In encouraging news for law students hit by the uncertainties of the recent years of their studies, Glasgow-based firm Complete Clarity Solicitors and Simplicity Legal are announcing that they are embarking on an ambitious trainee recruitment drive.
The firm, which has made it a central plank of its policy that colleague wellbeing is a primary component of commercial and professional success, is looking for a number of trainees in advance of the Strathclyde Law Fair next month (Oct 30).
Complete Clarity Solicitors and Simplicity Legal have not put a target on the number of new hires it expects to make but is stressing that candidate fit with its non-traditional and counter-intuitive approach to recruitment will carry significant weight in the process.
Emma King, Director, said: “Covid and its ongoing ramifications have had a lasting effect on legal training and have placed unprecedented hurdles in the way of the cohort of students which is coming through now.
“In announcing our intention to once again grow the firm’s staff complement, we are sending out a message that there is a place for ambitious, talented people who are ready to join us and take advantage of our different way of doing things.
“We are looking for people who can see things from a different perspective, who are fast, sharp and mentally agile and who know their training with us will be comprehensive and that they will be working with like-minded colleagues.”
With her Co-Director Billy Smith, who started the firm 13 years ago, they have built the business from a small Glasgow law firm into a force to be reckoned with in commercial and family law, employing 30 people including a substantial and effective back-up team.
It recognises that training completely changed over recent years with face-to-face meetings and interactions being replaced by video meetings and working from home becoming normal practice. Court training was also significantly affected.
The firm has a painstaking recruitment process in the course of which, among other rigorous assessments, young applicants are asked three questions and given 60 seconds to construct cogent answers in front of their peers.
The age profile of the firm is unusually young, with many staff in their late twenties. Complete Clarity Solicitors and Simplicity Legal are firm believers in promotion from within, and there is a smaller than normal preponderance of people who have come through what has been perceived to be the traditional route to a law career via private schooling or a family background in law.
The firm has specialised in hiring diploma students and bringing them on to be legal assistants, then trainees before fully qualifying as solicitors. Smith believes that by the time they qualify, they are as competent as lawyers who have been effectively practising- and having real hands on supported experience in the field- for three to five years.
The firm now offers services including family law, litigation, guardianship, executries, conveyancing, employment law and commercial litigation. A recent surge in fee income pushed revenues from £1.1 million last year to £1.5 million by May this year and Smith has a target of £2.5 million by 2025.