Legal
Legal recruitment agency
A flat fee by salary band with no commission: a five-point review of the role, a dedicated recruiter, advertising plus headhunting and a screened shortlist. Below are the 3 legal vacancies we have actually filled, with the real pipeline behind each one.
What we are usually asked to fill
- Paralegal
- Legal Secretary
- Conveyancer
- Litigation Executive
- Solicitor
What is actually hard about hiring in legal
Practice area is the whole hire. A strong litigation paralegal is not a conveyancing paralegal, and firms lose weeks discovering that at interview. Client-facing confidence and file-handling volume vary far more than titles suggest.
What we screen for
The practice area and the fee-earning volume they carried, whether they ran files independently or supported someone who did, case management systems used, and any qualification route in progress and who is funding it.
The legal roles we have filled
| Role | Location | Days to fill | Candidates screened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Secretary | Manchester city centre, office-based | 29 | 34 |
| Office Manager | Greater Manchester, office-based | 32 | 8 |
| Sales & Client Relationship Coordinator | Greater Manchester, office-based | 56 | 69 |
Median 32 days, faster than our overall median of 42 across 46 filled roles. Full funnels for every one of these are on the legal case studies.
A vacancy of that length at the pay currently advertised for a paralegal (£28,000) nets out at about £1,674 in output not produced, less the salary not paid — the cost of vacancy calculator shows every step of the sum. Before you settle on a salary, check what the local market is advertising for the same job title. Our published data covers both halves: how many applications an advert draws by sector and how long a vacancy takes to fill by sector.
What it costs
| Salary band | Our flat fee | A 20% agency would bill |
|---|---|---|
| Roles up to £30,000 | £1,500 +VAT | up to £6,000 |
| £30,000 – £44,999 | £2,000 +VAT | £6,000 – £9,000 |
| £45,000 – £59,999 | £3,000 +VAT | £9,000 – £12,000 |
| £60,000 – £79,999 | £4,000 +VAT | £12,000 – £16,000 |
The legal roles above paid between £25,000 and £35,000, which puts most of them in the £1,500–£2,000 bands. Every band gets a five-point review of the role, a dedicated recruiter and a screened shortlist.
Frequently asked questions
How much does legal recruitment cost?
A flat fee by salary band, agreed before the search and unchanged by the salary you agree: Roles up to £30,000 — £1,500 +VAT; £30,000 – £44,999 — £2,000 +VAT; £45,000 – £59,999 — £3,000 +VAT; £60,000 – £79,999 — £4,000 +VAT. There is no commission when you hire, and it starts with a five-point review of your role. The legal roles we have filled paid between £25,000 and £35,000, so most sit in the £1,500–£2,000 range against £5,000–£7,000 at a 20% agency.
How long does it take to fill a legal role?
Across the 3 legal vacancies we have filled and publish in full, the median was 32 days from brief to hire — faster than our overall median of 42 days across 46 roles. The fastest took 29 days and the slowest 56. We publish the slow ones too.
Do you charge commission on a legal hire?
No. The fee is fixed by salary band before the search starts and does not move with the salary agreed. That is the whole point of the model, and the saving against a percentage grows as the role gets more senior.
What do you screen legal candidates for?
The practice area and the fee-earning volume they carried, whether they ran files independently or supported someone who did, case management systems used, and any qualification route in progress and who is funding it.
Can I just advertise the role instead?
Yes, and sometimes you should. A £399 +VAT advert puts the role across the major job boards and sends you the applications. It took a median of 28 candidates worked to make one hire in legal, so if somebody in your business genuinely has those hours, advertising is the cheaper route and we will say so.
Hiring in legal?
Tell us the role and we will tell you what it costs and how long it is likely to take — using the 3 we have already filled in this sector, not a guess.
See Premium Hire Talk to a recruiter
Or call 0161 327 2895. Prefer to advertise it yourself? Post a job online from £399 +VAT, or write the advert first with our free job advert generator.
Before you decide, the numbers
Cost comparison
Recruitment fees by salary band: agency % vs flat fee
A salary-band table of what a UK contingency agency bills at 15%, 20% and 25% against the published flat fees for the same search, from £30,000 to £75,000 — with the three cases where the percentage is still the better buy.
Cost comparison
Is flat-fee recruitment cheaper than an agency for a £45,000 hire?
Worked figures for a £45,000 UK hire — what a contingency agency bills at 15%, 20% and 25%, what the published flat fees are, what the real difference is once you count your own screening time, and the three situations where the agency is the better buy.
Benchmarks
How long does it take to fill a role in the UK?
The median role we filled took 42 days from brief to close, but the spread runs from 14 to 169 days. The per-sector breakdown, what actually drives the difference, and how to read a time-to-fill promise.