The truth is that the interview process lasts a lot longer than you might think…

According to a survey shared in Entrepreneur, approximately 46% of workers plan on finding a new position in 2023. And, despite the uncertain economic climate, those considering a move are just as confident in their job prospects as they were six months ago.

If you’re one of the many likely to take the next step in your career path this year, it’s important to think carefully about how you will make the right impression from day one – after all, getting through the interview process and being offered a role is very much stage one. And whilst there is (rightly) much cause for celebration, even after a hiring manager has offered you a role in their firm, it is still crucial that you validate their decision that they made the right choice in hiring you.

The first 30 days in a new role can be both nerve-wracking and exciting in equal parts. There are new processes and technologies to get used to, new people to meet, and new expectations to live up to. Plus, this first month will likely form part of a formal probation period where your employer (and you) will be assessing suitability and ‘fit’ as a new employee.

Knowing how to orient yourself in the first month in your new position not only improves your chances of impressing your boss, but it could also mean you start experiencing the full benefits of your new job much faster.

Step 1: Form Crucial Connections

Internal networking is one of the most important things you can do during the first few weeks in a new role. Getting to know the people you work with will improve your experience within your new firm and make you feel more comfortable in your position.

Communicating with others is also a great way to capture the attention of your managers and senior leaders. During your first couple of weeks with a new company, find out who you will be working with regularly, and commit some time to get to know each colleague.

It’s also worth finding out who you should be approaching if you have questions or concerns about your role. Discover when your contacts are most likely to be available, and determine how they prefer to communicate (E.g. in person, email, chat, or video).

For individuals who are working remotely, technology has advanced at lightening speed over the last few years – so there is no excuse to not reach out and get to know your team members, albeit virtually.

Step 2: Learn as Much as You Can

Even as an experienced legal professional, during your first month with a new law firm, you’ll have a lot of learning to do. You’ll need to become familiar with the internal processes you’re expected to follow, the policies you must adhere to, and the general workflow of the people around you.

Focus on expanding your knowledge in areas relevant to your role. For instance, asking for more information about the clients your law firm serves or how your team manages projects and deadlines might be beneficial. Read up on the documentation given to you during your onboarding session, and consider asking for extra training if necessary.

It’s also worth paying attention to your surroundings, so you can learn how to embed yourself into the company culture. Consider the company’s values and how you can showcase them in your work. Ask yourself how people communicate and collaborate so you know what to expect when connecting with others.

Step 3: Confirm Expectations

Hopefully, during the hiring and onboarding process, your firm will have given you some insights into what kind of work will be expected of you and how that work will be assessed. However, it may be helpful to confirm the expectations of your manager or supervisor with them.

Arrange for a one-on-one meeting with your manager if this has not been covered during the onboarding process, where you can discuss exactly what your leaders will be looking for when evaluating your work. Make a list of key performance metrics your business will monitor when assessing you.

It might be helpful to arrange additional meetings with your manager, bi-weekly or monthly, during the first stages of starting your new role. This will allow you to collect feedback and ensure you’re adhering to the expectations set for you. Many firms will have a formal performance review system in place, particularly for new starters – but if not, do ask for regular feedback. You don’t want to get to your probation review in 3 or 6 months time and learn things aren’t going as planned….especially when it will be too late to do anything about it.

Step 4: Find the Best Time to Ask Questions

When starting a new legal role, it’s tempting to ask many questions straight away. Asking questions is a great way to learn and show you’re invested in succeeding in your new position.

However, there’s a time, a place to ask, and a time when you need to listen.

Focus most of your time on what’s happening around you. If you have questions or need clarification, write down what you need to know. Prioritise the information you need first and ask yourself when it might be best to put certain questions off until you have a chance to meet with your manager face-to-face.

Step 5: Constantly Demonstrate Your Value

Once you know what’s expected of you in your new role and clearly understand the firm’s vision and mission, you can begin to demonstrate your value. During the first 30 days of a new legal role, you have a unique opportunity to prove to your hiring manager that they made the right choice when selecting you.

Start implementing strategies for quick wins based on what you know about how your work will be evaluated. For instance, if you know your manager is concerned about ensuring projects are completed on time, plan your schedule carefully, and keep them up-to-date with your progress as you complete each task.

Show your commitment to constantly improving and growing by volunteering for extra training sessions, asking for a mentor to guide you, or requesting feedback whenever possible.

In Conclusion

The first 30 days of your new career can be critical to your long-term career plan. Regardless of whether you’re starting in a position with a new company, or you’re exploring the new responsibilities that come with a promotion, be prepared and know how to put your best foot forward. By learning what to focus on from day one, discovering which skills and habits you need to demonstrate, and letting go of the things that might be holding you back, you can impress your manager which will
affirm in their mind that they made the right decision.

The good news is that there are a number of time-tested strategies that you can implement from day one.

As well as the top tips already mentioned, we have also produced a more in-depth guide to provide you with everything you need to know to streamline the transition into a new role. From habit-forming, to the types of questions you should be asking, the guide will ensure that you will be ready to hit the ground running, and make the right first impression in your new company. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals, and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help.

Call us on 01772 259 121 or get in touch with us here

Even in a world where 91% of all employers now use social media as part of their hiring process, the CV/Resume is still one of the most important tools any candidate has.

It is the first thing most employers will look at before even thinking about inviting someone to an interview. It’s also your best chance to immediately introduce your education and experience. Used correctly, your CV can improve your chances of getting the ideal job.

Unfortunately, many legal candidates struggle to convey the right information in their CV/Resume and cover letters. Some candidates are still using old-fashioned, outdated, or complicated formats which are not relevant to the jobs they apply for.

Here are the 5 steps you can follow to ensure your CV stands out to any hiring manager.

Step 1: Make it Relevant

One of the biggest mistakes legal professionals make, is attempting to use their CV/Resume as a catch-all document for every potential role. However, this document is not just a list of your educational credentials and accomplishments. It is your opportunity to convince a hiring manager that you’re the right person for their specific position.

Start by researching the firm and making a list of all the important traits, experiences, and characteristics they value. Your CV should be tailored to the specific job description for the role you’re applying for. If you know a firm values innovation and intuition, use your CV to highlight how you have shown these traits in previous roles.

Remember, only around 2% of candidates make it to the job interview stage when they go it alone without the help of a specialist legal recruitment/staffing/search company. Working with your consultant/recruiter to determine exactly what you should include on each CV/Resume will boost your chances of success.

Step 2: Keep it Short and Sweet

Some studies suggest that up to 100 people will apply for any given role, which means even in a candidate-driven legal market, you’ll still have a lot of competition to go up against.

When sorting through countless applications, employers do not want to waste time on lengthy, complex CVs. They are more likely to spend their time looking at applications that get straight to the point, highlighting the information an employer wants to know about their candidates.

