Routes to qualification, recruitment and retention for in-house legal teams

On 12 October we held our inaugural conference for Heads of Legal and GCs with the theme “Building Growth and Efficiency for in-house legal teams” which included expert panels sharing their views.

For our first panel Rowan Turrall, Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution at Boyes Turner was joined by Holly Moore, Lawyer at ITV, Lucie Allen, Managing Director of Barbri, Mark Levine, Managing Director of BCL Legal and Dilsha Caldera, Deputy General Counsel at the Civil Aviation Authority.

Holly was one of the first cohort of lawyers to qualify through the apprenticeship route and shares her experiences of the SQE route to qualification. She explains how the apprenticeship allowed her to access a legal career which might not otherwise have been available.

Barbri is an SQE preparation course provider and Lucie explains how the new routes to qualification have opened up the legal ecosystem, not just for those looking to qualify but also for employers. Lucie also discusses how the SQE has enabled the in-house community to discover new ways of approaching workforce strategy, and upskilling and attracting talent.

Dilsha shares the challenges that CAA has faced in recruiting and retaining talent on a limited budget and her advice to in-house teams around knowing and having your USP thread through the recruitment process.

Mark discusses the recent findings of BCL’s salary survey and the importance for employers to identify what the role or opportunity is going to give to someone who is not unhappy in their current role. Mark also shares his thoughts around recruitment budgets and the impact of competition from law firms who often offer more flexibility in terms of hybrid working than in-house roles.

We asked the audience whether the introduction of the SQE had made them think differently about how they may recruit junior talent. The answer was overwhelmingly “Yes”.