For NQ Lawyers
Are you a newly qualified solicitor, looking for your first placement? We'd love to hear from you!
The period of time leading up to qualification can be incredibly exciting and stressful in equal measure. What you decide to do after qualification can set the path for your whole legal career; and there are so many factors to weigh up.
Whether qualifying in March or September, having spent two years working hard to learn and impress the partners and associates around them, most trainees will close in on qualification with very little idea of what practice area they are going to qualify into. Nor will they know whether their current firm will retain them, or how likely it is that they will manage to secure their dream role at a different law firm.
You can use the time in the run up to roles being released to get to know your search consultants and work on your CV. For September NQ roles, the market tends to get busy around May, so you want to have your CV ready to go by this time; for March NQ roles, you should aim to have your CV ready by October. All firms and in-house teams have different processes, and some will take longer than others, so you will need plenty of time to be able to run several processes at once.
How MRA Search can help you
At MRA Search, our consultants work closely with a broad range of law firms, including Magic Circle, Silver Circle, US, international, national and regional, as well as the leading mid-sized, West End, niche and boutique firms.
With one of the largest associate search teams in London, and the only one with dedicated, separate teams working with UK and US law firms, we offer candidates access to established relationships that they will not find elsewhere. In addition, we have a dedicated in-house search team, placing lawyers into leading brands in commerce and industry, banking and financial services. Our teams have built up relationships over many decades and understand exactly what clients are looking for. All of this allow us to really match you to the right roles.
We also have a large international search team working with clients across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America and in numerous offshore jurisdictions. This allows us to offer you an international element to your search beyond qualification.
If you are coming to the end of your final seat and would like to explore your options, share your CV with us and one of our consultants will get back to you.
The benefits of using a search consultant as an NQ lawyer
- Working with a search consultant allows you speedier access to job opportunities across the market.
- Our Search Consultants will take the time to understand your motivations, likes and dislikes, and will challenge these by potentially presenting opportunities that you might not have previously considered. They will be able to advise you on your career as a whole and help you consider your mid to long term goals.
- Often recruiters will be working on roles which are never advertised and/or with a wide PQE range. Clients are often looking for a broad range of skills and it might be that they will consider an NQ, even if they do not specifically advertise this. These are roles you would rarely be able to find out about if you were conducting your search on your own.
- Search consultants work with clients and inhouse legal teams across the spectrum and build up strong relationships with clients. This means they understand the type of lawyers their clients want to hire into their teams, and clients in turn trust the opinion of their preferred recruiters.
- As a candidate, you can be assured your consultant will be backing you all the way and will help sell your experience to the client.
- Working with a search specialist can help you with the logistics of running multiple processes at once. Trying to arrange interviews around each other can be tricky if you are dealing directly with businesses, but your search consultant will help navigate this, making your diary easier to manage.
Career insights
