Articles From the Team
Personal Injury – Never the bottom rung of the ladder!
Having specialised in personal injury recruitment, there seems to be an inference that is always made of this market. More often than not, I hear candidates mention that they’ll look at personal injury work but only after all other options and avenues have been exhausted. There lingers an insinuation that personal injury work isn’t complicated and quite easily managed for anyone with half decent litigation experience. Having recruited for top tier practices I am well aware of the complexity and challenging nature of personal injury work and the outstanding calibre of candidate required to fill these roles!
This past week, I was invited to attend a briefing with a top tier ranked personal injury firm seeking to recruit a Solicitor to join their team. The criteria specified by this client, was identical to that of other top tier practices that BCL works alongside with. Given how saturated the market has become with good defendant personal injury solicitors, firms aren’t interested in a candidate with a mediocre set of academics, some previous litigation experience and an attitude that would suggest they are over qualified for personal injury. Top tier practices are looking to pay very competitive salaries and expect nothing less than excellence in return! The clients that I work with offer clear routes to progression, excellent remuneration packages and a consistent diet of complex litigated personal injury work and in return are seeking candidates who show a real zeal and passion for personal injury.
Gone are the days where personal injury work could be used as a step up in commercial and corporate roles, rather what we are finding is that more and more commercial and corporate litigators are submitting applications for personal injury roles. This is a testament to how complex and specialist personal injury roles are and how far this market has come! There is much doom and gloom being advertised surrounding the various reforms and changes in the personal injury market (Jackson reforms, LASPO, QOCS etc.) Suggestions are being made that as a result of these stringent changes being applied there isn’t enough profit to be made in personal injury work and subsequently firms are turning to paralegals and non qualified solicitors to carry out the work. The reality is, yes firms are more likely to supervise exceptional paralegals to carry out the case handling duties of qualified solicitors if they are able to do so – and rightly so! However, there are plenty of specialist roles that firms are seeking and struggling to recruit for - given the calibre of candidate available.
Being a specialist personal injury recruiter throughout the Midlands I am constantly on the look out for stellar personal injury lawyers; whether it be an ambitious and exceptional non-qualified or a skilled qualified solicitor. In the current market, there is an abundance of roles but a lack of top quality candidates. If you are a Solicitor, Paralegal or Legal Executive with a keen interest in personal injury work, please contact BCL Legal or call 0845 241 0933, for an in depth and thorough discussion regarding current roles. BCL Legal specialises in all areas of legal recruitment and our dedicated consultants are more than happy to help you secure your next move.