Dont be picky, if you want a contentious role, find a general one rather than a specialist one. Dont be afraid to relocate. Seemed to be roles in my area everywhere but where i live.

if the NQ market is bad now, how will it be as more and more people aulify through the sqe route. Just moving the bottleneck from the trainee point to the nq point which is arguably more stressful for applicants as they are trying to qualify.

Go overseas, Asia, the middle east….. look outside of your jurisdiction. You won’t know until you’ve tried it and you have nothing to lose.

I qualified last year and the market was bad then. I remember people saying that it’ll course correct and be fine for in a year’s time but it looks like it’s worse this year.

To those final seaters who aren’t being retained: don’t give up hope. Be sad for a day and then kick into action and start contacting recruiters. Be broad in your scope – if you want to do energy disputes, be open to a more generalist disputes roles (you can always specialise later down the line). Alternatively, if you want to do pure project finance work, be open to a more generalist corporate role. The market will hopefully get better at some point but you need to keep an open mind and be willing to explore areas you wouldn’t have considered before.

If you are dead set on pensions or competition then that’s a tricky one as it can be harder to lateral to these later. In that case, be willing to consider Brussels for competition (there are plenty of roles going there) or an in house pensions funds role if you’re not too bothered about staying in private practice. Alternatively you could qualify into another advisory seat and look to switch in 6 months to a year’s time.

It’s rubbish out there but everyone in my cohort eventually got a job. The market WILL eventually sort itself out but how long that takes is anyone’s guess. Good luck!

If you don’t have the wit as a trainee to work this one out yourself then perhaps you don’t have the commercial savvy to succeed in practice, at least not with your present firm. As has been pointed out here several times, the market is going through a tough patch at present but the warning signs it would have been flashing for a few years at least. I don’t think it is the responsibility of the Firm to molly-coddle trainees to the extent that they have to be hand-held about the availability of positions in specialist areas. Any sensible trainee should surely have a plan-B. Professional life is very of not a bowl of cherries.

Oh no look at me I paid 5 shillings and a pack of peanuts for university fees.

I bought a house for £95k before the boom which is now worth a million.

Might I add that I made partner in 8 years PQE back when you were guaranteed to make partner simply by sticking it out for 10 years!!!

I’m with you on that one.

I’d also add that firms that have sooo many subgroups also limit their trainees when it comes to qualification.

Example 1: A trainee at X firm has done a seat in Marine Litigation which sits within the broader Litigation team. They want to qualify into the general commercial litigation team but their current firm does not have any roles going in Litigation. This trainee now looks externally for an NQ role but is turned down because their seat was too niche. In a buoyant NQ market this would not be an issue as it is the transferable skills they care about but in the current market this is not the case.

Example 2: A trainee at Y firm has done a seat in Venture Capital which sits within the broader Corporate team. There are no roles going in the VC sub team and the trainee is now unretained. They are looking for a corporate role externally but their seat was very niche and external firms are looking for NQs with experience in private equity and M&A.

The problem is there’s no guarantees these specialist NQ roles will be available a year or two from now. Firms should do better in informing trainees from the outset that there’s unlikely be in any jobs in this area, even at another firm. They shouldn’t let trainees do a seat there and get their hopes up.

Flip burgers?

It is more of a marketing gimmick as the salaries now hardly go up once you have qualified until 3 PQE

How broad is the legal market abroad for Brits nowadays and is it limited to the middle east?

tell me about it bro.

It’s even harder to get roles in corporate, funds or finance departments now.

I’m going through multiple rounds of interviews and haven’t been offered a role yet.

My mate qualified a couple years ago and said he didn’t have to go through this much hassle.

It’s hard out here man

That has cleared up the confusion for me, thank you!

It’s just an old prejudice. These days it actually makes sense to go to a low tax jurisdiction and it’s logical too. Why bother working in London when more than half your income is taken away when you can get the same money tax free and a much better quality of life in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Doha? Some will say the quality of work and professionals are second rate but even it’s true (which it isn’t) who cares? Your sole purpose as an employee is to maximise your income for the time provided, everything else like prestige is irrelevant.

I think the problem is the way people talk about it is misleading.

NQ pay should really just be called the “baseline salary” which is exactly what it is.

When you hear of these Magic Circle and US firms increasing their NQ salary what they are really increasing is their baseline salaries.

They are not doing it for the NQs, they are doing it to retain junior associates from 1-4PQE level. That is who it is currently aimed at.

I agree it can be confusing.

Hope this helps.

They over hired during Covid

It’s all about the job market in the legal sector, which is reflective of the economic state in the UK.

The UK economy has taken a hit and so have many industries who are making employees redundant. Unfortunately, the legal industry is not any different.

After covid there was a boost in hiring and many law firms needed more people, especially NQs. In 2020 the trainees of that time were able to train at smaller firms and move to Magic Circle and US firms. The last trainee cohort who were able to move laterally quite easily were the ones who qualified in 2022.

The current market is very dire and there are not many NQ roles going. Trainees are lucky if they are retained and need to hope for the best and be very onit with external applications if not. I have friends who are final seaters and they aren’t being kept on and they are struggling to find external roles at firms of the same level to their current one meaning they may have to take a huge pay cut and move to a much smaller firm or even go in house.

So many reasons. There was an absolute boom in the market in 2021 – 2022. It was easy to lateral, there were external NQ roles even in niche areas. Firms profits were soaring, so they hired.

No there is a market downturn, profit increases are more conservative, and hiring budgets are being slashed. If there isn’t a solid business case for a practice area to take on an NQ, they won’t. They also potentially overhired in those two ‘boom’ years and are trying to avoid letting people go if possible, though stealth layoffs have taken place. Ultimately, the market is now the worst it has been for some time – especially at the NQ level – for all of those reasons combined.

This is NOT the year to be taking a punt on getting your chosen, dream practice area. Take any internal role going. It is better than being unemployed on qualification.

Let’s not be obtuse now and pretend retention is not important.

Retention data is perhaps more important for BAME candidates. When you factor in those who aren’t retained and look at the demographics there is more to what meets the eye.

In a dire NQ market like this it is typically BAME trainees who are not kept on and the statistics have substantiated this time and time again.

Throwing out generalisations such as “trainees weren’t good enough” is hogwash.

There are many reasons why trainees are not retained. You may be technically the most gifted and able trainee and it might not secure you a role for things beyond your control.