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Lawyer jobs in London

Why working as a consultant is a smarter choice for the London lawyer

If you are looking for a new job as a lawyer, have you considered becoming a consultant? It offers an alternative to the traditional firm route with more freedom and flexibility. Take control of your career and earn the rewards you deserve on a more fulfilling path. At Setfords, you decide where you work, when you work and who you work for. You set your own billing targets, and there’s no need to deal with office politics or managing staff. As a consultant solicitor, you only have to think about one thing: your clients. We provide indemnity insurance alongside all of the support you will need to operate effectively. Our support team is one of the best in the business, from administrative and secretarial services to PR, marketing, web design, and compliance. We even have a business development team generating millions of pounds in business for our consultants. So, if you’re looking for lawyer jobs in London that offer a better way of working, there are opportunities for you here at Setfords.

Why choose consulting vs traditional law firms:

Unlimited earning potential

Set your own work-life balance

Work from anywhere

150+ strong expert support team

Nationwide network of 500+ lawyers

A dedicated business development team

Benefits of the consultancy model

New opportunities
At Setfords, you’re surrounded by an extensive network of talented lawyers. This opens up so many opportunities that you may not find at a traditional law firm. From cross-referral work to larger pitches and projects, chances are out there for you to take! And, by choosing your clients, you can create your dream career, working how you want, with whoever you like.

Flexibility to live life your way
Many of our lawyers think the most significant benefit of Setfords’ model is the flexibility to work when, where, and how they want. Love working from home? You can do it every day at Setfords! Prefer working early in the morning or later at night? There’s no strict 9-5 schedule with our lawyer jobs in London. You have the freedom to build your career your way.

A better work-life balance
A good work-life balance is the key to happiness for our lawyers. We know that this is almost impossible to find at traditional law firms. So, we want to offer something different. With a flexible schedule, you can make time for what matters most. Family, travel, hobbies: you can fit your work around your life, not your life around your work.

Choose your clients and targets
At traditional law firms, you’re often expected to meet unrealistic billing targets and take on as many clients as possible, most chosen by the firm. This is never the case at Setfords! You have complete freedom to choose your clients and work towards any target that makes sense for you, your career, and your life.

Be part of something bigger
With our lawyer jobs in London, you never have to feel isolated. Our strong internal network of lawyers is more than 500 strong. Spread over 47 counties in England and Wales and 50+ disciplines, you can take opportunities to expand your professional circle and work together with other talented lawyers on exciting projects.

The rewards you deserve
Setfords is dedicated to ensuring that you are paid what your important work is truly worth. As a result, you can usually expect to receive greater financial remuneration with the consultancy model. You may expect to take home only up to a third of your billings at a traditional firm. But with us, it can be up to 80%. This leads to lawyers who are happier in their roles and serve their clients better, too.

What our consultants say

Not only do I now have happier clients, but also a healthier work-life balance. A true win-win.

David Miers

Consultant (Stress at Work)

I love that it’s all up to me – what I do, when I work, I’m the master of my own destiny.

Maria Schultz

Consultant (Residential and Commercial Property)

It gives you a better work life balance, it gives you greater work satisfaction and it can boost your self-esteem. It has made me a happier and more confident lawyer.

Thowheetha Shaah

Consultant (Family Law)

Setfords London

When searching for legal jobs in London, the environment you’ll be working in is an important consideration. While most of our lawyers primarily work from home, we also have office space in the capital for you to use. Located on prestigious Chancery Lane, our base is in the heart of legal London. As such, it’s mainly used by our corporate, commercial, and litigation lawyers, as well as offering the ideal base for attending the High Court and other legal venues. Alongside this, Setfords London gives you a unique location where you can impress your clients! With several spaces for meetings, entertaining, and work, it’s the ideal place to work independently, liaise with other lawyers, and meet clients.

Why choose Setfords for lawyer jobs in London?

