Candidate Legal Recruitment News March 2012

Legal Recruitment Newsletter for Candidates March 2012
Sponsored by Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Contents:
Vacancy Update
Legal Job Market Report 1st March 2012
Recruitment Statistics
Application Forms for Legal Jobs – a waste of time?
A Perfect Interview – what would the questions be?
Training Secretaries to Sell You
How long should a CV be?
Dictation Outsourcing
How to write a good personal profile section for your CV

Legal Job Market Report 1st March 2012
February 2012 was again a very busy month in recruitment, but again vacancies are going up and down like a yo yo. One minute we are flat out, the next very quiet. Very different to recruitment of old, where there was a constant drip of vacancies and candidates coming into us. The main thing we are noticing is that there is starting to be a bit of a shortfall in numbers of applicants. I think some candidates have got a bit fed up of constantly applying for vacancies where the goalposts change or the firm decide not to recruit right at the last minute, and others have simply left the profession.

An example of the goalposts changing recently occurred with a firm in the South East who shall remain nameless. Firstly they advertised a vacancy – very simply this was for a solicitor to do a form of litigation. We sent this out to our candidates and sent over CVs. Next, they decided that they no longer needed a solicitor, it required the services of a legal executive. We sent out the vacancy and provided CVs. Thirdly, they decided that not only did they need a legal executive, they needed one who had a following. At this point we gave up, anticipating that if we found one with a following, no doubt the firm would require the candidate to own a private jet, live in the Seychelles and be able to speak Ukranian as well!

This is quite a common problem at the moment, and unfortunately certain law firms are creating a name for themselves in doing this repeatedly. There is a firm in central London where we will not get any candidates applying unless they are recently in to us, simply because the firm have such a bad reputation at changing the goalposts or not getting back to either us or the candidates about interviews. Very frustrating!

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment is now the preferred supplier to over 50 law firms, and they continued to post vacancies with us throughout February.

Locum posts have recently dropped off.

Commercial posts are picking up through our specialist corporate/commercial and in house website – www.jonathanfagan.co.uk – recent vacancies have been in media law (in house), regulatory posts and general corporate commercial and commercial litigation.

On the high street side we have actually seen recruitment occur in conveyancing, which is good news, plus a wide range of work including family law, property litigation, crime (starting to get very busy this year) and personal injury.

In February we saw 97 new solicitor and legal executive registrations with us.

Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. T: 0207 127 4343 or email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk

Links:
Register Vacancies Online
About Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
£60 Recruitment Service

Vacancy Update from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Recent vacancies are as follows:

14529
Civil Litigation, Employment and Personal Injury Solicitor
Civil litigation, employment and claimant PI/clinical negligence solicitor sought by a Hounslow firm in a good location. They ideally seek a salaried solicitor but will also consider someone on a consultancy basis. Looking for someone able to assist in all three fields, or, at the very least, two of them.

14530
Conveyancing Assistant
VACANCY JUST IN – Conveyancing Assistant sought by a smaller size Northampton firm. The firm seek someone who is able to assist with the fee earning side on files (you will be doing tasks for the conveyancing partner), assist with the administration side of the work – keeping track of quotes given, filing, answering the phone, dealing with clients on a daily basis, handling matters post-completion, opening files etc. This is not just a fee earning role, but also an administrative role. The firm are small and the role encompasses a wide range of work. Salary levels are £17-20k. You will be dealing with elderly clients on a regular basis and hence need to be patient, confident and comfortable speaking on the telephone. Case management software experience very useful. Conveyancing experience is essential.

14527
Crime Solicitor Duty
Duty Solicitor sought by medium sized firm based in the North Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire areas. Specialist litigation firm with a high street mix of work as well.

14526
Crime Solicitor – Freelance – Duty
Legal 500 Birmingham firm seek duty solicitors. Ideally seeking them on a freelance basis but similarly will look at salaried candidates as well. Offices in the Black Country and Birmingham.

14525
Wills & Probate Solicitor
Medium sized firm of solicitors based in Leeds seek a private client solicitor – 5yrs pqe + , salary at market rate, STEP qualified and confident in marketing and business development. Preferably already in the Leeds/West Yorkshire area.

14524
Crime Solicitor Duty
Duty Solicitor sought by firm based in the Leicester area. Salaried or freelance options considered. Medium sized practice.

14523
Paralegals for LSC funded work
Experienced paralegals to carry out legal aid work in the following areas of law:-
-Immigration (accredited case workers)
-Housing
-Family
-Prison law
The firm also require an admin person, preferably one who lives not too far from Sutton in Surrey.

14522
Associate Solicitor
Associates – Kent and Lincolnshire
Medium sized firm with commitment to both private and LSC funded work, are looking for solicitors and other senior fee earners, with a client following, who would wish to work on an Associate basis. You will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of quality legal services. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Remuneration commensurate with experience and qualifications.

14520
Crime Solicitor Duty
Duty Solicitors sought on a freelance basis – monthly retainer plus hourly rate. This is a VHCC firm with a good mix of quality work and based in West London. Medium sized practice.

