The 2024 Barclay Simpson Salary & Recruitment Trends Guide: In-house Legal & Company Secretarial

Contract recruitment trends in In-house Legal and Company Secretarial

Interim staff are a valuable resource for many organisations, but budgetary concerns appear to be affecting demand for contractors, temporary workers and co-source support. 

In 2022, more than three-quarters (77%) of employers reported using contract recruitment services across their in-house legal or CoSec teams. However, just 43% said the same in 2023, indicating that firms are tightening their belts on contractor expenditure.

The average day rate for in-house legal and CoSec contractors is between £800 and £999

Hiring for specific projects has fallen considerably, with just 11% of organisations citing this as their primary reason for posting contract jobs last year – a figure that has more than halved since 2022. 

Primary reasons for using interim, contract and
co-source staff

Instead, employers are mainly relying on contractors to fill gaps in their existing workforce via absence cover (45%) and business-as-usual support for high workloads (22%). 

The impact of IR35 reforms, which were introduced in April 2021, also appears to be waning as organisations become more familiar and comfortable with the changes. 

In 2022, nearly half (48%) of employers claimed the new off-payroll working rules were affecting their ability to engage with skilled contractors and approximately one in 10 said it was a ‘significant’ factor. 

Today, only a third of organisations believe the reforms are an issue, with none reporting major concerns about IR35 when trying to hire interim in-house legal or CoSec staff.

Key trends affecting Legal and CoSec recruitment in 2024

Over the coming year, various political, economic and social factors are likely to have an impact on hiring across in-house legal and CoSec roles. 

Private practice salaries 

In 2016, premier US law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore unveiled its first starting salary increase for newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in nearly a decade. Its competitors quickly followed suit, and generous annual pay bumps for Associates have become the norm across the US and the UK ever since. 

Eight years later, starting salaries continue to climb, with Cravath still among those leading the charge. In November, shortly after rival Milbank raised its NQ salaries, Cravath announced that lawyers from the class of 2023 would now earn $225,000 a year, or a UK sterling rate of £183,409 –$10,000 more than the previous year.

Other major US law firms have since confirmed similar pay increases of their own, while Magic Circle firms also upped their NQ rates to £125,000 per annum last year. 

We first commented on the ‘Cravath Effect’, as it was then known, in our 2019 In-House Legal Salary Guide because of the impact it was already having on salary expectations and talent supply for in-house legal roles. This impact has only become more profound over time. 

Historically, lawyers were willing to accept reasonable salary reductions to move in-house. They considered this a fair compromise for a better work-life balance, more commercial expertise, greater autonomy and the opportunity to see projects through from start to finish. 

But many in-house teams are unable to keep pace with the substantial private practice salary increases we are seeing each year, and so the pay sacrifices that lawyers must make have become increasingly unpalatable. 

And despite widespread agreement among industry commentators that current levels of salary growth are unsustainable, we expect this trend to continue affecting hiring decisions in 2024. 

The rise of internal training contracts 

Because fewer lawyers are making the jump to in-house roles, a growing number of organisations are looking at ways to reduce their reliance on the private practice pipeline. 

We are therefore seeing more companies offer internal training contracts, and a corresponding increase in employers’ willingness to consider professionals who trained in-house rather than at a law firm. Not only do these candidates often have good commercial understanding, but they may also still have private practice experience through secondments. 

Offering training contracts does come with risks. For example, it takes time for organisations to see a return on their investment, and it is not uncommon for employees to accept a role elsewhere once they are fully trained. 

However, controlling outside counsel costs was cited as a high priority for 78% of in-house legal departments in 2023, so more companies may have to explore innovative ways to bolster their internal headcounts over the coming year. 

Diversity and inclusion

In-house legal and CoSec departments continue to show encouraging levels of diversity and inclusion. The legal profession is performing particularly well in terms of gender diversity, for example, with women comprising 53% of lawyers in 2023, according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. 

While there is still room for improvement across senior leadership roles, law firms are creating more opportunities for women to become partners. For instance, Linklaters and Freshfields have both introduced new global diversity targets in recent years that require women to receive at least 40% of new partner promotions. 

Initiatives such as these should have a positive knock-on effect for in-house departments that recruit from private practice.

81% of in-house legal and CoSec departments agree they have a diverse and inclusive culture

Unfortunately, while many employers are keen to improve diversity within their ranks, the lack of talent available on the market means that filling key roles is often the overriding priority when making hiring decisions. 

Post-pandemic attitudes to flexible working

In March 2020, the UK Government announced the country was entering lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Practically overnight, organisations had to co-ordinate and manage a workforce that was almost exclusively working from home. 

