Why 3 is the magic number for legal professionals

Lawyers are staying in their roles 6 months longer than they were in 2014 according to research we carried out whilst putting together our 2015 Salary and Benefits Benchmarker.

Lawyers average time in their current role is 3 years and 4 months in 2015 compared to 2 years 8 months in 2014. The number of legal professionals who had been in a job for between 1 and 2 years also increased from 28% in 2014 to 45% in 2015.

Law firms will however have to turn on the charm at 3 years when the likelihood that legal professionals will be looking at other opportunities peaks at 53%. On average 42% of the talent pool is - at any time - considering a change of jobs in the next 6 months. 31% of survey respondents in their 1st year of employment – including NQ’s – said they were likely to switch roles and 35% of lawyers who had been in their jobs for 10 years were also on the move.

Director Jonathan Nolan commented “It is interesting that lawyers are staying in their roles longer but in reality what we are experiencing are shifting talent pools that expand and contract with age and experience. Whilst legal professionals will be looking for the right balance of support and challenge in a working environment hirers may encounter difficulties if they take a one size fits all approach.”

Douglas Scott - multi award winning legal recruitment specialists - crunched through £166 million of salary survey data to produce their 2015 Salary and Benefits Benchmarker.