Here are the questions we are most frequently asked by lawyers looking to develop their careers, along with the general answers we give. If you have a question which is not answered below, please call Jane Fry jf@barclaysimpson.com on 020 7936 2601.
General questions
- Do I have to stay with an employer for at least 2 years?
- Should a CV never be longer than 2 pages?
- Should I tell my existing employer that I am looking for a new position?
- How much can I increase my salary by changing job?
- Is lying on my CV a significant risk?
- Should I give up my permanent job and do contract work while I am looking for a new position?
Specific questions
- At what level of PQE should I consider moving in-house?
- Will there be a good work/life balance?
- As a lawyer, will I be able to move straight into a front office role?
- Will I be able to move back to private practice after a stint in-house?
- How will my salary package differ if I move in house?
- Will I have to become a generalist or can I retain my specialisation?
- Will passing the New York Bar exam increase my career prospects?
1. Do I have to stay with an employer for at least 2 years?
There seems to be a common misapprehension that if you stay less than 2 years with an employer it will reflect badly on you in a future selection process. Arbitrary time limits should not be applied to any decision as to when to look for another position. If, after 3 months you are totally convinced you have made the wrong move and you have legitimate justification, then it is unlikely that a future employer will discriminate against you. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake. What is important is that your CV does not reflect a pattern of only staying with employers for a short period of time – you need to be able to demonstrate commitment. A pattern of frequent moves will begin to affect your credibility in the recruitment market. You can make one but not three mistakes.
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2. Should a CV never be longer than 2 pages?
People often seem to think that a CV should never be longer than 2 pages. However, a CV should be whatever length it needs to be to efficiently and effectively describe your and career to date. As a general rule a CV should not be longer than 3 pages and anyone reading your CV should be able, within 2 or 3 minutes, to have a clear idea of your background and experience. Nobody wants to read anything longer. In fact, providing a CV that is either too long or one that is too short and fails to address obvious issues, will result in a question mark about your judgement. Is this the way you write audit reports?
It is also inappropriate to include with your CV copies of certificates, staff appraisals, job specifications and references from previous employers. These only add to the amount of paper and can distract the person reading your CV. Guidance on CV preparation is available under the ‘Create a good CV’ section.
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3. Should I tell my existing employer that I am looking for a new position?
Generally, the fewer people who know you are looking for another job the better. Whilst telling your existing employer that you are looking for a new position may make it easier to take time off to attend interviews, there are a number of disadvantages.
First, you will most likely be excluded from any future career progression. For example, whilst you are looking there may be developments within your existing department that would otherwise have been advantageous to you.
Secondly, you do not know how long it is going to take to find another position. Having made your announcement it will be rather embarrassing it you have still not found a position 6 months later. The danger is that you will feel pressurised into accepting a position that you would have otherwise not considered.
Finally, you may start to feel isolated. If your manager believes that you will be leaving shortly, there is probably little incentive to keep you as an integral part of the team.
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4. How much can I increase my salary by changing job?
Most potential employers will make an offer that they believe is fair. They will almost invariably look at your existing salary and make an offer based on that. Generally, an increase will be in the order of 10 to 15% in total package terms. However, if you have a reason why your salary is particularly low or have skills and experience that are in short supply, then it is possible to get more. If a company makes an offer which you believe it is too low, you can attempt to negotiate the offer up. Before you do so, make sure your reasoning is clear. Many companies will increase an initial offer if they can see a justification. Obviously your bargaining position will be strengthened by having another offer at a higher salary. If that is the case, be careful you do not end up accepting a position that you do not really want, just because it has the highest salary.
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5. Is lying on my CV a significant risk?
There are essentially two types of lies that are contained in CV’s. First are matters of verifiable fact. Your qualifications, the periods of time you spent working for previous employers, your job titles, etc. Outside of taking up references from your previous employers, very little other formal verification is made of your CV. However, if your employer discovers that you obtained a position on the basis of a CV that contains a material misrepresentation of a verifiable matter of fact, you will almost certainly be summarily dismissed and possibly prosecuted. It is a risk and cannot be encouraged.
