Not quite as dramatic as “should I leave law altogether?” but still enough to prompt a fair bit of overthinking during your commute or while updating your LinkedIn “just to see what’s out there.”
The honest answer is that there’s no perfect timeline, but there are definitely some patterns, expectations and a bit of unspoken etiquette in the UK legal market that are worth understanding.
In writing this article, you may think we have a vested interest in encouraging moves. The more times a candidate leaves and joins a new firm, the more money a recruitment consultant makes, so therefore we should advise candidates to leave firms every 12 months. Actually, we prefer recruitment where in 15 years time the candidate we placed is now the recruiting partner and remembers what a nice bunch of recruiters we are to work with!
Don’t Leave Too Quickly
Let’s start with the obvious one. Leaving too quickly can raise eyebrows and damage your career. If you move after only a few months in a role, most hiring managers will wonder what went wrong. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck if the job genuinely isn’t right, but you may need a clear and sensible explanation. “It wasn’t what I expected” is fine once. Saying it three times in a row starts to look like a trend.
Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut
At the other end of the spectrum, staying too long can also work against you personally. A firm may exploit your good nature and not pay you your worth, or offer conditions much worse than you could get elsewhere. If you’ve been at the same firm for many years without progression or potential future opportunity, recruiters and firms might also start to question whether you’ve plateaued or become a bit too comfortable.
The Sweet Spot
So where is the sweet spot? We don’t think there is one. I was talking with a solicitor recently who joined a firm at 22 years old and has just retired at 55 years old, never once moving. He has been well rewarded throughout his career, has worked hard, and can now retire with a comfortable existence. Would anything be different if he had moved around? Why would he want to move around if he liked the firm and they were paying him well?
2-4 Years
For most employed solicitors in the UK, somewhere between two and four years in a role that is not leading to anything particularly good tends to be seen as acceptable, although I can think of at least one senior partner who will refuse to look at CVs with moves after this length of time (much longer stints required). 2-4 years is long enough to show commitment, build solid experience and ideally achieve some progression, but not so long that you look stuck.
That said, your level of experience matters. Newly qualified solicitors often face the most pressure here. The jump from NQ to around three years’ PQE is one of the most competitive and mobile stages of a legal career. Many solicitors move within one to two years post-qualification, often to get a pay rise. That’s generally understood in the market, so slightly shorter stints at this stage are usually forgiven by most (not all!).
As you become more senior, expectations shift. Firms will typically want to see longer tenures, more consistent progression and a clearer narrative. Moving every year or so at five or six years’ PQE can start to look less like ambition and more like restlessness or something wrong at your end. Of course, all of this assumes things are broadly going well.
If you’re in a role where the work isn’t what you were promised, progression has stalled completely, or the manic work culture is making you question your life choices, you don’t need to sit it out just to hit an imaginary timeline. A well-explained move for the right reasons is rarely held against you, provided they are not too regular. It’s also worth remembering that not all moves are created equal.
Moving for a clear step up in responsibility, better quality work, or a stronger platform will almost always make sense on your CV, even if the timing isn’t textbook. Moving sideways repeatedly without a clear reason is where things can start to look a bit muddled.
Question the Move
A good way to sense-check your position is to ask yourself a few simple questions. Are you still learning? Are you progressing in responsibility or title? Can you point to development over the last year? Are there clear future opportunities to earn more, learn more, do more? If the answer is yes, there’s usually no urgent need to move. If the answer is no, it might be time to at least explore your options.
Timing
The best time to look at the market is usually when you don’t urgently need to leave. It gives you more control, more confidence in negotiations and a better chance of finding something that’s genuinely right, rather than just different. In reality, most legal careers aren’t perfectly planned. They’re a series of decisions made based on instinct and occasionally contact from a recruiter at just the right moment!
