Northern law firms forced to take action as lure of in-house sector grows

Manchester, UK

A growing number of lawyers are moving in-house on temporary or fixed-term contracts to gain valuable CV-building experience, research has revealed.

UK legal recruitment agency BCL Legal conducted their third annual salary survey of in- house legal departments in the North of England and found that average salaries had risen across the board since last year by between 1% and 9% with the average bonus also climbing from £8,500 to almost £10,000.

But there was a less positive trend when it came to maximum salaries. Remuneration at the upper end of the scale – from four years PQE onwards- has fallen by as much as £18,000.

Mark Levine, BCL Legal’s Director of in-house solicitor recruitment, said average salaries were definitely increasing in the North-West and that those particular figures could be trusted “Maximum salaries, on the other hand, can be distorted by (the pay of) very few individuals”.

He added that the region’s biggest challenge was to find and place suitable experienced newly qualified commercial lawyers.

Martyn Rodmell, group legal counsel at Princes food in Liverpool and chairman-elect of the Law Society’s Commerce & Industry Group, said: “In-house is a very vibrant sector, with new opportunities presenting themselves all the time”.

Mark Levine specialises in placing solicitors into in house legal departments in the North West of England. Renuka Salvi places solicitors in the Yorkshire and North East markets. With offices in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, BCL Legal provides a comprehensive legal recruitment service for solicitors, lawyers, law firms and businesses at all levels, across all disciplines and across all sectors.

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Contact Information

Mark Levine

Director of In-house Solicitor Recruitment

BCL Legal Recruitment UK

Contact via E-mail