14519
Crime Duty Solicitor
Duty Solicitor sought by medium sized multi office firm in Reading. Seeking someone to work out of the Reading office. Salary up to £40k, dependent on experience.

14518
Industrial Disease Fee Earner
Our clients, a firm of solicitors based in Skegness, handle a broad spectrum of industrial disease work including, lung conditions, noise induced hearing loss, repetitive strain injuries, asthma and dermatitis. Their team is rapidly expanding and we are looking for the right candidate with a minimum of 2 years experience of handling their own industrial disease caseload, in particular noise induced hearing loss claims.

14517
Crime Solicitor (Duty)
Duty Solicitor sought by leading Essex firm to join a team based in Chelmsford. Full range of work required – Magistrates Court, Crown Court preparation and police station. Larger sized practice with Legal 500 status.

14516
General Practice Lawyer
Medium sized firm seek candidates who can work on and off on cases on a part time basis. Upon cases coming in, the firm will recommend you and work on a percentage basis. Types of law will be Employment, Family Law, Conveyancing. Vacancies will suit persons who do not want to commit full time and looking for flexibility. The firm will award 40 – 50% of the income. The firm are based in South West London and happy to have preliminary discussions on a confidential basis.

14515
General Practice Solicitor
Small to medium sized firm looking for fee earners with their own case load and a following who are prepared to work on a self-employed 50-50 basis. The firm will also consider solicitors prepared to go out and find work on the same basis.

14514
Family Supervisor sought
Family Panel member sought to act as LSC supervisor for firm based in London SW2. You do not need to be locally based, but can be located remotely and act on a consultancy basis. Monthly retainer plus hourly rate available.

14512
Higher Court Advocate Crime with Duty Status
Firm in Bedford seek a replacement Higher Court Advocate with Duty solicitor status. The individual may be a Barrister provided they have duty status. Salary to reflect level of experience and potential. The post is located at Bedford and primarily will serve Luton, Northampton and Cambridge Crown Courts. However, there is potential to travel further afield to Oxford, Reading and Leicester. Salary is £45k+.

14510
Crime Solicitor Duty
Crime Duty Solicitors sought by a rapidly expanding Ashford firm in Kent. Looking to recruit solicitors on a salaried or consultancy basis. Part time hours are encouraged. Medium sized practice seeking to expand further.

14508
Family Solicitor
Specialist practice in East London seek a family solicitor and supervisor, preferably with housing supervisor status and/or housing law experience to join them on a full or part time basis. Family Panel membership or Resolution accreditation essential for this role.

14507
Associate Solicitor
Associates – Kent and Lincolnshire

Medium sized firm with commitment to both private and LSC funded work, are looking for solicitors and other senior fee earners, with a client following, who would wish to work on an Associate basis. You will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of quality legal services. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Remuneration commensurate with experience and qualifications.

14506
Conveyancing Lawyer
Innovative and expanding firm, with offices in Kent and Lincolnshire, seek conveyancing fee earners to join their practice at the Kent office based in Herne Bay. The vacancies arise from expansion in terms of conveyancing work at the Kent offices, and the firm need to find solicitors or legal executives, who are commercially minded, client focused individuals, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of quality legal services.Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.

14505
Housing Law Supervisor
Housing law supervisor sought in Long Sutton (Lincolnshire). The firm is an innovative and expanding firm, with offices in Kent and Lincolnshire. Owing to their expansion and the grant of a new legal aid contract in housing law, they need to find a solicitor or legal executive, who is qualified to supervise this category of law for the purposes of the Legal Services Commission. The successful candidate will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of legal services to the poorer members of society. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.

14504
Family Solicitor and Panel Member
Family law supervisor sought in Long Sutton (Lincolnshire) – near Kings Lynn. National firm with vacancy locally.
The firm are an innovative and expanding practice, with offices in Kent and Lincolnshire. Owing to expansion at the office in terms of the services they offer, and the grant of a new legal aid contract in family law, they need to find a solicitor or legal executive, who is a panel member and therefore qualified to supervise this category of law for the purposes of the Legal Services Commission. The successful candidate will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of legal services to the poorer members of society. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.

14499
Legal Secretary x 2
Two secretaries sought by Dartford firm – looking for secretaries with experience in dealing with either family, employment or housing, but will consider secretaries coming from a high street law firm background. You MUST have legal experience in a law firm setting to be considered for this post.

14498
Debt, Welfare Benefits and Housing Lawyer
Debt and Welfare Benefits Lawyer sought by smaller sized Dartford firm – ideally someone with Housing law experience as well.

14497
Family Solicitor
Family Solicitor sought by small Dartford firm – looking for someone around the 2-3 years PQE mark in terms of salary and must be able to handle a mixed caseload of LSC funded and privately funded work.

14496
Crime Solicitor
Crime Solicitor sought by Lancashire firm. Looking to recruit a criminal defence duty solicitor to be based at their Kendal office providing cover at both Barrow and Kendal offices also on rota duties out office hours. The salary package is dependent upon experience.

