Your Passport for Success
Due to the glamorous nature of the clientele, a large number of newly qualified lawyers are particularly interested in moving into the entertainment/media sector. A word of warning. Competition in this sector is phenomenal and realistically lawyers without any experience during their training contract are going to find it particularly difficult to move to these practices on qualification. This is partly due simply to the supply and demand nature of these areas of law, but also that the firms with the best reputations in these areas usually fill up vacancies from among their own trainees. While there is no doubt a glamorous side to this area of law, any career move should be properly thought out and reasoned since it is not a soft option although you may get to go to the film festival in Cannes if you play your cards right!
Another area in which demand remains high is financial services/investment funds. New legislation in this area means an increase in work and consequently lawyers with financial services regulatory and/or transactional experience remain in demand.
Finally another boom area is the employment sector. The demand for quality employment advice particularly given the volatility of the work place has never been higher and a number of practices have emerged with excellent reputations in this field. At the junior end however, most firms fill any positions with their current trainees so employment positions on qualification remain scare and highly competitive. Lawyers with employee benefits and share schemes work experience will however find themselves in an area where demand significantly exceeds supply. The same is true of lawyers wishing to specialise in pensions work.
