Current Vacancies
Here you can find information about current positions, placements, trainees and paralegals
Application
Please send a CV and covering letter to our HR Officer, Camilla Asher at Wilsons Solicitors, 6a Rodley Lane, Rodley, Leeds, LS12 1HU or send by email to camilla.asher@lawoffice.co.uk If you require any further information, feel free to telephone her on 0113 257 4000.
PA to senior partner
This is a new position. We are looking for a full time person who has PA experience. They must be well organised, be able to multi-task and be flexible in regards to their work responsibilities and attitude. Confidentiality is essential. We require good references. We expect the best and the salary will be the best.
Experienced Family solicitor (min 5 years PQE)
We require someone to head our ever growing family department across all our offices. A minimum of 5 years post qualification family experience is essential with 10 years PQE preferred. They must able to work well with others to lead, motivate and develop our current team. Supervision and advising is a key aspect of the job and therefore previous experience is an asset. Salaries are negotiable and dependent on experience.
Private Client solicitor (min 5 years PQE)
Wills, probate, tax and elderly client matters are becoming more and more in demand and as such we require an experienced solicitor to develop and lead our current team. A minimum of 5 years post qualification experience is essential with 10 years experience preferred. Supervision and advising is a key aspect of the job and therefore previous experience is essential. Salaries are negotiable and dependent on experience
Wilsons solicitors sees itself as a forward looking client centred progressive law firm. We believe in training and promotion from within and as such we embark on a thorough recruitment and selection programme in regards to trainee solicitors and potential fee-earners.
If you are committed to a carer in law it can be difficult to select a law firm that matches your aspirations and offers you the right opportunities in the best possible training environment.
Equally, you need to make an informed decision about whether law is the right profession for you – and whether or not we are the right people to help you realise your ambitions.
We offer paid vacation work experience and part-time evening and weekend placements so you can see for yourself what it is like to work for us. Many of our trainees come through this route and we receive almost 100% trainee application rate after students have experienced working for us. If you like what you read on this website about us, why not give a placement a go?
The nature of placements allows us to see how well you fit in and assess the contribution you make, we feel this is important when recruiting our next generation of trainees.
Evening and weekend placements
The evening and weekend slots are to cover our extended opening times at our Horsforth office. During the week we want you to work 4 – 8pm. This is to cover the post-5pm time when things are quieter, but also 4-5 to enable you to be delegated work from our colleagues to do after 5, and to help with the end of day rush before 5.
The weekend shifts are from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
These placements are generally covered by students enabling them to apply what they are learning to real life situations whilst fitting in with studies and easing the expense of studying. We generally expect each student to cover at least 2 slots per week. These placements can be a good way of entering the selection process for the vacation scheme.
Vacation placements
The vacation schemes through and through have been a big success! We like to see you ‘stars’ shine whilst the information you learn is invaluable to your studies and future prospects. We offer paid placements during the 3 months over the Summer period. The shortlisted candidates will spend a week over the Easter period working in our offices. This is so we can see who is the most effective and who contributes the most. Those who do best will be offered a summer placement. If after your placement, your professional desires are to train with us, apply for a training contract. We will have already seen what you can do in a short space of time and the final decision will be via a formal interview during the year before the training contract starts.
What do we look for?
- Initiative and common sense
- A local background & commitment to the area
- Motivation and drive to help others and learn for oneself
- Capability to understand and apply instructions
- A professional but friendly attitude
- Good communication whether it be internal relations or client relations
- Language skills are an area we are keen to develop for the future
- Someone to get stuck in – no job is too big or too small
Deadlines for applications
- Evening and weekend placements recruit all year round.
- Summer vacation apply by 28th February that year. You do not have to be doing your finals or LPC. In fact if a training contract is what you are really after eventually, it is best to get involved before then. This is because historically we have appointed trainee solicitors internally and if you arrive too late you may not have enough time to show us what you can do, compared to others who have been here before you!
If you think you can support our fee-earners in running their cases, we want to hear from you.
We are open minded when it comes to paralegals as the breadth and depth of people’s experiences varies greatly, because of this we are concerned with LPC graduates, part-time students, and anyone with a background and interest in law.
The nature of P.I. and conveyancing lends themselves well to using paralegals and we have a particular interest in anyone who has previous experiences in these domains.
Salary is dependent on experience.
Deadline for application
You can apply any time because if you have the necessary skills that we can use to enable our fee-earners to be ever more efficient or even build a good caseload yourself we want to hear from you. We are always interested in seeing what talent is out there.
We view our trainees to be our future fee-earners / solicitors and partners. We have a high proportion of trainees because we believe in investing in people and teaching and sharing all that we know. This not only creates a collaborative and friendly culture but provides a means to best service for the clients.
Training Contracts
We aim to recruit 2 trainees a year to start in September. Our preferred method of selection is via internal appointment.
This can be through work experience placements or a paralegal (legal assistant) position.
When recruiting trainees we are looking to the future and therefore we are looking towards potential partnership. However we do not impose a commitment to remain with us nor do we have a commitment to you. We will of course discuss with you towards the end of your training contract so that both parties can plan for the future.
We do not strictly follow ‘seats’ as we believe real life is not so strictly compartmentalised and therefore when you start your training contract with Wilsons, you experience what life will be like being a solicitor. We believe in good communication and ensure that you cover the necessary elements during your training contract.
Deadline for training contracts
Due to preferring to recruit internally, the deadline for training contracts corresponds with the deadline for work experience – 28th February to start the September the following year. You can of course, apply for work experience at any time during your studies so if you can demonstrate your potential, you may well be on course for a training contract as soon as you complete your LPC.
Assessment for training contracts
As well as being on course for good academic achievement we look for the following qualities in our future trainee solicitors.
- Initiative and common sense
- A local background & commitment to the area
- Motivation and drive to help others and learn for oneself
- Capability to understand and apply instructions
- A professional but friendly attitude
- Good communication whether it be internal relations or client relations
- Language skills are an area we are keen to develop for the future
- Someone to get stuck in – no job is too big or too small
The above is tested through periods of work experience and then finalised by a formal training contract interview which consists of your finding out your ambition and distinguishing the fit between you and us followed by some competence based questions including a case study.
Its not just trainee solicitors we recruit, trainee legal executives are a growing asset within the firm as their hands on approach of studying and learning is very effective.
We are interested in hearing from you from any age and any stage throughout your studies.
Deadline for trainee ILEX
Due to the nature of the legal profession, there are less trainee legal executives looking for work and as such we do not have a pattern of recruitment. If you are what we need we want to hear from you. Apply anytime and we can see if your skills match our requirements.
Solicitor vacancies do not occur that often as we have a high trainee intake and like to promote from within. However at times there are adhoc vacancies.
When selecting for solicitors, we generally are looking for experience over and above what we have internally to guide and lead our team even more effectively.
Supervision and training experience is therefore an advantage. We want team players who are prepared to share their wealth of knowledge for the good of the firm.
We are growing firm and therefore we are always looking to see what potential is out there that will help us progress further. If you like what you have read about us on this website, then apply and we can see what you can contribute.
Please forward your CV and covering letter to our HR officer via the above link or send to Camilla Asher, Wilsons Solicitors, 6a Rodley Lane, Rodley, Leeds, LS13 1HU. For further information please telephone 0113 257 4000. Currently there are no deadlines, we are looking for the right person for the job.