With this in mind, edit your CV ruthlessly before you submit it. The best CVs are no more than two pages long, and some can be as short as a single page. Remove any information which might not be specific to a role or might be considered outdated and make sure your most essential information is located towards the top of the page. Your core skills and experiences should not be hidden on page two but placed directly under your personal profile.

Step 3: List Accomplishments, Not Just Prior Roles

When sorting through applications for a job role, most legal employers are not only looking for evidence you have experience in the industry. They want to see examples of your previous accomplishments and understand why your background is valuable to their organisation.

When you are listing your prior experiences on your CV, use concrete numbers, statistics, and clear information to demonstrate what you’ve done in the past. Do not just mention day-to-day job activities, tell your future employer a story about how you’ve evolved in your career.

For instance, if one of the core responsibilities of your new role will involve analyzing data or conducting research, draw attention to how you did this in a previous role to boost a firm’s efficiency by X% or reduce costs by X%.

Step 4: Get the Structure and Formatting Right

A complicated, confusing CV will automatically place your name at the bottom of the pile for potential hires. Make sure you get the structure and formatting right. Around 99% of companies now use automatic scanning technology to sort through CVs in search of specific keywords and phrases. This means you need to ensure you choose a file format that’s suitable for these tools.

It’s also worth structuring your CV in a way that helps draw attention to the most valuable information first. Here are some of the sections you should include:

• Personal Details: Countless legal recruiters receive CVs that miss out key details like a name, email address, and contact number. These are crucial for ensuring a potential employer can reach out to you.
• Personal statement: In your personal statement, highlight why you’re the ideal person for the specific role you’re applying for. Keep this section short and focus on things like previous accomplishments and experiences which make you right for the
• Work experience: Highlight all of the relevant work experience which could demonstrate your ability to thrive in this specific role. Include the name of the organisation you worked for, and what you achieved during your time there.
• Achievements: Outside of your work experience section, you should highlight other relevant achievements with quantifiable evidence. For instance, you might write about the time you managed a team when working for a charity and helped to increase donations by X%.
• Education: Only list education relevant to the job. You don’t need to go all the way back to your first school credentials. Focus on the specific accreditations your employer is looking for. You can usually find requests for specific educational credentials on the job listing.

Step 5: Double-Check Before You Send

Even in a world filled with spell-checkers for your digital documents, it’s easy to make a mistake with your CV. Ensure you have the right country setting for your spell checker and take the time to read through your application a few times before you send it off.

Working with a legal recruitment consultant during this stage can be particularly helpful, as they can pinpoint any areas you might need to expand on to improve your chances of getting the role. While they won’t necessarily spell-check your CV for you, they can sometimes share some tips on how to make your application stand out.

It’s also worth double-checking the job listing to see if the firm has any specific requests for how you submit the application. Some law firms prefer files to be sent in a specific format. It’s important to show you can follow instructions carefully.

Even in today’s digital world, overlooking the importance of the humble CV can be detrimental to your chances of success. As it is the best tool you have as a legal professional to highlight your skills and accomplishments to potential employers, it should be given adequate attention and crafted well enough to make your application compelling. You can also take it a step further and enhance your CV with a great LinkedIn profile filled with endorsements about your skills. More information on creating a winning profile can be found here:

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

Click here to speak to one of our experienced Legal specialists or call 01772 259121 for more information on how our exceptional recruitment experience can help your career aspirations.

After days or weeks of getting ready for that legal job interview, few things are more crushing than learning you haven’t been successful in getting the role. Rejection is difficult to deal with in any part of life, but it can be particularly upsetting when you’re striving for the perfect job in law and have already invested time and emotion in preparing for it.

However, rejection is also a common part of the job searching process. Learning how to respond productively to a lost job opportunity is the way to ensure you keep focused on your job search, learn from any ‘mistakes’ that may have been made, and fine-tune your approach.

Here’s what you can do turn interview rejection to your advantage.

Step 1: Ask Yourself if the Legal Role Was What You Really Wanted

First, it’s worth asking whether the role was right for you in the first place – despite the fact that the hiring manager has obviously seen ‘a fit’ somewhere in the application process. When you’re keen to take the next step in your legal career, you might start applying for just “close enough” roles to what you really want rather than seeking the ideal role.

Perhaps you were attracted to certain aspects of the position but were a little concerned about the firm culture. Maybe you were happy about the opportunity to find your first job in the legal industry, but the position in question didn’t really give you much scope to showcase your skills.

If you weren’t particularly passionate about the job in the first place, there’s a good chance the hiring manager picked up on that fact. Maybe you rushed through the research stage of preparing for the interview or failed to leave a lasting impression.

Ask yourself whether this role was right for you and going forward, apply only for the positions you truly care about as that will motivate you to showcase the best version of yourself during your next interview.

Step 2: Brush up on Your Interview Confidence

If you did have all the necessary experience for the role, the problem could be with your technique. Lack of confidence during an interview is a common reason why around 40% of candidates don’t make it past the first interview stage.

Look back over the conversation you had. Were you constantly fidgeting, looking down at your CV, or failing to make eye contact? Your body language in an interview can say a lot about your kind of person and how confident you feel in your abilities.

Try practising with a friend or colleague to prepare for your next interview. Make a list of common interview questions similar to the ones you were asked in your last interview, and practice responding to them. But more importantly, practice demonstrating an air of positive self-esteem. Sit straight, keep your hands still, and make eye contact regularly. A smile can go a long way in an interview too.

Step 3: Look for Ways to Improve Your Answers

When you’ve figured out how to improve on your non-verbal communication, it’s time to reflect on what you did (or didn’t) say during your interview. Take the time to go back over it in your head and ask yourself where you struggled.

Were there certain questions you didn’t have a good response to? If so, you can practice generating relevant answers. Think about any competency-based questions you might have been asked and your answers to them. Did you give enough practical examples to showcase the skills the hiring manager is looking for? If not, then take the time now to incorporate them into your answers as this will give you a far better chance of convincing potential employers of your suitability for any role you might be interviewed for in future.

You may also have failed to make the right impression because you didn’t have enough information about the law firm you applied for. Around 47% of candidates fail their interviews because they haven’t done enough research. Learning as much as possible about the firm before you start applying for roles will help you tailor your answers and CV to the firm’s needs.

However, if you did indeed do your research and ensured your responses reflected that then the problem may be how knowledgeable you came across to the hiring manager about the legal field in general. Employers want to know what you can do to make their firm stand out from the competition and showcasing knowledge about the firm’s competitors or about current trends in the industry will go a long way in convincing hiring managers that you have the necessary commercial awareness they’re looking for.

Now is a good time to ensure that you have this up-to-date knowledge and if you want to really put yourself ahead of the competition, do whatever research you can beyond the general information that’s easily found on the internet as other legal candidates will also have access to that.

