Richard Simmons

Richard Simmons

Rich is The Lawyer’s deputy editor. He has a particular focus on firms outside the UK top 50.

He was previously editor of The Lawyer’s student publication Lawyer 2B, and as such also has an interest everything to do with legal education, training contracts and pupillage, as well as lawyers’ ongoing career development.

Graduates
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Remuneration deliberations

Merit based salary or top dollar – what is the best method for remunerating those starting out in law? If you want to feel old, dig into your memories box and take a look at your first pay slip as a qualified solicitor. Now look at the current going rate for an NQ. Subtract the […]

rpc office
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RPC to scrap NQ flat rate salary for performance-based pay

RPC is to scrap its flat rate salary for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors from September 2014 in favour of a merit based system, arguing that the concept of the flat rate has “passed its sell-by date”. Currently, only trainees and NQs have a fixed salary at RPC, with those higher up the chain already rewarded […]

trainees

Luring tomorrow’s legal stars

Graduate recruitment campaigns are moody and minimal this season Law fair season is here and graduate recruitment teams across the UK are grudgingly getting up at ungodly hours to schlep off to Exeter and other far-flung university towns to pimp their firms to the nation’s students. Success largely depends on how firms brand themselves, but […]

Orrick and Olswang’s L-plate tectonics

Market shift sees firms pay for overambitious trainee policies September’s NQ retention figures are trickling in and, as always, some firms have had good years while others have resigned themselves to the fact that the thousands they invested in LPC fees and trainee salaries may as well have been spent on a giant statue of […]

Salayha Hussain-Din: the trainee who negotiated with the Taliban

As a trainee in-house lawyer at Northern & Shell, Salayha Hussain-Din got a little more than she bargained for when she was sent to negotiate with the Taliban for the release of reporter Yvonne Ridley. Jennifer Currie discovers being a trainee can sometimes involve more than just photocopying