Manchester legal recruiters report 44% rise in candidate placements

Manchester-headquartered legal recruitment agency BCL Legal has announced its highest ever number of candidate placements in one quarter since it started trading 11 years ago.

The firm placed 230 candidates across its network of offices in Manchester, London, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Reading and Bristol in the first three months of 2014 compared to 160 during the same period in 2013. This equates to a total rise of 44% year on year.

The results cover permanent, fixed term contract and temporary roles handled by its dedicated private practice and in-house departments.

On the private practice side, demand is being driven by the property, personal injury, conveyancing, commercial & corporate sectors; whilst the in-house division witnessed growth in manufacturing, defence, energy, technology, retail, FMCG, leisure and financial services.

These results follow BCL’s opening of its first office in London last March, where staff numbers have doubled.

Several new members of staff have also been recruited across all of its regional divisions, bringing the firm’s total headcount to 48.

James Batt, director of BCL Legal, said: “We’re delighted with these results and I believe they reflect our commitment to delivering a first class service that is tailored to our clients and candidates. We spend a lot of time understanding the market, analysing what’s driving it and identifying where demand is coming from.

“We’ve also invested heavily in our team development programme, IT systems and general business infrastructure - all of which allows us to be as proactive and productive as possible.

“We now have a very strong platform that will allow us to really focus on growing our headcount, presence and overall market share in the UK.“