Locum Solicitor Rates of Hourly Pay 2016

Hourly Rates of Pay for Locum Solicitors and Legal Executives 2016

Locum hourly rate payment varies widely according to the demand, length of assignment, level of experience and advance notice available. NB: These rates are intended as a guide only. Hourly rates can vary according to the location, duration and level of expertise.

Rates have been slowly but steadily increasing since 2011.

2016 Private Practice Law Firm Locum Rates:

• Residential Conveyancing Locum Solicitors – 1-5 years PQE, £27-33 per hour (variation for central London – £29-35 per hour).
• Conveyancing Locum Solicitors & ILEX – 5-35 years PQE, handling all levels of conveyancing including managing a department – £27-£40 per hour, including central London.
• Commercial Property Solicitors – 1-40 years PQE – £32-50 per hour.
• Wills & Probate Solicitors and Legal Executives – 3-35 years PQE – £30-45 per hour – usually the minimum is £35.
• Family Solicitors – 4-40 years PQE – £24-28 per hour. Occasionally this goes up to £35 per hour for short notice or a few days cover.
• Civil Litigation Solicitors and ILEX– 1-35 years PQE. £25-35 per hour. These rates cover mainstream litigation – eg county court and small claims matters.
• Commercial Litigation Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – £35-50 per hour. Occasionally this is higher.
• Company Commercial Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – £35-70 per hour.
• Employment Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – difficult to give a range this year due to the lack of work generally in this field.
• Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence – 3+ years PQE – £18-£30 per hour. Work very sporadic.

2016 In House Legal Department Rates:

• 0-3 years PQE – £25-32 per hour
• 3+ years PQE – £30-75 per hour (very wide range due to the nature of in house work and companies concerned..).

We have included the main areas of work covered by Interim Lawyers, although we have locums in other fields of law as well – eg Construction, Crime, Local Authority, Immigration, Corporate Finance, M&A, Projects, Shipping Law etc..

Local authority rates are not included above. We find that if local authorities come to us it is because they have not been able to recruit via the outsourced recruitment processor they are contracted with (known as RPOs). It also means that as a result they have already contacted most of the locums in the UK who do local authority work via their contracted agencies but decided they are too expensive and want to try alternatives. Naturally this tends to be virtually impossible because all the locums qualified to do the role are already aware of it! We look forward to the day when local authorities come back onto the market individually and start to pay reasonable rates again..

Hourly Rate, Weekly Rate and Salary Equivalents:
£20 per hour = £750 per week or £36,000 per annum (assuming a 7.5 hour day and a 48 week year).
£25 per hour = £937.50 per week or £45,000 per annum.
£30 per hour = £1,125 per week or £54,000 per annum.