Silver Circle to Magic Circle Lateral Post-Qualification

[QuestionMan]

Very quick question and not sure who would be best to answer this. Perhaps a recruiter.

What does the legal market look like for trainees (silver circle) looking to make a lateral move to a transactional department in a magic circle firm? I am sure MC like to recruit from there own, but is there a decent market out there for SC trainees looking to make the move? On LinkedIn (from my limited research), it seems far more likely that SC move to US firms rather than MC. Not sure how true that is.

Thanks

 

[Jessica Booker]

Very quick question and not sure who would be best to answer this. Perhaps a recruiter.

What does the legal market look like for trainees (silver circle) looking to make a lateral move to a transactional department in a magic circle firm? I am sure MC like to recruit from there own, but is there a decent market out there for SC trainees looking to make the move? On LinkedIn (from my limited research), it seems far more likely that SC move to US firms rather than MC. Not sure how true that is.

Thanks

I would expect most MC firms will be be focused on offering their own trainees transactional NQ roles.

There will be sporadic demand if a department has a poor application/acceptance rate, but to be frank what firms tend to do in this situation is either take on more trainees on rotation as an interim measure, or recruit someone with more PQE if they feel they need someone slightly stronger.

It’s not impossible to move at a NQ level, but I suspect it is someone that isn’t going to be easy given the limited number of opportunities. I therefore wouldn’t say it is “decent” when you qualify, but might be better 1-3 years PQE instead.