Your Passport for Success
Notwithstanding the global downturn, there is still a demand for top quality banking and finance solicitors at all levels, although less so at the junior level. Whether you are interested in capital markets, general banking, projects, structured or acquisition finance, if you have this experience your options remain broad. There is still a shortage of quality candidates and competition from US firms, many of whom have some of the leading finance practices in the world, has exacerbated the problem. Demand is likely to be stronger at the junior end for lawyers wishing to specialise in either acquisition finance or capital markets.
Some of the US firms will pay high salaries at the newly qualified level. You will probably be expected to work hard but, arguably, no harder than you would be expected to work at a leading UK practice.
Property
How things change in a short period of time. At the beginning of the 1990s commercial property lawyers had a bleak future. Now with the competition for space in most UK cities being intense, the demand for commercial property lawyers and in particular property finance and development lawyers remains. People were worried about a recession, however, junior property lawyers are still in demand since interest rates remain low and development activity is high. While the PFI and projects sector has slowed a little in the last few years, in the UK, there is significant project work on a global scale in these areas and law firms operating on the international scene are still looking for project lawyers particularly with a property finance skill set.
