Member Article

Law graduate employment opportunities aren’t passing the bar, official data suggests

Over 28 graduates to each job in 2017

Analysis of national statistics has revealed that a shortage of employment opportunities for law graduates could be resulting in urgent demand for alternative careers in the legal sector.

The review of national higher education and job statistics by legal sector digital marketing expert mmadigital suggests law graduates are at risk of unemployment as opportunities within the oversubscribed sector become increasingly competitive. According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency ([HESA], UK universities produced 21,000 new law graduates in 2017, while [High Fliers Research Limited] reported only 733 legal sector vacancies in the same year. That is over 28 graduates to each job.

The data exposes law studies as the subject accounting for the lowest graduate employment rate across all non-scientific subject areas in the UK. As few as 44% of graduates secured a role across all industries last year. mmadigital’s analysis shows that for many law graduates, retraining for alternative careers might be necessary to land a job after leaving university.

mmadigital found professional services, including HR, sales and marketing, to be by far the largest employer of law graduates However, just 28% of law graduates have been successful at gaining employment in this sector, compared to 48% of graduates from alternative subjects.

Furthermore, CIPD data shows that 92% of law graduates will earn less than the average graduate starting salary within these roles regardless of degree classification. Comparatively, mmadigital discovered this was the case for only 69% of social studies graduates, 74% of computer science graduates and 57% of education studies graduates.

mmadgitial is keen to make law graduates aware that there are alternatives to joining a law firm as the claims market continues to grow exponentially.

Dez Derry, CEO at mmadigital explains: “Expertise in law plays an integral role in our business model by adding value to specialist customer acquisitions for the legal sector. By harnessing knowledge of the law in the primary processes of claim reviews we can efficiently reject the claims that are unlikely to be able to be pursued by a law firm.”

Manchester-based, mmadigital has developed an industry disrupting process for lead generation through professionally qualified inbound customer leads. The company has already taken on law graduates to expertly screen inbound medical negligence and personal injury (PI) claims and is looking for more as business continues to boom.

Alia, Legal Assistant at mmadigital and recent law graduate says: “There are intricacies to sensitive cases like PI and medical negligence claims that can invalidate a claim immediately, but details go unnoticed by someone without experience of UK law.”

Dez Derry adds: “The law graduates who come to us are ready and able to apply their learnings in a fast-paced environment. According to National Student Survey data this is the case for 78-92% of law graduates, but opportunities are lacking.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Juliet .