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So, it is nearly the end of the first month of 2010, and what a start it has been. The general theme seems to be that things are busy. Whether it be corporate or litigation, IP or regulatory, work is coming in and coming in fast. Although there may be quite a few out there looking for work, that doesn’t mean that the work stops for those employed.

As a law student, solicitor, or a person with an interest in the law, you will no doubt be aware that the profession is going through a period of change. What was once a prosperous and almost exponentially growing profession has been readily stifled by the economic climate. 2009 saw waves of training contract deferrals soon followed by dire retention rates for trainees. Yes – other professions have suffered too and things are expected to improve. However, in the midst of economic uncertainty the path to becoming a lawyer has been somewhat destabilised.

Ok, so you may have thought that a change of profession was firmly on the cards for me. Well, not quite. I had weighed up the fact that I would potentially be taking a 60% pay cut by moving away from law but there was always another path niggling in the back of my mind: moving in-house. It was something I had always considered even when applying for a training contract. I had undertaken a vacation placement with the Government Legal Service and work experience in-house. The conclusion I had come to was that I needed to start my career in private practice in order to get a good grounding. Would 2 years be enough?

It had been 4 years since my last interview, let alone assessment centre. It had been 3 years since I’d left university (that’s the length of an entire degree!). I would be competing with a room full of recent fresh-faced graduates. The good ones would have exploited every inch of their university careers services. Those with contacts in the industry would have been swatting up on stories. For someone who is more than comfortable dishing out advice to those entering the legal profession, the tables had definitely turned. It was now up to me to put my money where my mouth is.

A senior solicitor once said to me that the good thing about being a lawyer is that the world will always need lawyers. At some point, you will be headhunted. At some point you will be able to make demands as to what salary you want to earn and what you want the firm to offer you. Unfortunately, what he failed to mention was that as a newly qualified (NQ) solicitor in this market, the chances of anyone presenting you with a job, let alone “headhunting” you were as likely as a cat taking a swim in a bath!

So, you may have heard the hype in the legal press about all those unemployed lawyers out there. Well, for two weeks, I was one of them. I, like many trainee solicitors, had come into the profession having studied for a law degree, completed the vacation placements, won the training contract offers and secured my future. Well, that’s what we thought. Until the “credit crunch” hit.