Step 4: Respond to the Rejection (The Right Way)

Finally, a good way to improve your chances of success in upcoming legal interviews is to respond to your interviewer after they send you the rejection message. Thank the law firm for their time, and they’ll be more likely to think of you positively if you apply for roles with the same business. What’s more, this is a great chance to ask for feedback.

If you’re left not really understanding the reasons why you’ve not progressed to the next step in the process, do request more detailed information. This will really help to focus on any improvements you can make – although sometimes it may simply come down to the fact that others in the process are simply a better fit and more suitable than yourself, rather than anything you actually ‘did’ or said.

Time to Rethink Your Approach?

There are many routes to applying for new roles – whether that’s through general advertising online, or approaching law firms directly, however utilising the services of a legal recruitment agency can pay dividends when it comes to gaining general market knowledge and understanding what opportunities there are in your specific region or practice area.

What’s more, many legal recruiters will work with you throughout the interview process – ensuring you feel fully prepared with things like your CV and covering letters/emails, as well as specific information relating to the hiring manager or Partner who will be interviewing you, typical questions being asked, and general expectations.

Our team at Clayton Legal for example have over 23 years’ experience in helping candidates navigate the job market and work with them every step of the way to prepare and ace their interviews.

And, whilst rejection after an interview is a sign you need to brush up on your interview skills and confidence, sometimes it is simply a case of another candidate better suited to the role in question. With any luck, you will have other irons in the fire, and interviews lined up to attend  – so it’s incredibly important not to feel too defeated or disheartened. Instead, put the time already spent on prepping and researching to good use in the inevitable next interview.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

Click here to speak to one of our experienced Legal specialists or call 01772 259121 for more information on how our exceptional recruitment experience can help your career aspirations.

All great legal careers need to start somewhere. For most employees, the path to progression begins with an entry-level position. Over time, as you develop your skills and knowledge, you can apply for promotions and higher-paid roles.

After a while in the legal industry you may feel you have the leadership skills, knowledge, and expertise to thrive in a managerial role. A position as a manager can be an excellent way to increase your earning potential, showcase your knowledge, and unlock greater job satisfaction.

However, figuring out how to move into your first legal manager position can be challenging.

Here are some of the top tips you can use to improve your chances of a new leader-level job.

Step 1: Excel in Your Current Role and Do Your Research

To achieve any promotion in the legal landscape, you first need to show your manager how great you are at what you do. Managers need significant expertise and experience in the field they’re going to be supervising. Showing your leaders, you’re a capable, and accomplished member of the team will make them more likely to see your potential as a manager.

While you’re working on demonstrating your value in your current position, it’s worth doing some research. Find out what kind of skills the current managers in your law firm have, and determine whether there are any gaps you’ll need to fill in your own abilities. For example, as a manager you will need a commercial oriented mindset as you will be responsible for generating new business for the firm, and this is especially the case with solicitors and barristers, whose success depends on their ability to secure new clients and their more entrepreneurial approach.

It can also be helpful to look at how your law firm handles internal movement and promotions. Are there certain times of the year when your employer makes decisions about who should be moved into leadership roles? Finding out in advance will help you to decide when to approach your employer about any management opportunities.

Step 2: Develop Your Managerial Skills

There’s more to thriving in a managerial position than being an expert in the legal industry. There’s a good chance you’ll need to develop some crucial new skills to prove you can succeed in a managerial role.

The research you’ve done into the other managers in your law firm should help you to determine which talents matter most to your law firm. However, some of the most common managerial skills you may need to develop include:

Leadership skills: Learn how to motivate, inspire, and engage other employees by taking on the leader position in group tasks and volunteering for opportunities to take charge.
Decision making skills: You’ll need to be able to effectively analyse situations and respond to different scenarios with confidence.
Organisational skills: Demonstrate your organisational skills by ensuring you always meet with deadlines, and deliver punctual work.
Interpersonal skills: Work on your emotional intelligence and communicate regularly with leaders and other colleagues in your law firm.
Problem-solving skills: Show your ability to respond creatively to problems by suggesting solutions to issues in team meetings.

It’s also helpful to invest in your continued education. Earning new certifications and accreditation will demonstrate your expertise in your industry, and help to differentiate you as a potential leader.

Step 3: Show Initiative

Often, proving you’re ready for a legal management job means making sure you take advantage of every opportunity to showcase your expertise and abilities. This means you’re going to need to take initiative if you want to stand out.

Volunteer for tasks a manager might normally do, like taking charge of a team project, or helping your boss with a challenge most people would rather avoid. Rather than waiting for your supervisors to offer you training and development opportunities, seek out your own educational strategies to develop the skills you know are crucial to your law firm.

You can even demonstrate your leadership capabilities outside of your current role, by taking on leadership positions in non-profit organisations, and sharing your volunteering experiences with your company leaders.

Step 4: Ask for the Position

Once you’ve had a chance to demonstrate your abilities, built your skillset and connected with the supervisors in your workplace, it’s time to ask for your new role. Arrange a time to meet with your boss face-to-face or over video so you can discuss your career progression opportunities.

During this meeting, you’ll need to be prepared to explain why you’re ready for this new challenge, and provide as much evidence as possible. Highlighting your recent accomplishments, and drawing attention to the managerial skills you’ve developed will be useful here. If possible, it’s always a good idea to have relationships with other legal managers in your team who can vouch for you.

If your employer doesn’t think you’re ready for a manager role yet, or there isn’t a space available for you to move into, ask what the next step is. Work with your boss to figure out what you need to do to transition into your ideal role.

Step 5: Be Prepared to Switch Law Firms

Finally, if you’re committed to becoming a legal manager, it’s important to be flexible. The reality is, even if you do all the work and prove yourself to your existing employer, there may not be a leadership opportunity available in your current law firm.

Unless your boss is looking for a manager to fill a role after another team member has left, there’s a good chance they won’t be able to find the budget to create a new position just for you. With this in mind, you may need to look elsewhere for your management job.

Work with a legal recruitment agency to track down positions relevant to your expertise and experience. Our team at Clayton Legal will be able to help you find a new legal role that not only offers you the manager responsibilities you want, but the firm culture and benefits you need too.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

Click here to speak to one of our experienced Legal specialists or call 01772 259121 for more information on how our exceptional recruitment experience can help your career aspirations.

Congratulations – you’ve landed a new legal role, and after a busy period of applications, interviews, and meeting your new employer, you are no doubt looking to the future and the next steps in your career.

But even with the excitement of a new legal position looming, more often than not, there is still a notice period to consider with your current firm. The average notice period for legal professionals in our experience tends to be around 3 months, and it is highly likely that there will be a number of objectives to deliver before you set off for pastures new.

Here we offer our top 5 tips on how to navigate this ‘halfway house’ between your current role, and your new one to ensure you leave on good terms as well as feel fully prepared for your next challenge.