The second type of lie, and by far the more common, is the embellishment and exaggeration of professional experience. Such representations are intangible and therefore less risky to make. Formally you may not have been a manager. On your CV, this does not stop you describing all kinds of responsibilities and achievements that belie a rather more modest job title. As a candidate in a selection interview you may embarrass yourself or, more problematically, be offered and accept a position that is beyond your capabilities. The former is quite common, the latter quite rare.
Many companies are now relying less on assertions made on a CV than on their own objective based selection processes. These involve applicants demonstrating the skills and experiences they describe on their CV and make any misrepresentations rather more problematical.
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6. Should I give up my permanent job and do contract work while I am looking for a new position?
Unless there are some compelling circumstances that make it impossible to look for a new position or your personal circumstances are such that you can afford to take the risk, it is generally unwise to give up a permanent position. The contract market may be quite buoyant, however it is rarely possible to be entirely certain how quickly you can secure a contract position and what the rate of pay will be. Furthermore, potential permanent employers may be put off by the fact that you have resigned one position without having another to go to.
However, if you are confident of persuading a potential employer of the rationale of your decision, the advantage is that you will be able to attend interviews more easily and a new employer will not have to wait for you to complete a notice period.
Before you make such a decision you should seek advice, given your background and experience, on the availability of contract work and how long it may take to secure a permanent position.
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7. At what level of PQE should I consider moving in-house?
This is really up to you. Most people tend to make their first move in-house anywhere between 2 and 6 years’ PQE, as it is usually beneficial to have a good grounding in private practice before making the transition. However, some people successfully make the move at newly qualified level and other people wait until they make Partner. Realistically though, there is not as much demand for lawyers in-house at the very junior or very senior level.
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8. Will there be a good work/life balance?
Undoubtedly you will enjoy more predictable hours in-house compared to those you are used to in private practice. However, your working day will be much more intense, and you are likely to be flat out for most of the day, but then have the benefit of being able to get away at a reasonable hour.
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9. As a lawyer, will I be able to move straight into a front office role?
Probably not. Most lawyers craving a more commercial, frontline role move into an in-house legal role and then, after a few years, are in a better position to make the transition into the front office. Usually, you are in a better position to move into the front office once you have already built up good relationships and can leverage these. That said, there are examples of lawyers moving straight from private practice into a non-legal front office position, but these are few and far between.
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10. Will I be able to move back to private practice after a stint in-house?
This is happening more and more, but it really depends on the type of role you have been doing in-house and how long it has been since you were last in private practice. It will also depend on your specific practice area and how sought after your skill set is. However, generally in a buoyant market it will be that much easier for lawyers to make the transition back to a law firm. In the last couple of years there have been some very high profile moves back into private practice, some at Partner level. However, it is that much more difficult to make the move at Partner level, as then you would generally be required to show experience of business development and some sort of client following.
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11. How will my salary package differ if I move in-house?
Your package is likely to be made up very differently and you may well have to take some kind of drop in basic salary so it is worth preparing yourself for this. But the benefits package and bonus are likely to be considerably better, so your overall remuneration will probably be equivalent or possibly more than you are used to in private practice. It is worth bearing in mind that as an in-house lawyer you can expect a bonus and factor that into your projected annual earnings, whereas in private practice a much smaller percentage of lawyers actually get to take home a decent bonus. And if you take into account money earned per hour worked you will be considerably better off!
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12. Will I have to become a generalist or can I retain my specialisation?
That is up to you. In-house legal roles differ enormously so you should really do your homework about the type of role that you want. Usually, within a small legal team, all the lawyers have a generalist workload and need to turn their hand to a wide variety of legal disciplines, some of which will probably be completely new to you. This is usually the same for a Sole In-house Counsel position. However, larger institutions often have much bigger legal teams, made up of various specialists which sometimes operate like a mini law firm with regard to department structures, etc. Some of the big international banks have teams of over 100 lawyers. This obviously gives greater opportunity to specialise.
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13. Will passing the New York Bar exam increase my career prospects?
Realistically, probably not, unless you plan to practice in the US. Many people see the New York Bar as a less stringent way of gaining a recognised legal qualification and hence a potential route to a training contract. However, unless you also have significant New York case or deal experience it is not likely to increase your chances in the London market. In short, the New York Bar exam is tough and fairly expensive and of limited value to someone looking to practise in London.
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