TotallyLegal

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: Created in 2003 by Claire Whisker, a qualified barrister and solicitor, Today, it belongs to Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment. TotallyLegal is the leading niche job board for legal professions in the UK. It attracts as many as 131 740 visits a month on average. On social media, 630 followers stay updated on Linkedin, 2 059 on Twitter and another 1 674 on Facebook. In the footer, Reach Work Ltd is listed as the main company (which is a media group), but it has since been replaced by Trinity Mirror pcl (or Reach PLC).

Design:  The design is straightforward and clear. It’s all about the jobs! The search engine (keywords, the location and the radius) appears at the top of the page with different search options underneath. This includes: featured companies (which are hiring), urgent jobs, jobs by title, by practise area, by location and the job of the week. Once you’ve used the site a bit, recommended jobs appear under the search engine. The job listing is particularly clear and it displays useful information and logos for all the job offers. Some are also highlighted. The filters include the industry, the job function, the job level, the salary, the hours, the contract, the listing type, the education level, the recruiter type and the job title. If you include a location, you are no longer browsing, but searching. If you open an offer, you will see the important information about the company on the left-hand side, the job description in the middle of the page and similar offers on the right. Furthermore, recruiters must include an expiry date so you know the offers are updated. If you want to work for a particular company, you can check out the list of recruiters (in alphabetical order).

The job board objective: TotallyLegal aims to bring legal professionals together and it offers useful advice to jobseekers.

Recruiter observations: It’s easy for recruiters to order an advert through the website, the advertised cost does not include VAT though. When creating the job offer, recruiters can include a job reference to make sorting many offers easier, and they must include a salary range and an expiry date. Recruiters can also include the required PQE (post-qualification experience) level.

Jobseeker observations: To apply to job offers, you need an account but it can also be created when you apply to your first job offer. If you upload your CV, you also need to fill out the rest of your profile (which is a bit long).

The job offers: There are 5 368 job offers on the site right now. Most of the jobs are in property, followed by corporate jobs.

Reactivity: On the recruiter page, there is a chat support window. The team answers very quickly and they are helpful.

Special features: The chat support; the urgently required jobs; the job alerts; the free CV review; the blog (with no dates but the articles are clearly recent); the job of the week; the handy previous/next buttons; the list of recruiters (and current jobs).

Verdict: TotallyLegal dominates the niche legal job board industry in the UK thanks to its simplicity and efficiency. Recruiters and jobseekers alike can definitely find what they need on this site.

Written by Ali Neill

As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website's social media pages.