18.03.08 Surviving a Recession in the Legal Profession
Surviving a recession is a little like writing a blog - you have to constantly look at your save button to ensure you dont lose any work as I have just lost this article and am now retyping it!
Top tips are:
1. Make sure you are invaluable to your firm. Even if you are last in, first out, there is no reason why you cannot contribute to the fee generation capabilities of your firm or department and make the partners think twice before making you redundant.
2. Think up new sources of work - consider every threat an opportunity - a recession is coming perhaps and some areas are going to be hit more than others. I have come across a firm today looking to change their focus from property work to contentious probate, as they have seen the possible slow down in property to be affecting their fee income rather dramatically. No-one is immune from changes in business - it can happen anywhere and to anyone. Even in established markets things can change.
3. Dont let your employers talk themselves into a recession and a round of redundancies. I come across firms all the time saying that a particular legal market is going to slow down or stop, and they need to stop working in it, but stating this without any hard evidence. The Law Society Gazette is very bad at contributing to these opinions - I have even had recruitment put on hold because of a particular headline on the front of the Gazette.
4. Look to get extra qualifications - no reason why a wills & probate solicitor cannot look towards the IFA avenues, and I have heard recently of an expectation that financial planners are going to be all the rage soon...
5. Don't panic! It may not happen, despite the US today confirming they have messed up their economy so badly one of their banks has been sold for peanuts.. Our interest rates are still very low..
Author: Jonathan Fagan MREC Cert RP LLM Solicitor (non-practising) - Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment (www.ten-percent.co.uk) - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm Jonathan Fagan is a specialist legal recruitment consultant, author of the Complete Guide to Writing a Legal CV and the Guide to Interviews for Lawyers. He has recruited for law firms across the UK and overseas in all shapes and sizes. If you have any questions that we have not covered above, please email us at cv@tenpercent.co.uk