Career progression and originating work – junior lawyers’ growing agency in shaping their careers
Career progression intermittently appears in many junior lawyer’s list of top concerns.
The more senior one becomes, the more preoccupying the subject. And, with seniority, comes a dilemma. How to create a sustainable practice given the time involved in business growth activities, the old enemy of fee-earning time?
Junior solicitors have established their own agency in shaping career progression now, and the opportunities are expanding. Gone are the days when junior lawyers could be expected to believe that hard work leads automatically to success. On the contrary, firms and their juniors are moving away from purely partner-allocated work models to create business growth strategies in which junior fee earners have an active role.
The old model
Conventional advice for junior lawyers has for years been that attributed to Britain’s longest-serving Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon: ‘live like a hermit and work like a horse’. Work hard, excel in client work and progression and, eventually, partnership will follow.
Some 200 years on, times have changed. Junior solicitors are more numerous. According to the 41st edition of the Law Society’s Annual Statistical Report, 8,000 or more will qualify this year and next. With that, it is assumed that each and every one is an excellent lawyer.
Being an excellent lawyer only gets you so far though; being the go-to junior for partners becomes less appealing as your hourly rate rises. It’s the stuff of books – amongst the classic formulations of this syndrome: ‘what got you here, won’t get you there’, to borrow Marshall Goldsmith’s title.
Relationships
Relationships and the ability to build them are now distinguishing skills that will get you there. Relationships produce instructions. That is not as surprising as it sounds: it is a paradox of the profession that clients need lawyers’ specialist knowledge; however, clients find lawyers through personal relationships often totally divorced from the knowledge sought.
The keenest junior lawyers seeking partnership know this on entering the profession. Those who do not know it then soon learn, hopefully before the point at which it starts to hold them back (that moment when they reach the highest employed position at their firm and they see the words “business case” for the first time but written on a gate that closes in front of them).
Originating work
Originating work no longer means a mandatory trip to the golf course, however. Junior lawyers can now do almost anything partners can do with sufficient drive and determination: join “junior” versions of established organisations in the profession; create networking events based around sports, food or even axe-throwing; and set up their own groups for anything at all.
Partnership does not remain the only goal either. According to “Partnership in 2026”, which appeared in The Lawyer on 26 March 2026, on 15% of those polled strongly agreed with the statement ‘Being a partner is something I would recommend to a junior solicitor’, followed by 38% who somewhat agreed and – perhaps most tellingly – 31% who were neutral. No wonder then that some junior lawyers adhere more closely to Eldonian rigour (without living like hermits) in order to create their own progression plan around sheer brilliance, or go in-house.
Work-life balance
At the same time, the youngest cohort in the workforce has different values: 77% believe work-life balance is central to a successful career, according to “The Evolution of Work: How Gen Z is Reshaping Leadership and Workplace Culture”, in Forbes on 2 April 2025.
In many cases, this goes hand-in-hand with the will to shape your own progression even as a junior. But it also results from the multifaceted flexibility that the pandemic brought with it. In addition, law firms find themselves facing unfamiliar competition: legal tech; alternative business models to the partnership; a changing demographic of clients.
With all these issues, juniors are increasingly capable, valuable and valued.
A new horizon?
Hard work has not gone away, and it is unlikely that it ever will in one form or another. But there is now much more to progression for those who seek it out, and overall that is positive. As with all progress, nevertheless, the most interesting part is what comes next.
Career progression and originating work – junior lawyers’ growing agency in shaping their careers
Career progression intermittently appears in many junior lawyer’s list of top concerns. The more senior one becomes, the more preoccupying the subject. And, with seniority, comes a dilemma. How to create a sustainable practice given the time involved in business growth activities, the old enemy of fee-earning time?
Junior solicitors have established their own agency in shaping career progression now, and the opportunities are expanding. Gone are the days when junior lawyers could be expected to believe that hard work leads automatically to success. On the contrary, firms and their juniors are moving away from purely partner-allocated work models to create business growth strategies in which junior fee earners have an active role.
The old model
Conventional advice for junior lawyers has for years been that attributed to Britain’s longest-serving Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon: ‘live like a hermit and work like a horse’. Work hard, excel in client work and progression and, eventually, partnership will follow.
Some 200 years on, times have changed. Junior solicitors are more numerous. According to the 41st edition of the Law Society’s Annual Statistical Report, 8,000 or more will qualify this year and next. With that, it is assumed that each and every one is an excellent lawyer.
Being an excellent lawyer only gets you so far though; being the go-to junior for partners becomes less appealing as your hourly rate rises. It’s the stuff of books – amongst the classic formulations of this syndrome: ‘what got you here, won’t get you there’, to borrow Marshall Goldsmith’s title.
Relationships
Relationships and the ability to build them are now distinguishing skills that will get you there. Relationships produce instructions. That is not as surprising as it sounds: it is a paradox of the profession that clients need lawyers’ specialist knowledge; however, clients find lawyers through personal relationships often totally divorced from the knowledge sought.
The keenest junior lawyers seeking partnership know this on entering the profession. Those who do not know it then soon learn, hopefully before the point at which it starts to hold them back (that moment when they reach the highest employed position at their firm and they see the words “business case” for the first time but written on a gate that closes in front of them).
Originating work
Originating work no longer means a mandatory trip to the golf course, however. Junior lawyers can now do almost anything partners can do with sufficient drive and determination: join “junior” versions of established organisations in the profession; create networking events based around sports, food or even axe-throwing; and set up their own groups for anything at all.
Partnership does not remain the only goal either. According to “Partnership in 2026”, which appeared in The Lawyer on 26 March 2026, on 15% of those polled strongly agreed with the statement ‘Being a partner is something I would recommend to a junior solicitor’, followed by 38% who somewhat agreed and – perhaps most tellingly – 31% who were neutral. No wonder then that some junior lawyers adhere more closely to Eldonian rigour (without living like hermits) in order to create their own progression plan around sheer brilliance, or go in-house.
Work-life balance
At the same time, the youngest cohort in the workforce has different values: 77% believe work-life balance is central to a successful career, according to “The Evolution of Work: How Gen Z is Reshaping Leadership and Workplace Culture”, in Forbes on 2 April 2025.
In many cases, this goes hand-in-hand with the will to shape your own progression even as a junior. But it also results from the multifaceted flexibility that the pandemic brought with it. In addition, law firms find themselves facing unfamiliar competition: legal tech; alternative business models to the partnership; a changing demographic of clients.
With all these issues, juniors are increasingly capable, valuable and valued.
A new horizon?
Hard work has not gone away, and it is unlikely that it ever will in one form or another. But there is now much more to progression for those who seek it out, and overall that is positive. As with all progress, nevertheless, the most interesting part is what comes next.
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