ARTICLE
Penny Heighway
Surrey Junior Law Division discusses the impact of COVID-19 on legal recruitment with Chadwick Nott’s Penny Heighway Surrey JLD: How has the Coronavirus pandemic affected legal recruitment? Penny: I think Chadwick Nott have remained busier than some other consultancies as we cover the whole country and specialise in locum and in-house work as well as traditional private practice permanent legal recruitment. However we have still seen a marked reduction in active roles where firms are looking to recruit and are willing to go through the whole process remotely. But we are now seeing more and more firms happy to progress with their recruitment in this way which is good news. Surrey JLD: How is the job market looking? Penny: Pre COVID, I was dealing with a situation where there were lots of jobs and not enough candidates, but this has now turned on its head. Over a very short time we saw a large reduction in the number of firms seriously looking to recruit and who were only proceeding with business critical roles. We are predicting a quieter than usual summer particularly for NQ roles, although we are hopeful that things will pick up in September, provided we continue as currently with lockdown easing. I must say, with many on furlough I am appreciating the opportunity to be able to speak to candidates more freely, rather than taking quick calls over a lunchbreak or after work! All of our teams are still working and the consultants in them are busy.
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Surrey JLD: Are there a larger number of candidates as a result of redundancies from COVID-19 or have people been seeking new opportunities? Penny: There seems to be a real mix of different situations. There are trainees, soon to be NQs, who are worried about having a job on qualification, more senior lawyers who are concerned about redundancies when they return to work from furlough leave and also those who have recently joined new firms and are worried they will be ‘last in, first out’. I have spoken with a lot of people who are not out of work yet but who are keen to get an idea of what the market is like “just in case”. There are also some unfortunately who have been made redundant. Surrey JLD: What areas are doing well? Penny: For us in the South East, the busiest areas are currently family, private client and employment. I have both candidates and roles in these areas at the moment. Experienced lawyers in these practice areas are now seeing they are at a premium and are seeking perhaps to be better remunerated in this more favourable market for them. The corporate and commercial market is interesting. Although the work in this area appears to be quieter within law firms, I think those teams were already very lean and firms do not want to lose good people who they have found hard to recruit for in the past. They can also possibly move around within the firm (for example moving into insolvency work), so firms are doing their best to keep a hold of them.
