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GAZETTE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1979
SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS SECTION
WORKING CONDITIONS OF NEWLY QUALIFIED SOLICITORS
This is an extremely sensitive subject for a member of
our Profession to write about because you can never hope
to make friends among your own profession by criticising
them. However, this memo is being prepared in order to
assist a newly qualified Solicitor in his search for a job
and not specifically as a criticism of our profession. It is
hoped that some of the ideas set out in this memo will be
of assistance to both the Employers and the potential
employees resulting in improved conditions for young
Solicitors.
Yo may ask what is wrong with the conditions of newly
qualified Solicitors? We would like to answer this
question by way of an illustration.
The story which follows is that of Mr. S. O. Licitor but
it could be that of anyone.
"The first thing S.O: did after hearing that he had
passed his third law exam was to purchase the Irish Times
and Inish Independent. As you would expect, he
examined the legal Section of the appointments page for
jobs and saw some possibilities. That evening he prepared
his letter of application and curriculum Vitae. Having no
prior experience of these things S.O. did not prepare his
application properly; it was not typed and it put emphasis
on the wrong things. He sent the application to Messrs.
Box No. Z 2002 & Co.
While waiting for replies to his applications he dreamt
about the great career he was about to commence and the
terific salary he would earn. He was not worried by the
fact that he had no previous legal experience; after all he
had a good law degree and had passed all his Solicitors
exams.
So he waited and waited and waited ...
He applied for more jobs but before doing so took the
advice of his father and had his sister type his application
and C.V. He also made photocopies to save typing new
C.V.'s every time he made a fresh application.
At last there was some joy, he received a reply to one
of his many applications. But the joy was short lived
because the letter stated:
"Dear Ms. S.O.
Many thanks for your letter of the 2nd ulto. I
regret to inform you that the position has now been
filled.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Humble".
More applications were prepared, the odd one pro-
ducing a reply but always the same - "We regret etc."
One day, however, there was some good news, he
received a letter which stated quite simply: "Could you
please attend for an interview?" He certainly could. S.O.
got out his new suit, cleaned and polished his shoes, even
got his hair cut; he prepared for his interview. He
attended punctually at the interview and discussed his
career and legal experience with the interviewer between
important telephone calls the interviewer had to make.
S.O. felt that the interviews had gone quite well (he did
not know any better) and even told his friends that he
would be working very soon; the interviewer having told
S.O. that he would contact him in the near future about
the job.
He waited and waited and waited . ..
The penny was finally dropping. He consulted with
friends who had recently got jobs and compared notes on
his letter of application, his C.V. and his interview
technique. He now changed his letter of application
emphasising his legal experience (rather than the lack of
it). He applied for further jobs. Oh! by the way he did
hear from that man who interviewed him. He received a
letter which read:
"Dear S.O.
I regret the delay in writing by way of follow-up
to our recent interview. The vacancy has been filled
by a person better suited to our needs. Thanks for
your interest.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Flushed".
S.O. kept his head up and finally his luck changed. One
day he got invited back to a second interview. He felt
relieved. He attended the interview - "Yes they did need
a Solicitor with his ability and yes, they would like to offer
him the job". However, they were going through a bad
patch at the moment and could not offer him a very high
starting salary but it would be reviewed regularly. A
further problem was that they were short of staff and
space and would he mind sharing a room with another
Solicitor and sharing his Secretarial facilities".
If you were starting out and had applied for many jobs,
got a few interviews and one offer what would you do?
Accept the offer? Of course you would and so did S.O.
Furthermore, he worked extremely hard and did every-
thing he was asked to do. His employers were impressed
and said so but S.O. never got a wage increase. He
started on £2,500 and a year later was still earning that
sum. What do you think he did?
He waited and waited and waited ...
To many young Solicitors this ia familiar story so what
lesson can be learnt from it? There are a number of
lessons to be learnt, some by the employer, some by the
employee and some by the profession. We will take each
in turn.
The Employer - Messrs. Box No. Z2002
1. It does not cost much effort to reply to all job
applications. When you consider all the effort the
applicant has put into preparing his application the
least you can do is to say "thanks for trying".
2. Every applicant is entitled to your full attention at the
interview. No phone calls should be put through to
your office nor should your Secretary enter the room
during the interview. This is common courtesy.
3. Every applicant is entitled to a proper living wage and
proper working conditions. Nobody has spent four to
five years preparing for their profession to be told that
they are less than useless and for that reason cannot
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