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I couldn't believe it, an article about my training firm! Well maybe that's taking it too far, but nothing I read in the article was news to me:
...some newly qualified lawyers are being told that they will only be taken on as paralegals, while law graduates seeking training contracts are being expected to work without pay.
I'm still relatively anonymous so I'll share.
While I was still there, a girl who had just finished her LPC was taken on for some "work experience". Not sure about anyone else, but when I did work experience, I did some research, copied documents, shadowed, and clerked at court. It would last from 3 days to 3 weeks. Training firm had Stunningalmostparalegal seeing clients on her own and gave her her own case load. And you know what? She wasn't paid for it. The arrangement was only going to last a short while, same as any usual "work experience" arrangement, but by around four months in, she is called in to see the top dog, and told that it wasn't fair that she'd been working so hard for free, and they'd pay her expenses. How generous. She never even had holidays.
Two months later, she was told that the arrangement couldn't go on as it was so for her own good, they'd have to let her go. Wonderful.
Stunningalmostparalegal was a clever girl, otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed to see clients. She gave it her all and worked hard. Luckily she is from a wealthy family, and doesn't have to worry about money otherwise there would be no way that kind of "arrangement" could continue. In effect she was used as a temp until they found another solicitor to work in the department. Yep, that's right, she was replaced by a solicitor.
Its easy to say that its just one of those things students, trainees, and NQs have to do to get ahead and there is no doubt that she had the best work experience she could have asked for. The issue here is that it is taking advantage. If there was enough work available for her to have her own case load (it was that busy), there was money being made and Stunningalmsotparalegal should have been paid.
Not all trainees and paralegals work for Linklaters, and the pay is often dire. In London the Law Society minimum is £18590pa, and outside it is £16,650 pa - there is even an option for the minimum to be waived. These trainees work just as hard as those earning triple that, and maybe harder, knowing the difficulties they will face on qualification.
The trainee I was up against for the NQ position was taken on on a trainee wage which is only just above the Law Society minimum. Was her charge out rate altered in tune with it?
No.
Should this kind of "opportunity" be seen as a right of passage? I don't think it should.
The other problem is that this "cheap" or "free" labour, makes it so much harder for us to find paid work at a reasonable wage. Why would a firm pay someone good money when they could have the work done for next to nothing?
Not sure where I'm going with this. I guess it was just to tell you all... that this shit happens.
The Law Society represents solicitors in England and Wales. From negotiating with and lobbying the profession's regulators, government and others, to offering training and advice, we're here to help, protect and promote solicitors across England and Wales.
Since becoming unemployed as an newly qualified solicitor, its been a really worrying time. Not just the whole thing about finding a job, but there are also so many things that had I been kept on would have been dealt with as a matter of course or by someone else. Important things, which could lead to all my years of sacrifice going down the pan if I forget to submit 1 form or tick a box somewhere, requiring me to jump through hoops and pay gazillions to make sure I can continue to call myself a solicitor (yes yes, I exaggerate but you get the jist).
What am I on about ? I'm talking about practising certificates, CPD points, remaining on the roll of solicitors, the kind of pro bono work I'm allowed to undertake etc... There's no one stop shop (as far as I could see) where I could get some guidance on all of these things or on things which quite probably I don't know about but need to. I made an enquiry of the SRA about some of my queries, and they passed me on to the Law Society, and I was referred to guidance on the Law Society website which was going to make it all better for me (wont mention the fact that it took around 3 weeks for my queries to be dealt with....oopsie!)
I'm reminded about all this today, as the LawGazette LinkedIn group popped up in my inbox, and lo and behold there was a blog which pricked my interest. Diary of a Redundancy is a blog formed from the collective accounts of solicitors of some number of years pqe. Until finding this, I had come to think that the Law Gazette had totally missed the problems facing their individual subscribers. Week after week its full of double, triple and even quadrouple page spreads about firms becoming more cost efficient, outsourcing, the problems firms are facing with PII, but not very much at all about those of us who have found ourselves jobless, the levels of unemployment in the industry, the problems that individual solicitors are facing and where to go for help. I can't say they ignored the fact, but considering the pages of the Gazette have been half of what it has been previously, it seemed fairly odd that something so massive was being ignored(, or maybe there is a reason why this issue is being swept under the carpet?) Well, at the bottom of part 1 of that blog, we are helpfully informed to search "Redundancy" on the Law Society website which leads the unemployed solicitor to the relevant practice note (dated 18 December 2008 no less - good that they're keeping on top of the situation).
