taken a cut when the recession hit and have found it difficult to return to the level they were used to. Practices are very much in the driving seat and are demanding only the best.
There is a steady job market for Private Client fee earners, which peaked over the summer. Legal Executives are well recognised in this discipline and salaries are excellent. As you would expect, there is an increased demand for those with high net worth and tax experience and Legal Executives are paid on a par with Solicitors.
It’s been a turbulent time for Family Legal Executives, particularly for those on the publicly funded side after the LSC contract changes in 2010. Things appear to have settled down and firms are recruiting at all levels, although, at the more technical end of the market, Panel membership is preferred. Salaries have remained pretty static.
Opportunities in Criminal law continue to be limited and salaries tend to be lower than in other disciplines. Those with police station accreditation are more attractive and salaries can be bumped up with out of hours work.
Employment teams have been busy over the last year and recruitment has been steady both for applicant and respondent Legal Executives. Those with a mixed bag of experience including tribunal work have a greater choice of opportunities and salaries reflect this experience.
As the market recovers, practices are very aware that they need to keep an eye on salaries and naturally this is very supply and demand lead. Interestingly some of the large commercial practices are looking at moving away from PQE bandings and rewarding solicitors on delivery, something that Legal Executives have been used to for quite some time!