1.  Be prepared for conversations around negotiation

Whatever the reason or reasons for leaving your current firm, it is always worth having a preliminary conversation before you start looking for new opportunities, to see if those initial reasons may be overcome. If, however that conversation didn’t take place, you should nevertheless consider what you would do should a counteroffer be on the table once you make your intention to resign clear.

In the current market, where demand for legal professionals is outstripping supply, this is exceptionally common, so you need to at least be prepared for such a scenario and ask yourself, would you actually accept a counteroffer? The answer to that lies in ultimately revisiting the reasons you wish to leave in the first place.

Counteroffers take many forms including increased pay, a promotion, enhanced benefits, or a combination of all of those, and there is no doubt that it can feel flattering to be in that position. However, research suggests that 80% of people who accept a counteroffer tend to leave within 6-12 months of accepting. Is it likely you’ll also be part of that statistic?

Assuming you’re still set on moving on, resigning gracefully is key – ensuring you cover all bases with and address these often-uncomfortable initial conversations – and ultimately remain professional, and on good terms as you prepare to exit the business.

2.  Tie up all loose ends

Whilst it may be an easy option to go into cruise control once you have formally resigned, it will also destroy any goodwill and reputation you have no doubt worked hard to build on during your tenure with your current employer.

Making sure you remain committed to fulfilling your obligations and deliverables is key – not least because it means you aren’t leaving your colleagues ‘high and dry’ and left to pick up the pieces.

Generally speaking, there is never a ‘good’ time to leave a company, in that there will almost always be projects still ongoing, case loads still being actively managed, and future meetings in the diary.

Therefore, it is a good idea to:

• Confirm expected deliverables (and revised deadlines) with your current manager
• Ask who will be responsible for taking on your various tasks, caseloads, projects, and expectations around a formal handover

Practically speaking, once colleagues are aware that you are leaving, you can start to clear your desk so that it’s ready for the next occupant. Removing paperwork, filing and archiving, binning wastepaper and taking personal items such as photographs home will ensure your workplace is ready, clean and welcoming for the next person.

3.  Give a robust handover

Scheduling time to plan for a smooth transition further demonstrates that you are a true professional and not someone who leaves a law firm or a colleague in the lurch, or projects unfinished. Think about your specific areas of responsibility – current caseloads, unfinished assignments, urgent jobs and upcoming commitments, as well as information on your clients that your successor or wider team will need.

Even if projects or caseloads are likely to be ongoing, giving detailed instructions on where things are up to will be invaluable to your successor – especially if that individual is new to the business. Depending on your role and responsibilities, this may include

• A directory of key contact details
• Process documentation – ‘how to’ guides, or more detailed process maps
• Detailed notes on specific cases
• Duties detailed by frequency – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc
• Project documentation including

If your firm decides to advertise your role and bring in a replacement as it were, it may be that you meet this individual to handover for a period in person. Going the extra mile here will leave a lasting impression, especially if you take on some of the responsibility for training and helping that person settle in quickly. Mitigating any disruption, especially where clients of the firm are concerned, is paramount and if you are able to ensure the handover is as smooth as it can be, you will certainly leave with a reputation for professionalism and hard work intact.

4.  Keep connected

With an exciting new role to look forward to, you’ll no doubt want to tell close colleagues and friends about your new opportunity, and it is likely that news of your intention to leave will be communicated more widely around the business.

That being the case you will be asked both why you are leaving and where you are going to – so it’s wise to have a response planned. The temptation to tell people how amazing the new opportunity is, or how you’ll be working for a ‘better’ employer or company will undoubtedly be there, but tread carefully. Keep the message positive, but keep in mind the colleagues (and long-term legal network) that you will be leaving behind.

Your professional reputation will follow you out of the door on your final day, and if you are continuing to practice in the same sector, work for a competitor, or even work in the same region, chances are your paths will cross again at a networking or social event. It’s therefore imperative that you don’t burn any bridges as you exit.

Rather, use this opportunity to preserve your professional network. Building and maintaining relationships with co-workers right up until the point you leave (and then thereafter) will pay dividends – so use this time to connect on social platforms, ask for endorsements and recommendations, and share new contact details.

5.  Start onboarding early

As seasoned legal recruiters, we always press the point of the importance of maintaining contact with your prospective employer as you work your notice period. This applies to both parties in the equation, and hopefully you will already be in continual dialogue with your new manager, the HR team, or even the wider team you will soon be a part of.

Regardless, it is good practice to consider the following steps ahead of day one:

• Follow your new employer’s social media accounts- helping you keep up to date with any news as well as get a feel for the kind of messages and communication they broadcast.
• Connect with your new team members on LinkedIn- even better, message them with a short message saying how much you are looking forward to joining.
• Attend any events organised by your new employer- your enthusiasm to get involved ahead of you starting in your new position will be duly noted and help to cement relationships from the outset
• Confirm and check your logistics- travel routes, train timetables, parking arrangements all need to be reviewed ahead of your start date if you are traveling to a physical office. If however your new role involves you working from home, it’s still a good idea to check your WIFI connection for the inevitable Teams or Zoom meetings, and make sure you have a suitable working space if you haven’t already.
• Be proactive- ask if there is any training material, staff handbooks or similar that you can read ahead of day one. There may be specific paperwork you need to complete perhaps. Getting ahead of the game shows you are committed to the new role, and helps to free up the first week from some of the administrative tasks.

Granted, you are also physically working your notice period (and busy tying up those loose ends) meaning time may be at a premium, but any effort you put in during this period means you can hit the ground running and will undoubtedly start to impact your new working relationships even before you’ve set foot through the door.

Finally

Handing your notice in can often be a bittersweet process. On the one hand, you will no doubt be looking forward to starting with your new employer, yet on the other, you still have legal obligations to fill as well as the emotional impact of saying goodbye to colleagues and friends.

Leaving a lasting (good) impression is vital and taking the steps above to demonstrate commitment to the very end won’t go unnoticed and will likely impact your personal reputation as you take these next steps in your legal career.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 3,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers – and have helped to guide many legal professionals through the offer process, through their notice period, and beyond as they start their new career.

If you are considering your options at the moment, we can help to navigate the market and present realistic options. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

The end of one year and the start of another is typically when our thoughts start to turn reflective about our work and home life.

Questions to ask yourself to further in your legal career:

• Are you where you want to be?
• Did the challenges of this year highlight that you’re not entirely happy in your current role?
• Are you where you want to be in your legal career?
• Did you level-up this year and want to flex your new skills in a role with more responsibilities and a higher salary?
• Have you been toying with the idea of a change but have been dissuaded thinking that now isn’t the ‘right time’?

All of these thoughts will be going around in the minds of many legal employees. Even more so this year, after such significant shifts have happened in both our work and personal lives.

Today we look at how legal candidates can start planning now to take advantage of legal career opportunities in 2023.

What Do You Want from Your Legal Career?

This year has provided many of us with additional time to reflect that we didn’t know we needed.

The extreme circumstances of emerging from the pandemic have been the catalyst for some significant mindset shifts.