The vast majority of employers handled these challenges with aplomb, ensuring they not only remained operational throughout the crisis, but also safeguarded the health and wellbeing of their staff during a difficult time. 

Hybrid working models were subsequently described as the ‘new normal’. But have attitudes towards flexible working changed in the aftermath of Covid-19? 

97% of employers offer flexible working
(unchanged from last year)

Overall, most employers are still embracing a more flexible approach since the pandemic, although we are beginning to see some organisations expect a greater office presence from staff. 

In 2022, 75% of candidates said they could work at least three days a week from home, with 28% of these able to work fully remote. In this year’s In-House Legal and Company Secretarial Salary Guide, these figures dropped to 62% and 21%, respectively. The standard hybrid model in many workplaces is now a minimum of three days a week in the office. 

The number of employers who believe their Covid-19 remote working policies will remain in place over the long term also continues to fall, slipping from 93% to 87% over the last 12 months. 

Candidates, on the other hand, are keen to maintain the added flexibility they enjoyed during the pandemic. 

Seven in 10 professionals admit they would consider leaving their current role if they weren’t allowed their preferred hybrid working set-up. Roughly a fifth also ranked remote working or a better work-life balance as their main priority when seeking a new job. 

70% of candidates would consider changing jobs if their desired home / office mix is not allowed

“Greater flexibility remains a key motivator for candidates even after the pandemic,” explains Nakeela Gill, Associate Consultant at Barclay Simpson. 

“For in-house lawyers in particular, one of the main perks of switching from private practice has always been better, more predictable working hours and this hasn’t changed.” 

Employers that fail to offer adequate flexibility may struggle to find the right people in a candidate-short market. In fact, nearly a third (29%) of organisations already fear their current hybrid working policies are causing recruitment and retention problems. 

In-house teams could also face further hiring difficulties as law firms begin to offer more flexible working options of their own. For example, Slaughter and May recently announced its lawyers can work reduced hours for lower pay so that staff can have a better work-life balance 

Salary and bonus trends

In 2021 and 2022, we saw strong upward pressure on starting salaries across in-house legal and CoSec teams due to fierce demand and ongoing talent shortages. 

The market is still struggling with a scarcity of suitable candidates, but hiring intentions have been curtailed by budgetary concerns and the long shadow cast by private practice starting salaries. 

That is not to say departments feel they are well-resourced. On the contrary, our conversations with in-house legal and CoSec employers reveal many would like to expand their teams, yet the cost of doing so is currently prohibitive. 

Salary inflation has therefore been more subdued over the last 12 months, but talent scarcity has kept it above historic averages. Most of the growth that occurred was also confined to junior and mid-level roles, typically covering professionals who have between two and eight years’ PQE.

Employers intend to increase base salaries by 4% on average (down from 7% in 2023)

As was the case in our 2023 In-House Legal and Company Secretarial Salary Guide, senior roles did not experience the same rate of pay improvement, meaning the salary gap between candidates at different levels of seniority continues to close. 

“Hiring has become very expensive for in-house teams,” says Mario Pafundi, Consultant at Barclay Simpson. 

“Most departments want skilled lawyers who can come in, tackle the workloads and reduce external counsel spend. But with salaries going up and up, even relatively junior lawyers now have very high salary expectations.” 

Nevertheless, with the heat coming off the market in 2023, fewer employers have reported that salary demands are too high. Whereas more than a third (37%) said candidates’ expectations were not at all aligned with what they could offer in 2022, just 10% said the same last year. 

With regards to bonus trends, there has been little change since last year. Approximately four-fifths (81%) of professionals said they received a bonus in 2023, with the average payout amounting to 27% of a candidate’s base salary. Sector and company size play a major role in bonus payouts. Banking and larger traditional financial services typically offer around the 20% range but have very competitive wider benefits. 

Meanwhile, smaller firms and particular sectors like private funds or private equity often pay out 50-100% bonuses. These are typically accompanied by relatively basic benefits and potentially less flexibility.

Legal salaries

Company Secretarial salaries

Attract and retain the legal and CoSec professionals you need with Barclay Simpson

Barclay Simpson’s legal division specialises in providing in-house legal recruitment solutions to a wide range of organisations, be they global institutions with large legal functions, or small privately owned businesses looking to recruit their first in-house legal advisor. We work with lawyers at all levels from newly qualified to general counsels and we have built an excellent reputation within in-house markets.

Our consultants are sector specific, with some covering niche areas of financial services, whilst others recruit for some of the leading brands in commerce and industry.

We can help you create a talent attraction strategy with competitive salary offerings or help you find a role that aligns with your skills and long-term career goals, and support you from interview through to salary negotiations. Arrange a consultation today to see how Barclay Simpson can support you as you build a legal and secretarial team that’s future proof.