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Associate Director and Head of Recruiter Division
Paula is an Associate Director here at Realm and she has also headed the family team since 2021.
Paula joined Realm straight after completing her MA in Law in 2017 and has since won a couple of industry awards, including a Made in Manchester Award for Recruitment Professional of the Year in 2021 and the Insider Awards Recruitment Professional of the Year in 2020.
However, to this day, she claims that winning “Snack Provider of the Year” at the 2019 Realmies has been the highlight of her career.
Paula, what can I say about Paula, just wow. Paula has helped me during a pivotal time in my career with care, empathy and professionalism. I would not hesitate to recommend Paula to anyone who is looking for a new job/career path - she is a superstar and a credit to Realm.
Ellie Stokes
Family Solicitor
Paula is a rare treasure in the world of specialist recruitment. She knows her market, listens and gets to know both her clients - being the employer and the potential employee. She is professional, personable and hugely successful. No wonder her testimonials are so good.
Elizabeth Hassell
Head of Family at Joliffes Solicitors
Very satisfied with the service I received from Realm. Paula always kept in touch and updated me throughout. She is very friendly and keen to find the right fit for each individual client. Highly recommend!
Alexandra Wainwright
Family Solicitor
Paula was fantastic – she clearly had top candidates in mind when we first met but she took the time to listen to our needs, ethos and plans before suggesting anyone to meet. The first candidate we met was the one who eventually joined us so her instinct was right.
Chris Longbottom
Partner and National Family Team Manager at Clarke Wilmott
I would recommend Paula 100% if you are thinking of changing positions, she was amazing. She made the whole process so easy, talked you through every step and took the stress out of the situation completely.
Sarah Thomas
Family Solicitor
If you’re a junior family solicitor, the first thing you need to ask yourself is which area would you like to specialise into. The sooner you have an answer to that, the sooner you know which area to focus on. For example, if you want to be a specialist private family solicitor with a focus on finances and divorces, the first thing you should do is sign up for Resolution in your area and attend as many networking events as possible.
Or, if you want to become a specialist childcare solicitor, your main priority will be to get on the children’s panel, so make sure that you look into that and know everything you need to do to have a successful portfolio in place.
Generally, get involved with JCI, with Women in the Law or anything that offers you a possibility to network and speak with other solicitors, because family law comes down mostly to the connections you build over your entire career.
I think the biggest challenge for law firms right now is staff retention. We are currently in a phase where the majority of solicitors tend to leave somewhere after four to seven years. So if you have a brilliant solicitor working in your team, it’s about making sure that you provide them with the flexibility, progression opportunities and the right salary bracket in order to keep them happy long-term.
Realm offers something different to other legal recruitment businesses because we are ultra specialist, you will not come across anyone else that knows their niche as well as we do.
I’ve been recruiting family solicitors for almost 6 years, and I live and breathe family law. The same goes for my family team and for everyone else that is a consultant at Realm. That links very closely to how human we are, in fact, that’s one of our values.
We know that what legal recruitment boils down to is making people happy in their new roles, and we can only do that if we put people first, not the placement or the money we can make from that.
My proudest moment at Realm started about a year and a half ago when I became the team lead for the family team, and we have gone from strength to strength in the last 12 months. We’ve hit our annual target and we’ve also had promotions within the team and this is probably the most rewarding part of my job. Seeing someone grow and develop as a consultant, is so nice and when you feel like you’re part of it and you have been able to contribute to their development, I think that is most rewarding.
Family law without a doubt is one of the best areas of law to work in, particularly for people who are social, like to chat and are really people-centric. I’ve found family solicitors to be one of the warmest people in the world. They are always there for their clients and it shows!