Some legal employees found that during their firm’s time of crisis they were truly working within a team and for an organisation that they were happy with – for others, it provided the clarity to realise that they were not.

In some cases, there might have been certain career opportunities that you were promised which have not come to fruition, and this year might have shone a light on your employer’s dedication to your training development.

The rise of remote/ hybrid work this year has highlighted the importance of flexibility for both legal employers and their employees.

Even next year, when the pandemic is long gone, how many will want to stay remote on a full-time basis?

Many legal employees have seen the value of not just remote work, but a flexible approach to working, and will be looking for this from their employer.

I spoke to a candidate recently who was looking for a new role due to their employer’s inability to be flexible with remote work even though it was a success during the lockdown, and I’m sure there are many other candidates in a similar position.

Another area where candidates are placing their focus on is their training and development in a post-pandemic world.

Training and Development

Of course, this year has not been easy for many firms, but employees must feel assured that their employer is invested in their development.

Some law firms were quick to adapt digitally and offer staff all of the help and support they needed to work from home successfully. But other legal professionals have found that they were not supported in a way that is conducive with career progression.

Even despite the pandemic and economic crisis, there are legal firms who have continued to train and develop their teams this year.

Are you regularly being supported and offered training and development in your current legal role, or has it been put on hold because of the pandemic?

If you feel that your employer is not providing you with substantial development opportunities, this is a sign to look for a role with a company that will.

So, where are the challenges and opportunities within the legal sector for 2023?

Redundancies and Skills Shortages

Like all industries, the legal sector has had areas that have suffered due to the pandemic and others that have thrived.

Personal Injury law is one area where we have seen redundancies, whereas property law, Conveyancing and Family Law has been in high demand.

There are currently skills shortages across Conveyancing and Property Law, so consider this if you are considering a 2023 career move, but talk to your legal recruiter about where the opportunities are in your area.

If you are going to be applying for new legal jobs in 2023, now is the time to revisit your CV.

Getting Your Legal CV Ready

January is historically a buoyant time for the jobs market, and 2023 is set to be no different.

When looking for a new role, you will want to appear to prospective employers as the legal candidate to invite to an interview – and you can do this with some tweaks to your CV.

Think about what you can offer potential employers based on the challenges you have faced and the growth you have achieved this year.

Employers are looking for emotionally intelligent employees with a growth mindset who can flex. Demonstrate how you have overcome challenges this year in regards to remote working, helping your employer as well as your colleagues through the challenges of Covid.

Digital skills and the willingness to learn are going to be essential in 2023 too.

For example, “In my role this year, I used my previous cloud knowledge to help our firm make the switch from office-based to home working. I stepped up and offered to be the facilitator and help my colleagues remotely with WFH challenges such as digital file-sharing and taking digital payments”.

If you need assistance tailoring your legal CV, we can help. Contact us here or call our team of legal career experts on 01772 259 121 to find out more.

Next Steps?

Where do you want to be at the end of 2023 in your legal career?

Some great and underutilised and underdeveloped legal candidates are staying put because of perceived risk, but now is the time to think about what you want.

We can help you with career planning, CV writing, your legal job search and setting up interviews.

Get in touch with us by calling 01772 259 121 or contact us here to discuss your legal career options for the new year.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

The last few months have been a precarious time for the vast majority of people in the UK. And with significant changes in the legal sector, many employees have felt a degree of uncertainty around the future of their career.

The realities of the rise in inflation and the cost of living is now being realised, and for some legal employees, this will, unfortunately, mean redundancy. A new study has shown that nearly 1 in 5 employers are likely to make redundancies over the next year, including law firms and legal services.

But while some areas and some practices have been hit hard, others are flourishing.

Today, we look at what legal employees who are currently facing redundancy should be focusing on now and how to navigate the new situation you could be placed in.

Let’s start with some positivity.

The New Job Mindset

A positive mindset is critical when job seeking, so the first thing that it is essential to remember is that it’s not you that is being made redundant; it’s your role.

There has been so much change, contraction and growth in different areas that there will be inevitable redundancies in some practices as employers try to make sense of the new market.

Legal employees who ‘go it alone’, rather than work with a recruiter, run the risk of losing momentum. This can leave you feeling isolated and discouraged, especially when your job applications aren’t garnering you many responses.

My first piece of advice for a legal candidate facing redundancy is to start working with a legal recruiter as soon as possible. They will be able to provide the career support that you need right now.

So if your position has recently become redundant, there is good news – there are opportunities out there – let’s look at where they are.

What To Do If Your Training Contract Is Terminated

The Law Society have a great article that discusses what your options are if your training contract is terminated before you complete it. Find out more here with guidance from The Law Society and the SRA.

“The SRA states that trainee solicitors are common law apprentices, which means that you cannot be terminated as part of a redundancy process. This gives you enhanced protections under employment law and you should have reference to the SRA’s authorised training provider information pack (2019 regulations)”.

Retraining

One of the first things to consider is if you can retrain in a different legal specialism.

While this might not be the easiest path or the first choice for some individuals, for those that take advantage of the opportunity now could enjoy great benefits.

For example, you might have specialised in personal injury law, and have been operating in this field for some years.

But the market is now changing.

Legal firms are increasingly in need of employees trained in the areas which have boomed since the pandemic struck – property, family and employment law being the main three.

And this isn’t a short-sighted career move. Adding another string to your bow is always a good idea career-wise, and it makes perfect sense to do it now when there are talent shortages in these critical areas.

If you are thinking about changing your legal specialism, there are a few ways you can get started.

First, look for a mentor in your chosen field – this can be a difficult task, but once you find someone who you trust and who can help you shape your career path the way you want, they will be invaluable to you. This can be someone from your chosen field within your current company, or you can reach out to sector specialists on LinkedIn or during trade webinars or seminars, with physical networking not a possibility at this time.

Then take advantages of any courses you can enrol in to bring you closer to your chosen specialism, you can also self-study and work on extra certificates outside working hours – there are lots of online courses available.

If you feel comfortable discussing your chosen career goal with your current employer and feel that they will support you in your chosen field, you can always ask them if they will allow you time to train on the job in another department of the firm.

So let’s look a little closer at the areas in where the opportunities are right now.

Property

As with many unprecedented situations the pandemic caused, the mortgage and rent holidays that were put in place by the government created a boom in property law that hasn’t slowed down.

There is going to be a vast increase in roles in practices that deal with property disputes. And this is set to continue for many months and possibly even years.

Staying with property, the backlog of conveyancing that was caused by the house-move ban has yet to be cleared, which has created more opportunities for growth in this sector.

This, coupled with the fact that the pandemic seems to have inspired many people to move house – a rise of 15.6% in August 2020 – practices with property specialisms have never been busier.

Family

Family law is another area where we have seen a significant increase in opportunities.

