Ian Roberts

Clinical negligence is an extremely popular field for junior solicitors, largely because it is technically challenging and emotionally rewarding. Is it for you?

Clinical negligence is big business for lawyers. The NHS paid out more than £1.08bn in damages in 2016/2017, a rise of 14% compared to the previous year despite a fall in the number of claims. But this is a drop in the ocean compared to the £56bn the NHS has set aside to cover future damages and legal costsaccording to a report by the National Audit Office. It is no surprise then that clinical (or medical) negligence is one of the most competitive areas of law for junior lawyers.

What can you expect as a clinical negligence solicitor and what skills do you need in order to thrive?

Clinical negligence is a sub-set of personal injury law and as such you can expect to deal with similar challenges. Chief among these will be the demands of adhering to the Civil Procedure rules and strict court timetables. Like all litigation, the job is heavy on paperwork and you will need to be organised in order to keep track of witness statements and experts’ reports.

Strong people skills are important as you will be dealing with a broad range of people.

These might include medical professionals, health sector managers and representatives from insurers. Most importantly, if you are on the claimant side, you are likely to be dealing with distressed clients and relatives. This might be extremely upsetting on occasions. You will need the ability to empathise and gain their trust but at the same time be tough and dispassionate enough to give good legal advice. It can be a difficult balancing act.

If you are dealing with a large caseload of smaller claims, you will be expected to juggle any number of cases at one time. If you are mainly acting on larger cases, you will have fewer clients, but the demands will be no less. If anything, the pressure is likely to be greater as big claims can run into the millions of pounds. You may feel as if you have the responsibility of someone’s entire future in your hands.

So far, so legal

What sets clinical negligence apart is the medical side of the work. It is, therefore, vital that you have an interest in medicine and the healthcare system. Many claims are extremely technical and as a result some firms prefer their staff to have science and maths backgrounds, especially biology. A masters in healthcare law would be a real advantage. The job certainly won’t suit you if you are squeamish as you will be required to have an in-depth understanding of complex medical conditions and procedures.

As there are so many different medical conditions, the potential variety of cases you can become involved with is huge. As a result, it is not unusual for clinical negligence lawyers to specialise in specific areas, maternity, for example, which represented half of all claims in 2016/2017.

Lawyers who work in the field tend to become devoted to their work.

One of the factors that draws people to it is the fact that you can make a real difference to people’s lives. You feel as if you are helping people and contributing to society in a way you never could in a commercial-based sector. In this respect, it is much more of a vocation than other areas of law.

At the moment, clinical negligence claims are on the rise and it might appear to be a good time to specialise in it. Beware though, as there is disquiet in the NHS and the government about the cost of medical negligence to the NHS. This may impact on the future of the sector from a legal standpoint. Although not all medical negligence cases are related to the NHS, the vast majority are.

In an attempt to improve the quality of advice it receives, NHS Resolution (formerly the NHS Litigation Authority) has recently reduced the number of firms on its panel. It has also imposed stringent rules on firms that are on it. In addition, there is a proposal by the Department of Health to fix recoverable costs on clinical negligence claims up to £250,000. Although this has been criticised by both the Law Society and the Bar Council, changes to the sector in the near future cannot be ruled out.

All in all, clinical negligence is a challenging but rewarding area of law, and one that for the right person can offer a highly fulfilling career.

Are you looking to be matched with law firms that are recruiting clinical negligence lawyers? If so, why not create an anonymous candidate profile on NQSolicitors.com?

The UK property market is one of the most dynamic in the world, with London in particular attracting investment from all over the world. As a result, it’s an exciting place to be a property lawyer. If you think this is the area of law for you, here’s what you need to know

It is fair to say that for a long-time property law had a somewhat staid, dusty reputation. It was seen to lack the dynamism of corporate work or the cut and thrust of litigation.

Nor was it niche enough to get book-wormishly obsessive over in the way people do about IP, tax or employment law. In short, it was thought of as long on documentation and procedure, and short on interesting legal challenges you could get your teeth into.

If any area of law needed a facelift, it was property. And that is exactly what it got. Whether it was a US import or some bright idea from a marketing guru, somewhere in the nineties or noughties, ‘property’ law became ‘real estate’ law. In an instant, it sounded bigger, sexier and infinitely more interesting. Suddenly, trainees at top firms could hold their heads up high and proudly announce that their future lay in real estate law.

Now, nearly all the top firms refer to real estate rather than property. So, was this an example of putting lipstick on a pig or did real estate law really get exciting?

Let’s start by looking at the raw data

In our article Understanding candidate preferences is key for law firms seeking the best NQs, we looked at the most popular preferred practice areas chosen by final seat trainees and junior lawyers when creating a candidate profile on our platform. Real estate law (in this context commercial property, as opposed to residential property) was preferred by just 10% of candidates. This lagged some way behind commercial litigation (26.4%), corporate (25.5%) and employment (22.9%).

It seems that despite its rebrand, real estate law is still struggling to cast off its slightly dreary reputation. But is this fair? Are NQs missing out on a potentially rewarding work?

We think so. The real estate lawyers we speak to enjoy the sector, praise it for several reasons.

For one thing, you are dealing with a tangible asset. You can visit a development site when it is a bare piece of land or empty building and watch it evolve into a shopping centre, care home or hotel, for example. Plus, what a lot of people overlook is that many property deals are huge, often involving hundreds of millions of pounds.

