BCL Legal Recruitment

You are currently viewing content focused on

• In-house FAQs & Articles
• CV writing tips
  1
• General interview tips & advice
  2
• Typical interview questions
  1
• Regional information
  12
• Salary surveys & benefit tables
  1

2011 - A review of the in-house year

Last year was definitely a year of two halves. The first six months of the year remained challenging with a large proportion of permanent recruitment being put on hold and most placements being on an interim basis. However, as the year progressed we witnessed a gradual increase in permanent opportunities and this has remained throughout 2011.

Through speaking with in-house lawyers it is clear that when commercial activity moves away from ‘business as usual’ (i.e. during the down turn) the role of the in-house professional isoften more complicated, involved and busy. The issue over the last couple of years has been that redundancies in other parts of the business led to a moratorium on recruitment and therefore the legal teams have had to struggle on with the numbers they had (or in some cases with the help of a secondee).

Thankfully for all involved, since the beginning of 2011 we have witnessed a significant swing towards recruiting permanent members of staff again. The exciting element is that there has been a mixture of senior and junior roles – although given the number of solicitors looking at the senior end of the market it probably doesn’t feel this way.

Some of the clients that we have worked with in 2011 are: BAE Systems, Co-operative Financial Services, The Duchy of Lancaster, National Computer Centres, Psion, Eric Wright, Cott Beverages, Boots, National Grid, AstraZeneca, Vestas, Drax Power, St Andrews Healthcare and DHL.

On the candidate lawyer front we have seen an increase in the often hard to find and always sought after 2-4 years qualified lawyers from strong commercial firms. In many instances it is the experience gained on secondment during the down turn that has sparked these lawyers’ interest and desire to make the move into industry. Hopefully this is the silver lining to what has been a difficult time for the in-house legal market.

Salaries have also become more of a focus again - just having a job/ being offered a job was of most importance over the past couple of years. This focus is likely to increase salaries through 2011 and given they have remained fairly static since late 2008 the correction is probably justified.
2011 is turning out to be a busy year for the in-house team at BCL Legal and one that has seen us develop our proposition to clients based outside of our usual locations. We have also provided CPD to a record number of in-house lawyers through our tie up with the Commerce and Industry Group and many of the UK’s leading law firms.

Although the storm clouds of industry certainly still remain we are seeing strong activity in all the regions we work in and therefore urge lawyers in private practice looking for a move in-house to get in contact.