We often get very senior solicitors and executives registering with us, and needing to make an application for work after many years in the same post and wondering what on earth they need to do.
Very often these candidates send a CV through which is about 1/2 page long and just says name, address, name of current firm, title and references to be supplied on request. Afterall solicitors require a certain amount of respect and status for all their hard graft, and why should they have to produce a long winded CV to explain who and what they are? There was recently an article in the Law Society Gazette from a older solicitor complaining that there were no opportunities out there for him and the profession had cast him aside because of his age. In actual fact, very often such candidates are cast aside because they have impossible demands, their CV is awful, there is no work generally in their field, and their geographical mobility is very limited.
There have been cases where we have sent brief CVs through and had nothing from firms, followed up by a full CV after much cajoling and suddenly interviews arranged.
Anyone who finds themselves in this position when searching for legal jobs after being a solicitor for so many years can either use a service like our careers centre, where you pay us to prepare a CV (which of course still requires significant input from you) or alternatively sit down and write a covering letter and CV to send out. It almost always pays for itself in the long run, as not only does it explain who you are, it also helps to focus your mind on making sure you present yourself well to a firm.
In a nutshell, what recruiters are looking at for such senior roles is your geographical location, your experience and outline of cases and involvement, the value of your following if any, your billing levels, your marketing and your fee generating ability.
If you bear this in mind when preparing your CV you shouldn’t go too wrong!
Author: Jonathan Fagan MIRP MAC Cert RP LLM Solicitor (non-practising) – Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment (www.ten-percent.co.uk) – save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! Jonathan Fagan is a specialist legal recruitment consultant, author of the Complete Guide to Writing a Legal CV and the Guide to Interviews for Lawyers (available at our careers shop – www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop. He has recruited for law firms across the UK and overseas in all shapes and sizes. If you have any questions that we have not covered above, please email us at cv@tenpercent.co.uk