Then there is the variety of work on offer. You might be involved in the development of an office block and all the complex planning and financing issues this entails. Or, on the transactional side, you’ll be buying and selling buildings, drafting and negotiating contracts, acting for landlords and tenants, and dealing with mortgage and finance work.

Most property work involves close interaction with your clients and their other advisers, such as chartered surveyors, so there is also plenty of client contact on a daily basis.

Much of the work also has real-world relevance. Acting for the client on a new factory or warehouse will involve business-led decisions and the need to meet critical deadlines.

Real estate lawyers therefore need a wide range of skills. You’ll have to be organised so that you can run complicated projects with multiple strands. You‘ll also need to develop a thorough understanding of the property market so that you know what is important for your clients. And, you must be flexible enough to turn your hand to different types of work be it investment, development, landlord and tenant, or financing.

Beware though

The real estate market is cyclical and the global economic downturn that began in 2008 led to a large oversupply of real estate lawyers. Since then the market has been on an upward curve with vast amounts of overseas money flooding into the UK market, London in particular.

As a result, real estate lawyers have been in demand not just at the large City firms but at medium-sized and smaller firms too. That’s one way in which the real estate sector differs to other practice areas. Many firms outside the top 50 have outstanding real estate practices and you can end up doing excellent work disproportionate to the size of the firm.

Are you looking to be matched with law firms that are recruiting real estate lawyers? If so, why not create an anonymous candidate profile on NQSolicitors.com?

The battle for the best trainees is relentless. Firms spend a small fortune touring around Oxbridge and the Russell Group universities trying to woo the best graduates. They talk about what a supportive firm they are and how they will provide them with the training and guidance they need to become skilled, rounded lawyers. The message is clear: there’s no question that you’ll want to stay with us upon qualification and we’ll want to keep you.

For many trainee solicitors, this is exactly what happens, and they can look forward to progressing through the ranks as they transition from trainee to NQ solicitor.

Inevitably though, some aren’t kept on. At the end of their training period, they are not offered a position at their firm and need to look elsewhere to take the next step in their career. This may not always be a reflection on the NQs themselves. When you consider the fact that many firms take on several dozen or more trainees, plus the changes that may have taken place in the years between first offering training contracts and qualification – at the firm, in certain legal sectors and the wider economy, for example – this is hardly surprising. While it is noble for firms to try for a perfect retention score, it isn’t always realistic.

When the legal press announces the retention scores each spring and autumn, it is hard not to wonder what happens next to those NQs who are looking for a new role. As recruiters, we’ve always been curious about what law firms do to help those NQs who are, for whatever reason, moving upon qualification. What support and advice have they received to find a new position, either within the law or outside it?

As a result, we carried out a survey of final seat trainees and newly qualified solicitors on our online recruitment platform, NQSolicitors.com. The results make interesting reading for us and not such happy reading for law firms keen to press their credentials to prospective trainees.

Below is a summary of the headline results

The full results are available here.

• Only 30% of trainees have/had a back-up plan if they don’t secure an NQ role at their training firm, with 46% having one ‘to some degree’ and 24% having no plan at all.

• More than half (53%) said their firm offered no support at all to trainees who didn’t secure an NQ position. This is an alarming statistic and shows that many firms are discarding these trainees without any help. Some firms did offer support, and this is contrasted with the assistance these trainees would have liked to have received, as follows:

• 72% of trainees felt that their firm should have provided at least some of this support to NQs who were not retained, compared to 28% who thought it didn’t need to. This indicates that the vast majority of trainees feel firms are letting down trainees who aren’t kept on.

• Interestingly though, only 30% said the availability of this type of support would have made a difference when deciding which firm to train at. This may show prospective trainees’ confidence (in some cases misplaced) when applying for jobs (i.e. that they were sure they’d be kept on).

• When asked how much they wanted to remain with their training firm upon qualification, 21% were unequivocal in saying that they did, 43% said ‘highly’, 17% said they did to a degree, with only 8% saying they were unsure and 11% ‘not at all’. This is a big thumbs-up for firms, with the vast majority indicating a desire or willingness to stay on at their training firm.

• However, only 15% were absolutely confident they would be kept on in their preferred practice area, 39% were highly confident, 22% confident to a degree, 19% unsure and 6% not confident at all.

• When asked what was more important, staying with their training firm or qualifying into their preferred practice area, only 5% said staying at the firm trumped their preferred practice area. 73% percent placed more importance on their practice area and 22% gave them equal priority.

Our conclusion is that firms should be doing more to help trainees who aren’t retained on qualification.

We question, though, whether there is an even bigger issue at play here. As we said, firms pride themselves on the rounded lawyers their training produces. But surely many of the skills trainees claim to want help with are ones they should have acquired as part of their training programme? If their training was really as rounded as firms claim, surely NQs would have the confidence and know-how they need to land their next role.

Soft skills such as making a good impression at an interview, the ability to network (online in the case of LinkedIn) are surely ones they should have already acquired. Are some firms letting down all their trainees by not giving quite the rounded training they claim?

We’re keen to hear your views on this topic. Whether you’ve undertaken a training contract or have been responsible for ensuring the welfare of trainee solicitors, please do leave a comment.