Guide
How much does legal recruitment cost in the UK?
By Ben Holtom, founder of Sourcefully. Updated .
The short answer
Most UK law firms pay a recruitment agency around 20% of the new hire's first-year salary, invoiced when they start. On a £35,000 legal secretary or paralegal that is £7,000; on a £60,000 solicitor it is £12,000. Fixed-fee and embedded models can cut that substantially for firms that hire more than once or twice a year.
The five ways law firms pay for recruitment
| Model | How you pay | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contingency agency | A percentage of first-year salary, invoiced when the hire starts | Around 20% of salary | Occasional, urgent hires |
| Retained search | A fee split into stages, with part paid before candidates are presented | A percentage of salary, with some paid whatever the outcome | Partners, heads of department and confidential searches |
| Fixed-fee recruitment | One agreed fee per hire, set by salary band and paid on start | Sourcefully: £3,000 to £10,000 per hire | Firms with one or two roles that want cost certainty |
| Embedded recruitment (retainer) | A monthly fee for an outsourced recruiter, usually plus a small fixed fee per start | Sourcefully: £2,750 a month plus £1,000 per start | Firms hiring around once a month, or a solicitor every six to eight weeks, with no internal recruiter |
| In-house recruiter | Salary, employer costs and software | £35,000 to £50,000 salary before on-costs | Firms with steady, high-volume hiring all year round |
What a hire costs: worked examples
Example salaries for common law firm roles, comparing a 20% contingency fee with Sourcefully's flat fees. Fees are plus VAT.
| Role | Example salary | Agency at 20% | Sourcefully flat fee | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal secretary | £27,000 | £5,400 | £3,000 | £2,400 less |
| Conveyancer | £38,000 | £7,600 | £4,000 | £3,600 less |
| Solicitor, 2 to 3 years PQE | £52,000 | £10,400 | £5,000 | £5,400 less |
| Senior associate | £65,000 | £13,000 | £7,500 | £5,500 less |
| Head of department | £85,000 | £17,000 | £10,000 | £7,000 less |
Which model suits your firm?
- One urgent hire a year: a contingency agency or a fixed-fee search. Fixed fee costs less; contingency lets you brief more than one agency.
- Two to around ten hires a year: fixed fees per role, agreed before the search starts, so you can budget each hire.
- Around a hire a month, or a solicitor every six to eight weeks, and no internal recruiter: an embedded retainer, which gives you an owned process and branded adverts without a salary to carry.
- Steady hiring all year round: an in-house recruiter, sometimes supported by an embedded partner during peaks.
- Partner or head of department: a retained or fixed-fee search with one recruiter, because confidentiality matters more than speed of CVs.
Costs that never appear on the invoice
- Partner and practice manager time reading CVs that do not fit the brief.
- The same candidate submitted by two agencies, and the fee dispute that follows.
- A vacancy left open while existing fee earners absorb the caseload.
- Offers lost to counter-offers when candidates were never properly briefed.
What pushes a fee up, and what brings it down
Recruitment fees in the UK are not regulated or standardised, so two firms can be quoted very different rates for similar roles. These are the factors that genuinely move the number.
Pushes it up
- A single hard-to-fill role, a niche practice area or a rural location.
- Seniority: partner and head of department searches take longer and need discretion.
- Confidentiality, such as replacing someone who does not yet know.
- Several agencies on the same brief, so none commits properly.
- A salary band below the market rate.
Brings it down
- Exclusivity: one recruiter, worked properly.
- Several roles with the same recruiter.
- An ongoing relationship rather than one-off instructions.
- A salary band priced to the market.
- Flexibility on practice area or years of experience.
Look at the rebate, not just the percentage
Firms negotiate hard on the headline rate and barely read the rebate. That is the wrong way round. A low fee with a four-week rebate can leave you worse off than a higher fee with proper protection. Check how long the protection lasts, whether it is a refund or a replacement, whether it shrinks week by week, and what voids it. Sourcefully offers a free replacement if a hire leaves within six months, provided invoices have been paid on time.
Questions to ask any recruiter before you sign
- Is the fee a percentage or fixed, and what salary figure is it calculated on?
- Is there a rebate or a free replacement if the hire leaves early, for how long, and what voids it?
- Is the search exclusive, and can we still advertise on our own website?
- Do you charge separately for advertising, assessments or checks?
- What happens if we hire someone you introduced months later?
- When is the fee invoiced, and what are the payment terms?
- Who will actually work on our role?
Frequently asked questions
How much do legal recruitment agencies charge in the UK?
Most legal recruitment agencies charge a contingency fee of around 20% of the successful candidate's first-year salary, invoiced when they start. On a £40,000 role that is about £8,000. Rates vary with seniority, exclusivity and how much hiring a firm does with the agency.
Is fixed-fee recruitment cheaper than a contingency agency?
Usually, yes. A fixed fee is agreed before the search starts and does not rise with salary in the same way. With Sourcefully, a £38,000 conveyancer costs £4,000 against about £7,600 at a typical agency rate. The trade-off is that fixed-fee searches are normally exclusive to one recruiter.
What is embedded recruitment?
Embedded recruitment means an external recruiter works as your firm's recruitment function: writing adverts under your brand, screening, managing interviews and handling offers, for a monthly fee rather than a percentage per hire. It suits firms that hire regularly but do not have enough volume to justify a full-time internal recruiter.
When should a law firm hire an in-house recruiter?
An in-house recruiter makes sense when hiring is steady and high-volume all year, because the salary of £35,000 to £50,000, plus employer costs and software, is paid whether or not you are hiring. Firms with peaks and quiet periods often get better value from a retainer they can stop.
Do recruitment fees include VAT?
Recruitment fees are normally quoted plus VAT. Sourcefully's prices on this page are plus VAT.
What happens if a new hire leaves early?
Most recruiters offer either a rebate, refunding part of the fee on a sliding scale, or a free replacement search. Sourcefully offers a free replacement if a hire leaves within six months, provided invoices have been paid on time. Always check the period and conditions before you sign terms.
About the author
Ben Holtom, founder of Sourcefully
Ben has 15 years in recruitment, including internal recruitment at Reed and The Edwin Group. He founded RecQuest, a South Coast legal recruitment business, in 2025 and partnered with 45 law firms, making nearly a placement a week. He now runs Sourcefully, offering law firms embedded recruitment and fixed-fee hiring.