Hourly Rates of Pay for Locum Solicitors and Legal Executives
Conveyancing rates have crept up a bit over the last four weeks, as we enter the busy period, but they are still down generally. Locums looking for £35 an hour and above will find higher levels of competition still exist with experienced conveyancers still available for around £30-32 per hour. For some firms this is almost certainly going to be the maximum level paid and this needs to be borne in mind still…
April-May 2017 Locum Rates:
Residential Conveyancing Locum Solicitors – 1-5 years PQE, £25-30 per hour (no variation for central London).
Conveyancing Locum Solicitors & ILEX – 5-35 years PQE, handling all levels of conveyancing including managing a department – £28-£35 per hour, including central London.
Commercial Property Solicitors – 1-40 years PQE – £30-45 per hour.
Wills & Probate Solicitors and Legal Executives – 3-35 years PQE – £30-45 per hour – the minimum is usually £35.
Family Solicitors – 4-40 years PQE – £24-32 per hour. Occasionally this goes up to £35 per hour for short notice or a few days cover.
Civil Litigation Solicitors and ILEX– 1-35 years PQE. £25-35 per hour. These rates cover mainstream litigation – eg county court and small claims matters.
Commercial Litigation Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – £35-50 per hour. Occasionally this is higher.
Company Commercial Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – £35-70 per hour.
Employment Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – difficult to give a range this year due to the lack of work generally in this field.
Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence – 3+ years PQE – £18-£30 per hour. Work very sporadic.
In House Legal Department Rates: 0-3 years PQE – £22-32 per hour (wide range due to variables in legal department work), 3+ years PQE – £30-75 per hour (very wide range due to the nature of in house work).
Local authority rates: get a dartboard, put a blindfold on, throw three darts and add up the total. Quite how local authority rates are calculated is beyond me, but they are one of the wonders of the recruitment world…
The rates are for self-employed locums billing firms directly on a weekly basis.
