Salary and work/life balance top priority list for future lawyers, LCN user survey finds
updated on 05 June 2024
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Salary (49.55%) and work/life balance (48.65%) were rated as the most important factors that candidates are looking for in their future legal employer in LawCareers.Net’s user survey. Meanwhile, more than 40% of LawCareers.Net users rated securing a training contract/qualifying work experience or a pupillage as their biggest concern for entering the legal profession.
Each year LawCareers.Net conducts a user survey to gather feedback on the tools available to those seeking a career in law and to assess the mood of those entering the profession. This year, 237 people took part in the survey.
When asked about their top three priorities when looking for a future employer, practice areas (43.69%), type of work (43.24%), clear career progression and training opportunities (38.29%), culture and values (33.78%), location (33.33%), and diversity and inclusion initiatives (32.43%) all rated highly – but ranked below salary and work/life balance.
Opportunities to work abroad or secondments and hybrid working models sat towards the bottom end of the results with 18.47% and 13.06% selecting them as an important factor.
Meanwhile, passing the postgraduate courses required to qualify as a solicitor or barrister (18.47%) and the specifics of training, including workload, responsibility and choosing seats (7.21%) were the second and third biggest concerns for those entering the legal profession. Other concerns that saw some traction included choosing a route (eg, university versus apprenticeship), qualifying, working hours and AI.
Earlier this week, LawCareers.Net reported that the survey also found that nearly 90% of LCN’s users rated the site ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’.
Look out for more information and analysis of these results in our upcoming Feature which will be published over the summer
