NQs
The term “newly qualified” or “NQ” refers to lawyers that have just successfully completed their training contracts and been admitted as a solicitor by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (or “SRA”).
Until this point, trainees are prohibited from referring to themselves as “solicitors”; this term is reserved only for those that have “qualified”. You can still “qualify” even if your firm (or any other firm) doesn’t offer you a job at the end of a training contract; your firm simply needs to sign you off and notify the SRA that you have met the relevant requirements to become a “solicitor”.
The qualification process
The “qualification process” (i.e. the process followed by firms when deciding which trainees to retain as associates and which teams those associates should join) differs greatly between firms and depends on a wide number of variables. To give a broad generalisation, qualification into a certain team typically depends on:
Career progression
Once qualified, your future promotions and job titles will depend very much on the firm.
Counsel / of counsel
Promotion to “Of Counsel” or “Counsel” often indicates that the person isn’t yet a partner, but is on track to become one, or is at least more senior than the firm’s associates. Saying that, “Counsel” or “Of Counsel” can also be a title afforded to lawyers who don’t want to pursue partnership – for example if they want to focus on legal work full-time, rather than taking on the management and business development responsibilities inherent in partner roles – or lawyers who the firm doesn’t think will make great partners, but excel at legal work.
Partners
When it comes to partners, firms might have both “salaried partners” and “equity partners”, with the former continuing to be remunerated in a similar way to associates (but with a more prestigious title that enables firms to bill them out at higher rates), and the latter instead being paid predominantly based on the firm’s financial performance.
Salaried partners may subsequently become equity partners, or might leave the firm to take an equity partner role elsewhere. The amount received by (i.e. the share of the profit pool allocated to) equity partners might increase based on the number of years they have been partner, or by the amount of work they bring in. It can all be a little complex/confusing!
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