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Legal salaries rise, shows latest study by Robert Walters

 

 

Overall legal salaries are up 2.4% year-on-year in London, according to results from the Robert Walters 2012 Salary Survey released this week. 

Within London, the Survey also highlights that in-house salaries are currently growing faster than in private practice. Permanent pay rose for both in-house commerce & industry (4.1%) and financial services (2.5%) year-on-year, while private practice salaries increased by 1.6%. Contract rates followed similar trends – contractor pay for in-house lawyers rose 2.8% in commerce and industry and 2.2% in financial services, whileprivate practic contract rates fell by 0.2%. 

Colin Loth, Director of Legal Recruitment at Robert Walters, says: “Despite uncertain market conditions, the legal jobs market has been steadily improving over the past year and this is reflected in the fact that salaries are continuing to rise.

“Within private practice, we are seeing consistent demand for junior level associates at the 2 - 4 years’ PQE level in finance-related roles. At this level, the best professionals are receiving notable salary increases when moving roles. Contract rates are also on the rise in some key areas. For example, documentation review specialists can now expect £35-40 an hour compared to £25-30 an hour a year ago.”

“Consistent demand from IT and technology, energy, telecommunications and pharmaceutical businesses for lawyers has prompted the increases evident in commerce & industry. As always, these companies are seeking strong commercial lawyers with excellent business facilitation skills – it is these professionals who are receiving the largest increases when moving roles.”

 

View summary of all key findings or find out what you’re worth by downloading the full Robert Walters Salary Survey or the Robert Walters Salary Checker app for iPhone and iPad.

About the Robert Walters Salary Survey 2012

The Robert Walters Salary Survey 2012 is a review of recruitment and pay trends across each of the 23 countries that the firm operates in globally. These figures are based on the difference between the average salary figures for each of the roles we have recruited for in 2010 and 2011.

About Robert Walters

Robert Walters is one of the leading international recruitment consultancies, with a network of 48 offices spanning 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Continental Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South Africa and South America.

If you're looking for a new legal role, search and apply for the latest opportunities from Robert Walters on TotallyLegal 

 

Do you work in-house or with a Private Practice firm? Got a question for Robert Walters? Feel free to share your thoughts below.

 

Marketing private practice services - how?

By  Douglas McPherson

Douglas is Director at Size 10 ½ Boots, a business development agency that works solely with professional service firms.Tenandahalf help their clients grow by winning more new clients and by generating higher fees from their existing clients. Due to their innovative methods, the marketing of private client services is now an area in which Tenandahalf lead the market.

....‘luxury’ services for the well-heeled (overseas property, equine, fine art and specialist tax advice) have also yielded success. 

Continued... 

(Read Douglas's previous post here)

 

Whichever sectors you choose, you have to provide comprehensive legal coverage. To do that, your team needs to be exactly that – the team needs to be ready and able to work together. This is a more holistic approach and it makes it much easier to cross-sell. Over time this will generate a higher level of feed than the traditional matter by matter approach - especially when you overcome certain colleagues’ reluctance to make the necessary introductions.

Once you’ve identified your sectors how do you take your sector groups to market? Because of the increased focus that sector strategy affords, this becomes the easy bit. Having specific target groups means you know what they read, where they meet, which associations they’re affiliated to and which websites they use. You just need to make sure that all the relevant avenues are covered by your marketing plan and that individual responsibility for utilising each has been distributed to a named individual.

Your increased focus will have a positive effect on your top line because you’ll bring in more fees. It’ll also help your bottom line as you’ll cut out expensive advertising and sponsorship ‘opportunities’; you’ll be invited to write for relevant publications and speak at the right events; you'll send out less direct mail and spend less time attending generalist networking events. Better still, because you’re spending less time marketing you’ll have more time to do the work which will improve your utilisation.

Once your marketing kicks in and the word gets out that you're the experts in your field, personal referrals will increase. This is the most effective (and cost-effective) form of marketing.  It’s cheap, it’s easy and, because your name will be passed on by someone your prospective client trusts your conversion rate will go through the roof.     

However, if you still think sectors should only relate to commercial practice areas could I leave you with a final suggestion? Marketing private practice services - how? 

If you're planning on launching commercial sector teams, please include representatives from the private client teams within your sector groups. All companies are run by people with personal legal requirements.  If they are willing to have you look after their business affairs, extending that trust to their personal affairs shouldn’t be a difficult job. The idea of any sector group is to maximise level of fees generated from each client and that will never be achieved if you compartmentalise your commercial and private client practices. 

 

Looking for a new legal opportunity? Search and apply for the latest opportunities from on TotallyLegal  

Marketing private practice services - how?

By  Douglas McPherson 

Douglas is Director at Size 10 ½ Boots, a business development agency that works solely with professional service firms.Tenandahalf help their clients grow by winning more new clients and by generating higher fees from their existing clients. Due to their innovative methods, the marketing of private client services is now an area in which Tenandahalf lead the market.

For some time now law firms have been looking to implement a more sector-based approach.  The problem from a private client perspective is that historically sectors have been seen as the preserve of the commercial department.  My question is why?  Why should commercial practice areas be taking all of the rewards when sector theory is equally applicable to marketing private services?   

One thing that drives me to despair when talking to firms about who they target is when they reply “high net worth individuals”.  When I ask them how they plan to identify/meet/engage with those high net worth individuals I am all too often met with an embarrassed silence.  

The truth is, in the same way that general marketing to business owners, company secretaries or FDs is costly and unproductive; choosing to market to an amorphous and anonymous group like ‘high net worth individuals’ is likely to produce little more than generous bills for advertising, sponsorship and printing, and a very poor financial return. 

But that’s the bad news out of the way. 

If you are willing to entertain the idea of a more focussed approach to marketing your private client services, all you need to do is sit down and look at three things: the expertise your private client team has, the groups with whom you have had had most success in the past and the potential opportunities offered by local demographics. 

The results shouldn’t be expressed in legal terms.  If you end up with a short-list that includes tax, wills, trust and probate you’re on the wrong track. The types of groups you should be looking for include the elderly, the severely disabled and foreign nationals.  Additionally ‘luxury’ services for the well-heeled (overseas property, equine, fine art and specialist tax advice) have also yielded success.  

Whichever sectors you choose…..  

To be continued...

 

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Life after Qualification

By Reetu Chaggar 

Reetu (Chopra) Chaggar graduated in 2006 from the London School of Economics with BA History. She has worked for UBS and Deustche Bank and completed a vacation scheme at Ashurst where she successfully secured a training contract. Reetu completed her GDL and LPC at BPP Law School in London and commenced legal training in Real Estate, Securites and Structured Finance ("SSF"), Energy, Transport and Infrastructure ("ETI") and Corporate Funds at Ashurst. Reetu qualifed in Real Estate in September last year and now works for Squire Sanders in Birmingham. 

You’ve worked really hard for the last two years of your training contract, put in the hours, talked the talk with the partners and become best friends with your secretary, only to find out your firm isn’t planning to  keep you. Alternatively, you may have realised your firm isn’t right for you or you want to completely change your career path.