3+PQE Private Client Solicitor/Senior Associate
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Are you Looking to work with an award-winning local firm that puts their clients and staff at the forefront of all they do?
We are excited to be looking for a Private Client Solicitor/Senior Associate to join a growing, friendly and supportive team.
Experience & Skills
- Achieve billing, time and fee earning targets set and co-operate with the firm’s credit control arrangements
- Proven project and time management skills
- A confident and professional manner
- Work effectively within a team but also as a leader
- Be professional, organised, competent, enthusiastic, and ambitious.
- Be able to work independently and as part of a team with other fee earners, providing advice and assistance whenever needed to develop knowledge and skills within the rest of the team.
Good experience in all areas of Private Client.
Benefits:
- Agile working (up to 40% working from home)
- 25 days' holiday (FTE) (plus statutory holidays)
- Pension scheme
- Death-in-service/Life assurance benefit scheme
- Critical illness insurance cover
- Eye care voucher
- A structured career progression plan tailored to you and with the aim of enabling you to achieve your career goals and ambitions including up to Partnership.
Salary dependant on experience
For more information, please apply with your CV.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Lead your CV personal statement with your PQE level and Private Client specialism — the advert's headline requirement is "3+PQE Private Client", so make this immediately visible.
📊 Quantify your billing performance: e.g. "Consistently achieved 95% of monthly billing targets across wills, probate and trust matters, averaging £X,000 per month in fees."
🎯 List specific Private Client practice areas (wills, LPAs, probate, trusts, estate administration, IHT planning) as a skills section — the advert stresses "good experience in all areas of Private Client".
🤝 Highlight any mentoring or knowledge-sharing with junior fee earners, as the advert specifically asks for someone who provides "advice and assistance to develop knowledge and skills within the rest of the team".
🌐 Note your experience with agile or hybrid working arrangements, as the firm offers up to 40% home working and will value candidates comfortable managing client matters remotely.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Managed a caseload of 80+ active Private Client files including complex probate estates, discretionary trusts and LPAs, achieving 97% of monthly billing targets over 18 consecutive months.
- •Advised 3 high-net-worth families on IHT mitigation strategies using nil-rate band trusts, reducing projected estate tax liability by an average of £120,000 per estate.
- •Mentored 2 trainee solicitors through their Private Client seats, delivering weekly case reviews that reduced file supervision queries by 40% within one quarter.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for Reed. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to Reed
Dear Hiring Manager,
Private Client law is the area where I have built my practice since qualification, and the opportunity to join your Cambridge firm as a 3+PQE Private Client Solicitor/Senior Associate is a natural next step. Your firm's reputation for client-focused service aligns directly with my approach to managing wills, probate and trust matters, and I am confident in my ability to meet billing targets while contributing to the wider team's development.
My background in Private Client work spans estate administration, Lasting Powers of Attorney, trust structuring and inheritance tax planning across a varied caseload. I have consistently achieved monthly fee-earning targets and supported junior colleagues by sharing technical knowledge on complex probate and trust matters.
Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).
Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›Walk us through your experience across the core Private Client practice areas — wills, probate, trusts and estate planning.
- ›How do you manage a high-volume caseload to consistently meet billing and time-recording targets?
- ›Describe your approach to credit control and managing aged debt on your own files.
- ›What experience do you have advising on inheritance tax planning and trust structures?
- ›How do you stay current with changes in Private Client legislation, such as updates to probate fees or IHT thresholds?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you had to balance your own caseload with supporting a junior colleague's development.
- ›Describe a situation where you had to manage a particularly complex or contentious probate matter — how did you handle it?
- ›Give an example of when you took a leadership role within your team. What was the outcome?
- ›Tell me about a time you fell short of a billing target. What did you do to recover?
- ›Describe how you have built and maintained strong client relationships in a Private Client context.
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you had to balance your own caseload with supporting a junior colleague's development.
Describe a situation where you had to manage a particularly complex or contentious probate matter — how did you handle it?