Remuneration
Legal jobs and salaries - Marketplace analysis
Click on the information links below to see our salary survey results for legal jobs:
» Private Practice - Senior Lawyers
» Private Practice – Junior/Mid Level Lawyers
Our salary surveys have been compiled from our extensive knowledge of the Northern regional centres of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool and from our discussions with clients and candidates in these centres.
Law jobs remuneration
The information is regularly updated and we believe it to provide a good and accurate snapshot of the law jobs market from time to time. However, any salary survey can provide only general information. Market conditions in particular disciplines, and various other factors, can operate to affect the level of salary a candidate may be able to command.
If you would like a detailed assessment of your worth in the marketplace, we are always happy to discuss your particular circumstances and to advise. You should feel free to contact us for this service.
We will never provide your details or send your CV to clients without your express permission.
Legal jobs - Notes to our salary surveys
The markets we focus on are the regional centres of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool. Our salary surveys set out the ranges of salaries offered in these centres but it is our experience that the salaries that can be commanded for positions in Manchester are often slightly higher within the ranges than those for positions in Leeds and Liverpool.
Re Legal recruitment agency has based surveys on the top and medium tier commercial law practices as well as "blue chip" companies. Inevitably, these businesses encompass a variety of disciplines, some of which may command premium salaries.
The sorts of firms we have focussed on tend to operate relatively tight salary banding for those at the junior end of the market. This means that salaries for positions for newly qualified lawyers and solicitors, and for those with up to around four years' PQE, are unlikely to extend beyond the fairly narrow ranges we set out.
This is not true at the more senior end of the market. From around five years' PQE and up, salary bands tend to be much looser leaving far more room for negotiation of salaries based on the benefits a candidate can bring with him or her.
Salary negotiations filling legal vacancies
Many of the factors relevant to salary negotiations are obvious, for example:
- knowledge of a specialised area of the law;
- outstanding billing performance;
- a good client base;
- business contacts and/or good business development skills;
- the ability to manage people;
- the ability to train people; and
- the ability to recruit and attract staff.
Sometimes though, more obscure factors can be relevant, factors which you may not know or which it may not occur to you to raise. It may be that there is a shortage of good lawyers with the right experience for the positions on offer. If this is the case, not only can a good candidate for the position command a great salary but those already working in similar positions can use the market to their advantage in their salary negotiations.
Expert help from Re Legal Recruitment Consultants
When applying for legal jobs, other factors might arise out of the particular culture of a firm, or the quirk of a team leader. As expert and experienced recruiters for law jobs, we make it our business to know these things.