There has been a so-called ‘divorce boom’ fuelled by the lockdowns and changes in economic circumstances. The Citizens Advice website saw a 25% increase in divorce guidance searches in September 2020 compared to the previous year.

The BBC spoke to family lawyer Georgina Chase, who commented that 30% of matrimonial enquiries she had received had been from couples separating because of relationship issues being exacerbated due to lockdown which we think will continue to increase as the cost of living continues to squeeze on those relationships.

A new survey by Scottish Law firm MHA Henderson Loggie has predicted lawyers specialising in commercial dispute resolution and family law are anticipating an increase in workload due to Covid-19.

MHA Legal director Christine Rolland commented “It is not known how the courts will cope with the backlog of cases on top of the expected number of new cases over the next 6 months.”

So family law is another area that is crying out for legal talent right now.

Employment

Employment law is another area which is seeing a drastic increase in the wake of Covid-19.

There have been changes to employment law due to the pandemic, with many issues in this field yet to be resolved.

As of late August 2020, there were 39,000 individual employment claims waiting to be heard according to the Ministry of Justice figures.

Barry Clarke, the president of employment tribunals in England and Wales, said he expects the backlog to continue to rise. He said this “would pose huge challenges to the ability of the [employment tribunal] to deliver justice within a reasonable time, which deeply troubled him”.

Conciliation service Acas received 33,000 calls in regards to redundancy in June and July 2020, an increase of 169% on last year.

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done in this area of law, and practices with this specialism are looking for talent to help clear the backlog.

Private Client

During this time, if you haven’t before, it might be time to consider working with private clients on cases to start to build your own private client portfolio.

Private clients are an international growth industry which can be an extremely good career move for a solicitor to consider.

If you have excellent interpersonal skills, and it is your ambition to work closely with your clients to provide the best outcomes for individuals you have built an excellent relationship with, then becoming a private client solicitor could be for you.

Private client opportunities are currently booming, so now is a great time to make a career change into this area of law if you think you’ve got what it takes.

Looking at the Positives

Facing redundancy can feel daunting, but it is crucial to think of the opportunities that a new role can bring.

You have the chance to work with a legal recruiter to find a role that fits exactly the direction you want your legal career to be going in.

If you aren’t sure about the direction of your legal career and would like to explore the options that are available to you right now, get in contact with us here.

A Different Location?

Finally, expanding your job search is another way to increase your options.

In your legal career so far, your work might have focused around one particular town or area, and this is understandable if you have family ties.

But for anyone with the opportunity to do so, looking to expand your job search into areas you hadn’t previously considered is a great way to increase your job prospects.

If you are searching for a new legal role in the North West – get in touch with us today by calling 0121 259 121, click here to view our current vacancies or click here to send us an email with your legal career enquiry.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

The interview process can be a gruelling task for all parties involved. When most hiring managers think about the complexity of interviewing, they focus on the challenges facing the person being interviewed. However, those hosting the interview also have their own hurdles to overcome too.  

From avoiding unconscious bias, avoiding ageism, and making sure you sell your candidates on the idea of working with your law firm, there are several important points to keep in mind as well as remembering all the main points covered at the end of the session.  

Here are some of the top strategies to follow as a legal professional hiring manager if you’re concerned you might not be getting the most out of your interviews. 

1. Know Your Interview Options 

The first step in ensuring you can master your interviews as a hiring manager is knowing what methods you can use to best connect with potential candidates.  

Today, the traditional face-to-face interview isn’t your only option. Video interviews have increased by 67% due to the pandemic and the rise of remote working with technology advancements being key. As hybrid employment options continue to thrive and companies look for ways to streamline the interviewing process, video conversations will likely grow to be more common in many law firms throughout the upcoming years if not already popular.  

But not forgetting, there’s also the time-old classic of picking up the phone for simple phone interviews as well to simply hear the person who could potentially be working with you. 

Each type of interview has its own challenges to consider. For instance: 

• In-person interviews:
  You’ll need to think about where you’re going to host your interview, whether it’s a welcoming space, who will attend, and whether the candidate will present or just have a simple face to face conversation. 
• Video interviews:
  Consider what kind of video meeting software you’ll be using, the background you’ll have in your video, and how you can present yourself as professionally as possible over a webcam. Always test the sound and camera quality beforehand and check whether all those participating are visible on screen. 
• Phone interviews:
  Ask yourself whether you may need to record any phone interviews to go back over them later and how you can ensure you get a promising idea of what the candidate is like based on voice alone. 

2. Avoid Inappropriate Questions 

Inappropriate questions are becoming more common than you would think in legal interviews. While certain topics of conversation can feel like polite small talk at first, they often cause more problems than you’d think. For instance, asking people about what they did on the weekend can create an unconscious bias if you also have a shared hobby with them – but also at the same time, could be harmless conversation to break the ice. 

Unconscious bias could favour one candidate over another because you like certain things about their lifestyle or personality, which have nothing to do with the role or the ability to complete their tasks. 

Some other questions to avoid are: 

• Where do you live?  
• How did your childhood shape your professional life?  
• If you could choose a different career, what would you choose?  
• What is the worst trait of your previous manager? 

All the above questions could be classed as too personal, too confronting and encouraging speaking badly about others – all traits you want to avoid when interviewing someone for the first time and something you don’t need to hear to assess their capabilities for this role. 

3. Interview Styles and Formats 

There are many kinds of interviewing techniques that today’s business leaders and hiring managers can use, including competency-based or collaborative interviews, presentations, and group interactions to get a real feel for the potential candidates. 

Interviews are always best performed with two people from the hiring company, which can help avoid bias. It also gives those hiring the chance to discuss different opinions on those they are interviewing and not decide based solely from one person’s perspective and therefore giving the candidate a fair chance. 

Other methods are to consider using a first and second stage interview format before the final decision is made. In today’s environment, many first and second stage interviews can take place over Zoom or Teams so that it suits all parties involved. Carrying out interviews online also gives you more chance to interview more people, without the need for travel, time allocation and gives the candidates a better chance of being able to partake at a time that suits them and you best. 

4. Generalise Your Interview Questions 

Standardising your interview questions makes it easier to assess your candidates when you have interviewed several people for a role. It also means you’re less likely to allow unconscious biases to get in the way of your hiring decisions because you’re evaluating everyone based on the same set of guidelines, criteria, and questions. 

Create specific competency-based interview questions for the specific legal role in question, which allows you to score each potential employee based on their specific values, behaviours, and results.  

For instance, you can ask questions like; “share examples of times they’ve acted as a leader” or “shown exceptional teamwork”, and then make notes about their responses. Assigning scores to answers will also help you see who you should be shortlisting based on their answers compared to others if you are interviewing a larger number of people. 

Your interviews need to maintain a level of flexibility. It will be logical to ask follow-up questions to elicit more detail at times when needed if the candidate doesn’t elaborate themselves. 

