In the legal profession, a fee earner is someone who earns/generates fees for the law firm they work for. A solicitor generates fees for a law firm by doing something on a client’s file. So meeting a client, preparing a document, writing a letter, attending court are all billable types of work and this makes a solicitor a fee earner. A secretary does not generally earn fees because they undertake administration on files under the instruction of a solicitor. This is the way that a lot of law firms and lawyers make money – billing clients for their time – usually in 6 minute increments. A receptionist is not a fee earner and neither is an office manager or marketing manager. A paralegal is a fee earner because they undertake tasks that a firm will bill a client for.
Quite often when recruiting we will advertise for a fee earner because a firm are not bothered about the qualification of a candidate and more interested in their experience. So if a role is for a conveyancing fee earner, the candidate could be a legal executive, paralegal, solicitor, licensed conveyancer or non-qualified/QBE conveyancer. NB: QBE stands for ‘qualified by experience’.
