If you’re a mid-level Associate who’s looking to secure a promotion to Senior Associate, you’ll need to demonstrate excellent legal skills, a strong work ethic, leadership qualities, and a strategic approach to career development. Here are some other tips to help you achieve your goal: 1. Exemplary Legal Skills: Continuously hone your legal skills and knowledge within your practice area. Demonstrate expertise in handling complex legal matters, drafting documents, providing strategic advice to clients, and achieving successful outcomes for cases or transactions. 2. Consistent Performance: Cont ..read more

The purpose of most interviews is to establish two things. First, whether you have the skills, knowledge and experience for the role. Second, to find out if you are the right fit.  What the interviewer is trying to establish is whether your values, outlook and ambitions match those of the firm and the people who work there. The question asked to determine this is usually along the lines of “What attracts you to this role?” or “Why do you want to work here?” Candidates often don’t give this question due care and attention. It’s often asked at the start of the interview, and they give a so ..read more

Competency-based questions are commonly used in interviews to assess a candidate’s specific skills, behaviours, and experiences relevant to the job. These questions often begin with phrases such as “Give an example of a time when…” or “Tell me about a situation where you…” Here’s a guide on how to answer competency-based questions effectively: 1. Understand the Competencies: Review the job description and identify the key competencies the interviewers are looking for. Common competencies include, teamwork, problem-solving, time management, communication and adaptability. 2. Do your Preparatio ..read more

With the salaries being offered to junior lawyers increasing at break-neck speed, we thought it was time to offer a snapshot of how things are evolving on a national level. Our recent analysis on ‘The Battle for Talent’ highlighted the scarcely believable rate of wage growth at the very top end of the market, and considered what was fuelling such growth, but it’s important to understand how these same factors are affecting every corner of the legal sector. Top of the Market It may be that the last you heard in news of record-setting NQ salaries, is that Milbank had upped its London NQ solicit ..read more

As the results continue to roll in, some of this year’s spring retention rates may surprise you as much as they did us. They have by no means spoiled the picture painted by early announcements, but we are witnessing a wider spread in results than anticipated; splaying a diverse canvas of this season’s retention results. Clifford Chance was the last of the Magic Circle to announce its spring retention rate, and it came in considerably lower than expected, with Legal Cheek reporting a retention score of 70% (32 out of 46). This is a marked drop from the firm’s 88% retention rate reported last s ..read more

Like the first weekend of rugby’s Six Nations Championship, the first few retention rate announcements of the year mean only one thing; spring is on the way! As the legal sector continues to move apace, law firms are thankful that NQs are—on the whole—staying put. If you read our recent blog on the battle for talent and skyrocketing salaries, you’ll know that the market for junior lawyers is hotter than ever. As if to prove our point, since we published the blog last week, Milbank have raised their NQ salary to $215,000 (c. £160,000),and Cadwalader are following suit. With the market this buo ..read more

As the largest law firms vie for the new wave of junior solicitors, the battle for talent is becoming more intense than ever before, but what is the trajectory for this ever-escalating bidding war? Where did it begin, and what does it mean for the best of the newly qualified talent now? After experiencing a difficult period of economic uncertainty that encompassed the Brexit vote and the first 12 months of Covid, the legal sector has bounced back spectacularly, and the market for junior lawyers is currently white hot. If you didn’t see it on the BBC website last week, you may be interested ..read more

Your ability to demonstrate that you have the skills and experience to succeed in a new role is the single most important aspect of performing well at interview, and it shouldn’t be affected by whether you attend the interview face-to-face or virtually. But as we all know, succeeding at interview is about much more than just skills and experience. Building rapport with your interviewers is crucial, as is demonstrating that you have the right soft skills. It would be a big mistake not to consider how the virtual environment affects these aspects of the interview process. At NQ Solicitors we’ve ..read more

NQ Solicitors’ Ian Roberts has advised thousands of applicants within the legal sector over the years and is in no doubt what factors make the difference between success and failure. In this blog, we set out Ian’s top 10 interview secrets for solicitors moving firms upon qualification. You’re about to qualify as a solicitor after years of hard slog but all that effort could be in vain unless you can secure the right role at the right firm. The good news is you’ve got an interview at a firm you’d love to work for. Here are 10 tips that will help you dazzle your interviewers and get that all imp ..read more

The Social Mobility Foundation has recently published its Employer Index Report for 2020, which ranks UK employers on the actions they are taking to access and progress talent from all backgrounds. Now in its fourth year, the Index is seen as the leading authority on employer best practice within the field of social mobility, and the Foundation commends the 75 organisations that secured places on the Index for ‘showing what’s possible with regard to increasing social mobility’. Encouragingly, law firms accounted for more than one third of the organisations on the Index, with Bryan Cave Leight ..read more