“Tell me more about X or Y or why you decided to do B or C” are classic follow-up questions that work well to get more of an understanding of the candidates’ experiences.  

To make sure you know about a candidates’ hard skills, behavioural and soft skills there are some questions that LinkedIn Talent Solutions suggests you cover.  

• “Say you’re negotiating a contract or administrative action or settlement in which the parties are far apart in what they want. Use a past example of this to talk me through your negotiation process.” 
• “What would you do if you were asked to work on a case, contract, or business scenario that gave you ethical qualms? Has this ever happened to you—and what did you do?” 
• “Tell me about a time you had to make a tough call that required you to decide between a gut feeling and the strategic decision-making of outside counsel.” 

5. Make Notes and Follow Up 

Finally, make sure you take notes as often as possible as you progress through the interviews. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment of the conversation and then forget everything you needed to know about the candidate when you come back to review later.  

Always set aside some time at the end of each interview to gather your thoughts and catalogue what stood out to you most about the candidate (good and bad) before heading into another interview or meeting.  

Making notes can also help when you’re following up with your candidates by allowing you to provide a more contextual and relevant message and feedback, should they be successful or not. Showing you remember what you said (like any requirements for their starting dates or training they need) shows the potential candidate you’re invested in working with them and that you are attentive to what they were talking about during their time with you. 

Remember, if you’re struggling with your interviewing process, it’s often helpful to seek some help from a specialist recruitment company like ourselves that can help with a lot more than just finding you new candidates – we can also give you advice on how to interview more effectively, with tips on questions you might need to ask. 

About Clayton Legal 

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability during that time. We have made over 5,000 placements from Partners to Legal Executives, Solicitors to Paralegals and Legal I.T. personnel to Practice Managers. 

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here. 

Look the part.

Dress to impress regardless of the level of the role that you are going for. Make an effort and dress in a suit or if you don’t have one, your smartest interview clothes. (Remember 1st impressions count)

Know where you are going.

If you don’t know where you are going it never hurts to do a dry run prior to your Interview, failing this make sure that you leave plenty of time to get to your destination. It is better to arrive early and go over your research than to turn up late and flustered.

Know you target audience.

Research the company that you are going to interview for and use any additional knowledge that your consultant may have gained to improve your chances to blow them away!!

Don’t rely on the interviewer being a mind reader.

Ensure that you sell yourself to the best of your ability; the person interviewing you may have had nothing to do with short listing you and has only seen your CV 5 minutes ago, not having time to digest it. Use this opportunity to sell yourself into the job.

Smile!!! Be happy to be there.

Employers are not just looking for excellent skills but someone to fit into an existing team, smiling will help overcome your nerves and show the employer that you are a happy, enthusiastic individual that they should have on board.

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

• Why do you want to join our organisation?
• What would you do if …….. happened? (hypothetical questions)
• Describe a situation in which you dealt with confrontation (for example a difficult customer).
• Describe a situation in which you influenced or motivated people.
• What other roles have you considered/applied for?
• Describe yourself in three words.
• Describe a situation in which you used your initiative.
• Describe a situation in which you solved a problem.
• Describe a situation in which you took responsibility.
• What are your hobbies?
• What was your biggest setback? Or how do you deal with adversity?
• Describe a situation where you had to plan or organise something.
• What is your usual role in a team?
• Describe a situation where you had a difficult decision to make.

EXAMPLE ANSWERS FOR QUESTIONS

Please note Clayton Legal does not advise that these are the correct answers to the questions listed but are a guide on how they may be approached.

Why do you want this job?

One of the most predictable questions and very important! You need to demonstrate that you have researched the employer and tie your knowledge of them into the skills and interests that led you to apply. Try to find some specific features on which the employer prides themselves: Their training, their client base, their individuality, their public image, etc. This may not always be possible with very small organisations but you may be able to pick up something of this nature from the interviewer.

Describe a situation in which you lead a team.

Outline the situation, your role and the task of the group overall. Describe any problems which arose and how they were tackled. Say what the result was and what you learned from it. Try and keep the examples work related and as relevant to the role you are applying for as possible.

Describe a situation where you worked in a team

Most jobs will involve a degree of teamwork. The interviewer needs to assess how well you relate to other people, what role you take in a group and whether you are able to focus on goals and targets.
Outline the situation, your particular role and the task of the group overall. Describe any problems which arose and how they were tackled. Say what the result was and what you learned from it.

What are your weaknesses?

The classic answer here is to state a strength which is disguised as a weakness, such as “I’m too much of a perfectionist” or “I push myself too hard”. This approach has been used so often that, even if these answers really are true they sound clichéd. Also, interviewers will know this trick. If you feel they really apply to you, give examples: you could say that your attention to detail and perfectionism make you very single-minded when at work, often blotting out others in your need to get the task done.

A better strategy is to choose a weakness that you have worked on to improve and describe what action you are taking to remedy the weakness.

Don’t deny that you have any weaknesses – everyone has weaknesses and if you refuse to admit to them the interviewer will mark you down as arrogant, untruthful or lacking in self-awareness, This question may be phrased in other ways, such as “How would your worst enemy describe you?”

Who else have you applied to/got interviews with?

You are being asked to demonstrate the consistency of your career aims as well as your interest in the job for which you are being interviewed. So if you have applied to one large Law Firm it is reasonable to assume you will be applying to them all.
What you can certainly say in your favour, however, is that the present employer is your first choice. You may even answer the question by explaining you have yet to apply to any other organisations for this very reason. Perhaps your application to the other firms is imminent, depending on the stage you are at in the recruitment cycle.

Give examples that are:
• Relevant – related to the business you are presently being interviewed for
• Prestigious. They will reflect well on the firm interviewing you
• Consistent. Not from lots of different job areas or employment groups of less interest to you than the present opportunity
• Successful so far. Do not list those firms who have rejected you.

What are your strengths?

This allows you to put across your “Unique Selling Points” – three or four of your key strengths. Try to back these points up with examples of where you have had to use them.

Consider the requirements of the job and compare these with all of your own attributes – your personality, skills, abilities or experience. Where they match you should consider these to be your major strengths. The employer certainly will.

For example, team work, interpersonal skills, creative problem solving, dependability,
reliability, originality, leadership etc., could all be cited as strengths. Work out which is most important for the particular job in question and make sure you illustrate your answer with examples from as many parts of your experience, not just university, as you can.
This question may be phrased in other ways, such as “Tell me about yourself” or “How would a friend describe you?”

Have you got any questions?
At the end of the interview, it is likely that you will be given the chance to put your own questions to the interviewer.

• Keep them brief: there may be other interviewees waiting.
• Ask about the work itself, training and career development: not about holidays, pensions, and season ticket loans!
• Prepare some questions in advance: it is OK to write these down and to refer to your notes to remind yourself of what you wanted to ask.