Compared to similar firms, we go above and beyond for our lawyers. It’s common for consultancy firms to offer the bare minimum when it comes to support. Aside from insurance, CMS, and a little admin support, you might not expect much else. But not at Setfords. Supporting our lawyers is our number one priority, and we invest heavily in it. So, our support team is one of the best in the business. But what does that look like, exactly?
We have more than 100 support staff dedicated to ensuring our lawyers have everything they need.
As a Setfords consultant, we won’t leave you to generate all of your work independently. We invest heavily in marketing and lead generation to supplement you with leads.
Our marketing and business development teams are award-winning and have generated more than £3m of extra business for our lawyers in the last 12 months alone.
Alongside this, we offer a wide range of dedicated support to our lawyers, including:
– IT and technical
– Admin, secretarial, and compliance
– Management and legal support
But what does this mean for you? With our lawyer jobs in London, you can focus all of your time and energy on what’s really important: your clients. Our support teams will take care of everything else, ensuring that you can offer a fantastic service and keep your clients happy without the distraction of admin tasks.

Setfords Solicitors – A Day in the Life

In this eight-minute film, our lawyers, support staff and managers reveal what life is like at Setfords and the freedom they have to take control of their careers, decide their own priorities, and work more efficiently.

Frequently asked questions

Working as a consultant solicitor involves generating your own work. However, we’ll never leave you completely on your own. We have an award-winning Marketing and Business Development team that generates thousands of quality leads every year for our lawyers. Knowing this gives our consultant solicitors more confidence when they join and it often helps get them up and running.

We have recently invested in a new system to make the delivery of leads to our consultants even smoother, giving them greater flexibility and control over the process.
Yes, you are free to bring staff to help you as a consultant solicitor. However, bear in mind that any employees you bring will be employed by you, and not Setfords.
When it comes to setting you up as a consultant solicitor at Setfords, you can progress as quickly or slowly as you wish. That said, we always aim to minimise delays and have even had consultants get set up in as little as two days!
Training on how to use all of our systems is available to consultants before their launch date. Beyond that, refresher training is provided if it’s needed, as well as training should we introduce anything new.

Yes, as a consultant you do not have to work exclusively with us. The majority of our consultant lawyers don’t choose to take on multiple roles, but we understand that you may wish to and do not restrict your ability to do so.

Yes! Our Head Office in Guildford has plenty of space for our lawyers to work and meet clients, and our location on London’s Chancery Lane is also available for the same. This is particularly popular for its proximity to the capital’s legal heart.

Setfords consultants are also free to set up their own office locations, and we have a number of these locations across the country.

Absolutely! One of the biggest perks of being a consultant solicitor is the fact that you can set your own schedule. Whether you want to make the most of your early mornings, take meetings on weekends to fit your client’s schedule, or stick to the traditional 9-5, as a consultant solicitor it’s totally up to you.

Yes, as a Setfords consultant solicitor you are free to set your own fees if you wish. Please note that any pre-quoted work coming through our Business Development team will have set fees.
Becoming a consultant lawyer gives you amazing freedom and flexibility, including when and where you work. You can be based at home, at one of our offices, at your own office in the UK, or even your holiday home.

Most of our consultants choose to work primarily from home, but it all depends on what’s best for you and your clients. Whatever you choose, you won’t have to relocate, and we welcome consultants who are based all over England, Wales, and beyond.
We encourage our solicitors to take as much time as they want for holidays, and we also understand that sometimes you may be too unwell to work. However, this is never an issue at Setfords.

It’s highly likely that one of the other 500+ solicitors will be able to cover you during this time. We encourage networking with your fellow consultant solicitors, and the staff at Head Office can help you find people to cover you too. Failing that, you can bring in locum cover, but this is almost never necessary!
Our dedicated compliance department provides regular webinars and other similar material for our solicitors. Beyond this, the responsibility to seek continued professional development lies with you as a consultant.
Setfords provides all of our consultant solicitors with a desk VoIP phone and dictaphone to get you started. A deposit is taken for this. You will need to use your own computer and broadband connection to get started.

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    Take your first step today

    For unparalleled flexibility, greater earnings, and all the support you need to build your successful business, Setfords is here. If you’re an entrepreneurial lawyer who wants to join an award-winning firm where investment in your growth is the priority, fill out this form, and one of our team will be in touch to discuss life as a consultant lawyer.

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    Email us: [email protected] / Call us: 0330 162 1792

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