Your career questions answered

Q: I am a Chartered Legal Executive working in personal injury. I haven’t had a pay rise for a couple of years now and like everyone else I am seeing my household bills rocket. I think I’m doing a good job and it would be reasonable to ask for a pay rise but how do I broach the topic? I’m pretty sure the solicitors I work with are on more money than me, which makes the situation all the more frustrating.

Briony: There are a few things to consider when asking for a pay rise. Firstly, think about the timing. Is now the best moment? There are a number of factors that could influence your manager’s receptiveness to your request, the financial health of your firm being the most obvious. If they are currently hiring, that would indicate it might be a good time to ask.

You should also consider how close the firm is to conducting annual reviews. This would be a natural opportunity for you to discuss salary. Alternatively, the start of the financial year might be the most suitable or after you have completed a significant achievement at work.

Consider having a chat with the solicitors in your team – are they willing to tell you how much they earn? This would be useful information, especially if you are doing exactly the same work as them. Have salaries gone up at other personal injury firms? Legal recruitment consultants can be helpful here as they have market knowledge and can advise on CILEX salary averages in your location and practice area. You can also look on job boards to gauge salary averages on job postings.

Once you have done your research, you should ask for an in-person meeting to discuss ‘your performance’. Make sure you have at least half an hour booked in to give time for the discussion and have some bullet points at hand stating the purpose of the meeting, your ideal salary and why you believe you are entitled to it. Focus on professional benefits to the firm rather than the personal benefit to you and lay out your positive contributions to the business as well as your research on salaries.

Louise: This can be a difficult conversation to have, so research and preparation is key. You need to know the standard salaries in your area of law and geographical location.

Whilst I understand your frustrations when comparing your pay to the solicitors you work with, I would not advise using this as a basis for negotiation unless you are certain it is true and have taken into account other elements that have a bearing on salary such as PQE and billing targets.

Remove any emotion from the request and present a strong business case for the rise. Are you meeting your billing targets? Are these the same as your colleagues? What has your personal growth been in the last 12 months and what additional value do you offer your firm at present?

You might want to outline any business development initiatives you have been involved in, additional work that has demonstrated a return on investment and any new responsibilities you have taken on. You will want to demonstrate you have met any objectives raised in your last performance review.

You should also pre-empt any questions. Do you have a particular pay rise in mind, is it a figure or a percentage? Will you negotiate? They may ask you if you will consider leaving if you don’t get the rise, or whether you would be prepared for your role to change if you are successful.

Your manager will probably need time to evaluate and discuss your request with partners or HR, so rather than expecting an answer on the spot, organise a follow-up once they have had time to consider.

Q:I work in criminal law, much of it legal aid. The workload continues to grow and I’m struggling to fit it all in. This means I’m falling behind with my CPD requirements, which seem like a bit of a waste of my time compared to so many more pressing client commitments. How can I keep up?

Louise: Whilst criminal law can be an extremely busy area to work in, CPD should never be considered a waste of time. It can help you reflect, review and document your learning, and develop and update your legal knowledge and skills. Furthermore, it is a regulatory requirement, which you must complete as part of your membership of CILEX. CPD non-compliance can have an impact on your ability to practise as a Chartered Legal Executive.

There is some flexibility. As a CILEX Fellow, you must complete nine outcomes, of which at least five must be planned. One of those planned outcomes must be linked to professionalism, which centres on developing you as a legal professional, rather than being in the area of law you are working in.

The current CPD year (2023/24) runs to 30 September 2024, so there is still plenty of opportunity for you to plan and complete your CPD. I would recommend taking a short time to plan now, so that you can meet your requirements.

You can see CPD resources in your myCILEX portal, including information on the CPD cycle, which will help you to plan what you want to cover, how you will achieve it and evaluate and document outcomes.

Don’t forget, you need to undertake and log your CPD before 30 September. While it is possible to get an extension to 31 December 2024, you need to apply to the regulator (by emailing cpd@cilexregulation.org.uk) before 31 August.

Your employer is likely to have certain expectations of you and should be supportive of you taking some time to develop yourself professionally. They may offer training you can use for your CPD requirements.

And remember, you will be doing this work all the time, it is just a case of planning and documenting it and making that part of your weekly routine. That is far easier than retrospectively trying to remember the training and research you have undertaken.