In the current legal recruitment market, finding quality permanent candidates is harder than ever. Yet time and again, firms are overlooking a valuable and ready-made pool of talent; locums.
We often see permanent vacancies where applicants with recent locum experience are dismissed out of hand. There seems to be a lingering assumption that anyone who’s been a locum must be unreliable, difficult, or somehow “not a team player.” In reality, that often couldn’t be further from the truth.
Our locum desk regularly places solicitors and legal executives who perform so well that the firms offer them permanent roles — and many accept. These are the same people being rejected outright on the permanent side. Quite often both sides seem to fall into the arrangement quite naturally. The whole concept of locuming tends to mean that if you are not very good at what you do its more than possible you will not get future assignments. Locums who have a CV with long term contracts on it usually demonstrate ability, longevity and reliability. Sometimes firms seem to think that long term contracts that are ended mean the locum was no good. Far from it.
In a market where good permanent candidates are scarce, firms are missing a trick. Locums can often start immediately, with no notice period, and offer a low-risk way to assess fit before committing — a “try before you buy” approach that can save time, money, and can potentially be lower risk than appointing someone on a permanent basis on the strength of one or two relatively short interviews.
Just because a solicitor is working as a locum and only takes on short term assignments doesn’t mean that they are no good as potential candidates.
Short term assignments can mean:
- The firm only needed cover for annual leave of 1 week.
- The firm obtained locum cover but then realised they didn’t need it.
- The locum may well be providing cover on a regular basis but just for short periods of time (good indication of a quality locum).
Long term assignments can mean:
- A locum started for a few weeks but got kept on to provide more cover. This is very common and is an extremely good indication of a good candidate. Locum cover is not cheap, and firms do not extend assignments without good reason.
- Cover is for a specific set of circumstances – for example one of the partners is ill, or a senior lawyer has gone off on maternity leave.
It might be time to rethink the assumption that “locum” equals “temporary.” In many cases, today’s locum is tomorrow’s long-term team member. Locum solicitors are no more of a risk than recruiting a permanent candidate, and in a lot of ways they are less.
We offer the same terms for both locum and permanent – and our recruitment terms are unique in the market with the longest rebate periods and instalment payments available. Check out our fees here.
To register permanent vacancies with us please click here. For locum assignments click here.
