Negotiating contract for to-be self-employed law graduate

[Complex]

Dear all

My girlfriend has just returned from a trial-day following a successful interview for an organisation for which she's considering spending 6 months to 1 year working.

She has just let me know that the position is not actually salaried but will be contracted as her being self-employed. I don't have the specific details to hand as she's only just been in touch but I understand the organisation give specialist legal aid; she is due to graduate in law this year.

She is not experienced in negotiation or particularly commercially minded but does not want to be taken advantage of by an unfavourable contract.

Compared to a salaried position of the equivalent, what kind of uplift could be expected to be a contractor, given the lack of (presumably) job security and costs (NI, benefits, etc) that an employer would have to bear for a salaried employee?

I appreciate salaried vs contractor gets brought up often but as this is for a graduate I'm unsure if the scaling is similar as someone more senior in highly paid roles.

She is pretty confident they want her and will be well qualified and in a position where she could pick up other legal work quite easily (law finalist at Oxford, predicted a 1st).

The advertised 'salary' is £22k but having spoken to another employee, she was advised to negotiate carefully as some others in the same position are on a gross as low as £17k due to not understanding the pay structure they agreed. She is not looking to take the piss though as she is keen on the work this organisation is offering.

Would be very grateful of any advice that might help.

[Complex]

It's something she's looking to do to gather experience in a specific field before she applies for post graduate. She doesn't expect to be there more than a year, it's not at all for the money otherwise she would be taking a full-time commercial role. She just doesn't want to agree a bad deal as ultimately this will help fund her post-graduate studies.

[Complex]

Performing well academically and having theoretical knowledge doesn't necessarily mean she knows the ins and outs of employment law and how the market behaves and its norms. Her lack of commerciality is through lack of scenarios where she's practiced it and, while she won't be seeking an career in commercial law, her ability to argue and reason on complex subjects is obviously very strong.

Thanks Battered for the numbers which is what I was after. She'll be negotiating on the basis of a day-rate but won't be looking to over-leverage the Oxbridge angle as the position gives experience which is quite highly sought after and the other 'employees' working there are predominantly Oxbridge and LSE grads anyway.

Thanks for the steer, I appreciate it was a bit of an anomaly of a question given the circumstances.

Edit - will raise the PI point, thanks. They operate as a charity and I believe she will be a para to one of their employed solicitors.

Edited by Complex on Friday 29th April 13:56

[Complex]

Thanks for raising the questions Eric, I'll bring them to her attention to be addressed by the employer. The answer to them is 'No', though.

She will not have her own clients, she will give assistance to solicitors who under the charity (the employer) giving legal aid. I don't know the ins and outs. The charity status of the organisation and the fact I anticipate that many of the staff of the level she's applying for use it as a means to get experience in the field and therefore turnover may be high but I'm speculating.

Ultimately most of these opportunities for this type of experience are unpaid (due to their desirability among graduates) so it's not critical and she will probably take the position regardless, we thought it worth being diligent though.

Thanks again for all your input.