Discover Exclusive Insights from the Legal Profession

In January, TotallyLegal set out to understand how the last 12 months have impacted the working lives of legal professionals. A survey was conducted with over 800 respondents, from Legal PAs and Paralegals to Solicitors and In-House Counsel, to explore and analyse a range of key issues that have affected the legal profession throughout 2020. 

Key issues covered in the report include:

• Gender representation and the pay gap

• Diversity and inclusion

• Salary insights, including breakdown by job title, practice area and location

• Redundancy and furlough 

• Working hours 

Responses to our survey revealed that the coronavirus pandemic has unsurprisingly had a major impact on the legal profession. In general, pay rises, bonuses and benefits received by respondents were most affected by the pandemic, with the number of respondents reporting a pay increase in the last 12 months decreasing by almost half compared to the previous year. Despite this, when analysing average salaries across practice areas, it was interesting to observe that those practice areas most in demand during the pandemic saw an average salary rise of up to 68% compared to the previous year. There were also significant shifts in average salary by job title compared to the previous salary survey findings.

Undeterred by the widespread challenges of living and working through a global pandemic, legal professionals have shown great resilience. Attitudes towards job security have remained optimistic, with 62% of legal professionals feeling secure in their current role - a 1% increase on the previous year. Only a small minority of legal professionals seem to have been impacted by the government’s furlough scheme or redundancy, which may be a significant contributing factor to this increase in feelings towards job security.

The TotallyLegal audience continued to show a wealth of experience and academic achievement, with 90% qualified to degree or above and 60% reporting +3 years PQE. Whilst a quarter of respondents work for medium size law firms, it wasn’t surprising to see that this year Paralegals and non-qualified professionals are pursuing careers in-house, given that our survey found that those working in-house benefit from higher average salaries than respondents working in law firms.

Download your free copy of TotallyLegal’s Audience Insight Report to discover more key insights from the legal profession.