It often happens that, during the interview, all the points that you had noted down to ask about will be covered before you get to this stage. In this situation, you can respond as follows:

Interviewer:

Well, that seems to have covered everything: is there anything you would like to ask me?

Interviewee:

Thank you! I’d made a note to ask about your appraisal system and the study arrangements for professional exams, but we went over those earlier and I really feel you’ve covered everything that I need to know at this moment.

You can also use this opportunity to tell the interviewer anything about yourself that they have not raised during the interview but which you feel is important to your application:

Don’t feel you have to wait until this point to ask questions – if the chance to ask a question seems to arise naturally in the course of the interview, take it! Remember that a traditional interview is a conversation – with a purpose.

Examples of questions you can ask the interviewer

These are just a few ideas – you should certainly not attempt to ask them all and indeed it’s best to formulate your own questions tailored to your circumstances and the job you are being interviewed for! Make sure you have researched the employer carefully, so that you are not asking for information which you should be expected to know already.
• I see it is possible to switch job functions – how often does this happen?
• Do you send your managers on external training courses?
• Where would I be based – is this job function located only in …?
• What is a typical career path in this job function?
• Can you give me more details of your training programme?
• Will I be working in a team? If so, what is the make-up of these teams?
• What are the possibilities of using my languages?
• What are the travel/mobility requirements of this job?
• How would you see this company developing over the next five years?
• How would you describe the atmosphere in this company?
• What is your personal experience of working for this organisation?

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from Partners to Legal Executives, Solicitors to Paralegals and Legal IT personnel to Practice Managers.

Whether you are building your legal team or are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

At the start of a new year, many of us review where we are in both our personal and professional lives. For those of us working in the legal sector, it’s no different.

The specific details of the legal path you want to take might differ slightly. However, the five fundamentals we are sharing today form part of any successful career planning process, as we have observed placing more than 5000 legal professions over the last twenty-two years.

First, let’s put some context around the impact of the new ‘norm’ when it comes to creating your plan.

The New Norm

As we navigate our way out of the pandemic and multiple new variants, it is fair to say that the new normal hasn’t impacted the legal sector as much as others, except for improved technology, communication channels and virtual recruitment.

We noticed here at Clayton Legal that the phone continued to ring after the initial few weeks of the first lockdown as clients asked us to help fill their roles. This continued throughout 2021, accelerating at pace as the year went on. 2022, so far, shows so sign of this appetite to hire slowing down.

Hybrid, home, and remote working are still major debates across firms as they consider the permanency of such working arrangements.

As predicted by the Microsoft Workplace Trends report, many candidates we speak to are keen to have some flexibility around working in the office or at home. Consequently, we are seeing more firms willing to consider hybrid working moving forward.

The critical piece of the conversation is that skilled legal candidates are in short supply. This results in employers counter offering employees to stay with them rather than moving to a new law firm. Some legal candidates continue to have multiple offers on the table.

In summary, if you are a skilled candidate looking to move, this is your time.

What an opportunity, though let’s have a sense check here. Jumping into a new role with an improved package and a hybrid working opportunity is OK, provided it is part of your long-term plan.
Therefore, consider this as you plan your career. Moving and building your career takes time, depending on the level you want to achieve.

So, what should you be considering in your overall plan?

Decide What You Want

Goal setting and tweaking can happen at any time of the year. As Professor Maxwell Maltz shared in his New York Times bestseller, human beings are success-seeking creatures, and therefore we want to achieve success.

Without goals to inspire and drive you, it’s impossible to know if you’re moving in the right direction. In simple terms, if you don’t know the destination, then you can’t plan the journey.

Deciding what you want allows you to take control of your professional life.

Simply saying that you want something isn’t enough. Goal setting is a strategic process that considers what you want to achieve through a series of milestones and action steps and ends with hard work and dedication.

Therefore, setting a goal and then moving towards it is a logical process we would all be advised to tap into.

Most legal professionals want:

• • To work in an area of law that they enjoy and find interesting

To receive sufficient income for their work to enable them to live comfortably

• To be considered as being professional and knowledgeable
• To achieve a work/life balance that allows them to enjoy a life away from their work

No matter your opinion about setting goals, you will find yourself meandering around with no real sense of purpose unless you are clear on what you want.

Choosing stretch goals means finding the right balance between targets you can realistically achieve and aims that challenge you.

However, don’t set goals that are too easy, either. It’s essential to challenge yourself, as that way, you can reap the rewards of feeling accomplished and driven. Find goals that help you raise the bar on your work and performance.

Always have both short- and long-term goals in mind.

Let’s take an extreme example. If you are a trainee solicitor who wants to become a barrister, you will have to move, study, and gain experience over several years to achieve what you want. This will therefore inform the steps you need to cover in your plan.

Remember, the legal field has many options for you to consider. The more you learn about the legal space, the more you’ll discover new career opportunities and paths you can take.

A Goal Setting Framework

One of the most popular goal-setting strategies involves creating “SMART” goals. There are variations on what the “SMART” acronym stands for, but most experts agree that it requires your goals to be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Your legal career goals must be clear and defined. A vague goal like “I want to get a promotion” doesn’t provide sufficient direction. Determine what kind of promotion you want that will fit your plan and when you want to accomplish that target.

Conduct a Skills Audit and Contact A Legal Recruiter

To accomplish what you want in your legal career, you will have to up-level your skills relevant to your desired roles. Knowledge is power, and this is where talking to someone who has the ultimate position you want can be useful.

Although, remember that a lot has changed during the last few years and what was once required for a role, either skills or experience, might have changed.

This is where talking to a specialist legal recruiter will help. Here at Clayton, we have over twenty years’ experience recruiting legal professionals and can guide you on the best next steps according to the specific legal career path you want to take.

With the specs for your ideal job to guide you and your CV in hand, write a list of the skills you need to work on and rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 4. A rating of 4 indicates that you’re an expert in the area, while a rating of 1 means that you have very little knowledge or skill in that area.

Once you know which elements need the most work, you can develop a list of activities that will help you close the gap.

Managing Your Mind

The first step in developing your legal career is to embrace the right mindset by managing your mind. More than ever, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of working with our mentality to handle whatever is happening globally.

It’s easy to assume that creativity, intelligence, or talent are the things that set successful people apart from the rest of the world. However, the truth is that all the most powerful people in business today reached their goals through perseverance, grit, dedication, and the right mindset.

Your ultimate goal may take a few years, and the more you can manage your mind through the process, the better.
Good Luck!

What Next?

Though many workplace sectors experienced poor growth in 2020 and into last year, the legal sector wasn’t one of them. Here at Clayton Legal, we have multiple clients looking for skilled and ambitious candidates like you. For a confidential conversation about your legal career goals and your next move, please get in contact with one of our team here.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country
since 1999 and has built up an enviable reputation for trust and
reliability during that time. We have made over 5,000 placements from
Partners to Legal Executives, Solicitors to Paralegals and Legal I.T.
personnel to Practice Managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.