Moving between firms can further your career. You can leave behind frustrations with your development or team culture and apply what you've learnt in a new environment.
By understanding why law firms recruit at the PQE levels they do and where the most recruitment activity happens, however, will help you develop optimally and maximise your career opportunities.
So, when's the best time to take action?
From the lawyer's perspective
Most lawyers typically consider a move for one of the following reasons:
1. They are not being remunerated at the top of the market for the hours they are working
2. There's no clear career progression/path to partnership in their current team
3. Not getting the work they want and enough of it to have the responsibility they need to progress in line with peers
4- Their team/firm culture doesn't suit them
If any of the above gives an individual cause for concern, then it is sensible to explore the market to find out if all points can be satisfied. It doesn't matter how much experience someone has or their PQE. If one of the above is a problem, it is best to move as soon as possible.
However, suppose these points can be broadly accepted for the time being. In that case, a lawyer can be more strategic and take advantage of the recruitment market when they have the most bargaining power.
From the hiring firm's perspective
First, understand that a hiring firm will need to hire at different levels depending on where the gaps are. Typically a firm will look to hire:
- A junior associate (NQ-2PQE)
- A jnr-mid-level associate (2-4PQE)
- A mid-level associate (4-6PQE)
- A mid-senior and senior associate (6-10PQE)
Most In-Demand PQE's
The most in-demand banding is the mid-level. Generally, this is where most associate-level recruitment occurs and is the real sweet spot for hiring firms.
Why?
You are junior enough to come in and become that firm's style of lawyer - to work hard and enthusiastically and bed in appropriately for a few years before thinking about a track to seniority. However, you are also senior enough to hit the ground running.
After the mid-level, it is the 2-4PQE bracket where there is the second most recruitment activity. This is the banding in which a lawyer transitions from being a junior lawyer to a mid-level lawyer. This bracket of lawyer is popular with hiring firms because you are still junior enough to feel like you are starting your career there, to learn earnestly and to work flat out, of course. But you're also experienced enough to add immediate value and require less 'hand-holding.'
Lower Demand PQE's
At the 6PQE/ Senior Associate level, teams are typically reluctant to hire laterally for several reasons:
- It disrupts the career path of those associates below who are working hard towards this level
- A well-stacked team should have associates who can be promoted to this level
- It is more cost-effective to hire a junior lawyer who can work towards this level
The partners who lead a team strive to build an offering and team structure where senior associate hires stay at a minimum. Therefore, typically vacancies at this level tend to arise when someone has left the team and needs to be replaced, or the partners have decided that those in this position are not going to be partners and will eventually need to leave. However, despite this, there is still plenty of recruitment activity.
There are far fewer moves at the very junior level, NQ-2PQE. The obvious reason for this is that nearly all firms invest heavily in training their junior lawyers. They, therefore, have a steady flow of ambitious, hardworking lawyers at the start of their careers who have studied and worked hard to reach this point and are broadly happy to be there. As a result, there is no need to hire new talent as frequently. In addition, the mindset of a junior lawyer is to throw themselves into work and wait to think about a move, which also drives less recruitment. For junior lawyers thinking about a move, this article from The Law Society provides some sound advice.
The pertinent point to understand from the lawyer's perspective is that at 2-6PQE, you are really in demand and can use this power to make the optimum move.
You needn't worry too much about which firm is hiring and who isn't, as nearly all teams in the core practice areas will eventually look to hire over the course of the year, or maybe even multiple points in the same year, certainly whilst you are in this PQE banding.
After a period of research and consultation, you can choose those firms you would like to be considered for and take a proactive approach to wait for the opportunity to arise, safe in the knowledge that you are likely to find a role.
After 6PQE, your bargaining power begins to wane as you move through towards becoming 10PQE. You are more at the mercy of the market and the 'live' vacancies. You have less choice about which firm you may end up at, only considering those who need a strategic hire.
