Articles From the Team

Career paralegal or trainee solicitor?

It is an exciting time to be a paralegal in Manchester! New entrants Freshfields are offering excellent paralegal salaries with an anticipated figure of £23,000 starting salary for LPC graduates with excellent academics and upwards of 6 months’ experience as a paralegal. http://l2b.thelawyer.com/should-manchester-paralegals-take-advantage-of-freshfields-generous-salary-offer/ The legal market is booming; corporate, real estate and commercial areas are flourishing, with the litigation market also picking up in the right direction. Teams are all extremely busy with urgent need to add resource to manage ever increasing work flows.

But should this detract you from still applying for a training contract? I would say given that we have finally seen newly qualified solicitor salaries reach the £40,000 mark this year for the first time since 2008, if your goal is to qualify as a solicitor do not lose your focus. Whilst you can have a very rewarding career as a paralegal, the commercial market is short of good quality qualified candidates and firms are fighting over the best talent. It is a great time to enter the legal market as firms have increased confidence and indeed are increasing training contracts places. http://www.legalcheek.com/2014/07/lpc-applications-are-down-10-despite-8-increase-in-training-contracts/

Remember also that paralegal roles are not the only path. Many firms are keen to recruit trainees from industry specific backgrounds where they can bring added value to their legal training as a direct result of their insider sector knowledge. http://l2b.thelawyer.com/if-you-havent-got-a-training-contract-after-the-lpc-is-becoming-a-paralegal-the-best-option/

Due to the buoyant market this year we still have a number of fantastic newly qualified roles available, please do not hesitate to get in touch with BCL Legal as we would love to assist you in being the best lawyer you can be.