I decided to have a good read this time, I have to decide what to do about my practising certificate as it is up for renewal on 1 November as is everybody elses. You can imagine my joy when I read
If you have not held a practising certificate for more than twelve months, you will become subject to section 12C of the Solicitor Act 1974. This means that if you wish to apply for a practising certificate, you will be required to notify the Solicitors Regulation Authority six weeks in advance of your intention.
I'm an NQ, who for the last 2 years was on the Law Society regional minimum, and with few savings to my name (which are being saved for further courses/qualifications), and now forced fork out £590 to prevent me from taking last minute offers of employment. Lucky for me, I have cost effective ways to obtain my CPD credits, but for those who have to fork out for each course they take - its not cheap.
Thanks SRA and Law Society. I didn't need that cash anyway, especially so close to Christmas. I think I feel as much love for you both right now as you feel for me *kissy*.
So interview 2 with a firm we'll call WeDoLaw LLP.
Like last time, I'm early. Like last time, I'm kept waiting. Eventually I'm met. I stand up, try to walk, and have to struggle to move my right foot as it got stuck to some chewing gum embedded in the carpet. Great.
This time, arrogant partner isn't there, but is replaced by a stunning partner who had some kind of fascination with my hands.
The usual questions were fired at me, "How do you handle stress?", "Why do you want to work here?" etc etc. They told me about the position, and I have to be honest, it sounded exciting. The department was in its youth, and I would be able to shape it and I already had ideas...the first was to build up a non LSC funded case load as currently, that was the only way they made their money and I knew they were missing out on making a reasonable wad, and also giving a their clients a service that didn't leave them high and dry on the date of their final hearing.
They liked me, but reasonable partner says, "Well obviously you tick lots of our boxes but there are some things which are still missing. Firstly, you have some skills sets we need to work on" This was a reference to me not knowing how you turned a fixed fee funded case to an exceptional case so you could charge the LSC hourly rate for the work done. "Sorry Mr Reasonable, but I don't think that is a skill set I'm missing, but rather guidance I need to read on the parameters within which LSC funding worked." All it was was some reading I needed to do.
"The other concern is that you'll have a 3 hour commute. You're going to get here and obviously not be at your best." My commute has always been around that much, plus why would they want someone who wasn't their best when they got into work? Plus there are ways to manage poor performance.
"In terms of salary, we're thinking £20k" I'd done my homework, and considering the travel, considering the long office hours (which I'm not at all afraid of), and considering they wanted me to commit to staying with them for a number of years, I said "I've read some salary surveys and they put the average in this kind of area, doing this kind of work, at £28k, but I'd be happy with £25k which I think is reasonable".
Usually reasonable partner says something about how they'd invested good salaries in NQs before, and they'd either been crap at their job, or been good and left after a year. And they wanted me to stay for more than a year on £20k? I didn't get it.
"Plus our current 3yr pqe solicitor is on £28k"
"Sorry, Mr Reasonable, if I can expect to be on £28k at 3yr pqe, this isn't the place for me."
Reasonable partner shuffles a bit, and muffles something about the solicitor being a locum, and to make up for the low starting salary, they'll give me an extra review in 6 months (rather than an annual review). I asked about the bracket within which my salary may go up and they couldn't tell me. So I asked about the commission/bonus structure, as Rec Con told me that they had a great scheme, and again, ums and arrrs. That said it all.
I told them that although it sounded like a great opportunity and the kind of work and challenge I'd love, that without an idea of how I'd be rewarded for my hard work, I would be cheating myself by accepting. They wanted someone to stay for a number of years, and I could not commit to that without knowing how much I could expect to be earning. Plus they'd already pre-judged me. Because they'd had bad solicitors who they paid well in the past, they were not going to give me a clean slate and this offended me.
For the first time ever, I'd not sold myself short. I know that we're in the midst of an economic crisis, and maybe I should have just snapped it up, but I knew I was worth more than being pre judged or working for people who already had low expectations of me, and would happily see me work all hours for an unknown reward.
And you know what? I was more afraid of what people would say or think about me when I told them that I turned it down, than of the prospect of still being unemployed today. I still am worried, but I know that I made the right decision.
