As part of “The Qualification Season” – a series of blogs by CapeClarke aimed at trainee solicitors looking to qualify in September 2015 – we will give a brief overview of the market conditions affecting many of the core legal disciplines that trainee solicitors look to qualify into.
The next area of law for discussion is Commercial Contracts.
The Current Market: It is surprising to some, but the commercial contracts market has been fairly steady for a number of years. There were no mass redundancy programmes, but there was also very little growth. Teams had been continuing with their freestanding work, as well as providing support to the little transactional work their firms had been involved in. The past couple of years, however, has seen a sharp increase in commercial, and particularly IT, work and the larger firms have been recruiting very heavily. Mid-tier and smaller firms often combine commercial contracts with company commercial work – they have been relatively steady over time and, whilst opportunities are fewer and further between, they are safe and steady roles.
Is this a good career option? Generally, a very good career option for the steady nature of the work and market, as outlined above. It is also still the favoured specialism of companies looking to appoint an in-house lawyer to their ranks, although you are not necessarily precluded by qualifying into another area. We have also seen more in-house roles at the junior level recently.
September 2015 opportunities: Even though a lot of commercial contracts positions will be swallowed up by internal applications, it looks like there could be a lot of NQ positions making it on to the market, such is the need to expand teams to cater for the enhanced client work.
If you would like to discuss this blog, have been thinking about a move or would just like some general advice about options in the market, please feel free to contact Terry Cape or Chris Clarke on 0113 2385965.
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