March 9, 2012
As part of The Qualification Season – a series of blogs by CapeClarke aimed at trainee solicitors looking to qualify in September 2012 – we will give a brief overview of the market conditions affecting many of the core legal disciplines that trainee solicitors look to qualify into.
The next area of law for discussion is Commercial Contracts.
The Current Market: It is surprising to some, but the commercial contracts market is fairly steady. There have been no mass redundancy programmes, but there has also been very little growth. Teams have been continuing with their freestanding work, as well as providing support to the little transactional work their firms have been involved in. We have seen a couple of firms merge their commercial and IP departments, but with little practical effect.
Is this a good career option? Generally, a very good career option for the steady nature of the work and market, as outlined above. It is also still the favoured specialism of companies looking to appoint an in-house lawyer to their ranks, although you are not necessarily precluded by qualifying into another area. We have also seen more in-house roles at the junior level recently.
September 2012 opportunities: We will be fortunate to see commercial contracts positions not swallowed up by internal applications. That said, there have been 1 or 2 roles each year for the last couple of years, so we will hopefully see more of the same come September.
What to do next? This is only a very brief overview of this area of law. For a more detailed discussion of the state of the legal market and your own career options, please contact either Terry Cape or Chris Clarke on 0113 2385965.
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