14495
Housing. Welfare Benefit or Debt Supervisor
Housing, Welfare Benefit or Debt LSC Supervisor sought by firm based in SE2. This is a smaller sized practice with a commitment to LSC funded work. The firm need to replace a member of staff. Salaried or fee sharing role available – the firm are quite flexible. LSC Supervisor Status essential.

14492
Personal Injury Fee Earner
Personal Injury Fee Earner sought by Surrey/Hampshire border firm with a significant amount of RTA work coming in. Looking for someone able to stand on their own two feet and handle a caseload. Salary levels negotiable – all levels of qualification considered. Claimant work.

14491
Mental Health Consultants
Mental Health Supervisors and Consultants sought by East London firm of medium size to work on a profit share basis. MHRT panel members probably most suited. Generous fee split arrangements.

Other vacancies in over the last 48 hours include a locum for 26-30 March in Wantage, Oxfordshire, a duty solicitor in Leicester, freelance duty roles in London, a mental health supervisor in East London and a conveyancing assistant in Northampton.

To enquire/apply about any of the above jobs, please email us at cv@ten-percent.co.uk

Spotlight on Gramdan Solicitors.
Gramdan Solicitors are a progressive practice based in central London and Birmingham. They have a unique model for recruitment, which is to encourage and nuture solicitors and caseworkers to join and benefit from their support.

They are looking to recruit as follows:
“We seek Solicitors, Caseworkers, Conveyancers, Legal Executives and Paralegals of all disciplines and areas of law with own privately funded client base and a willingness to work on commission basis only. It is important that you have your own client base with a constant flow of work or regular sources of work. Chosen candidates shall be provided professional training support including CPD costs; Indemnity cover, accounts and IT Support. The option to work flexibly and/or from home for those that prefer this option is provided. Work shall be made available by the office to set candidates but it is important that they have a base. There are good career advancement prospects for the right candidates at our offices in both London and Birmingham.”
Interested? Please email cv@ten-percent.co.uk

Application Forms for Legal Jobs – waste of time?

As well as recruiting solicitors, we also coach solicitors on the careers side. I have recently been working with a number of entrants to the legal profession on their training contract applications to the larger city law firms. It is quite fascinating to see the application forms and the sheer length and complexity of them.

As a recruiter, I am starting to question why the process cannot be shortened somewhat for everyone concerned. I know it will put a few administration assistants out of a job, and ruin a few dinner party conversations amongst senior partners at some of the larger London law firms as to who has the longest form, but what about adopting the following strategy for recruitment at training contract and vacation placement level? Surely this will save time and costs?

1. Get each applicant to go online and fill out a form consisting of:
a. Their name, address, postcode, telephone number and email address.
b. Their A Level grades or equivalent.
c. Their degree class or anticipated class.
d. Nothing else.

2. At the closing date, use automated software to cull anyone who has not got a minimum of a 2.1 and AAA or ABB at A level. We think this happens anyway at most firms.
3. Send each remaining applicant a list of questions you want them to answer.
4. Give each applicant a ring and interview them for 5 minutes on the basis of these answers.
5. Select from the list of applicants remaining and call these candidates in for interview.

I would hazard a guess that no-one reads the long winded answers on these forms that students can spend literally days filling out. Furthermore, why do the firms need to know most of the information they ask for when the vast majority of applicants will get rejected on academic performance? It seems a total waste of time and quite demoralising for the armies of applicants currently out there looking to break into the city and spend 2 years working flat out! Recruitment can be speeded up so easily now with the advent of the internet. Its been around a while now, but I think it gets underused in situations like this….

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. You can comment on this article at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com

The Perfect Interview

If you could conduct the perfect interview how would it go? Here is our suggestion. If you have any others, let us know via www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com or our facebook account.

1. Set up the interview room with the interviewee’s chair in an odd position.
2. Get one of your employees to sit in the waiting room and engage the interviewee in conversation about anything non-work related.
3. When greeting the interviewee, shake their hand for a minimum of 5 seconds.
4. See what they do with the chair.
5. Interview questions as follows:

a. If you were conducting this interview, what would you want to find out about yourself?
b. Tell me about yourself in 30 seconds.
c. Tell me about myself in 30 seconds.
d. If I was to go onto the internet and find out about you, what would I find?
e. If I was to tell you that there is no salary offered for this role and I want you to pay me to work here, what would you say?
f. Tell me a joke.
g. What is 24 x 67?
h. If man had three legs, what added benefits would there be to our lives?
i. As a bank manager, would you ever loan money to a solicitors firm who did not have a website or presence?
j. Five people are in a room. How do you determine which one is a leader?
k. Are you a leader or a team player? Do you want my job?
l. If we were to ask your office cleaner about you, what would they say?
m. Have a look at this file. Do you think we have done enough work on it or not enough?
n. How do you streamline a business like ours?

I think this interview would last about 20 minutes and give you sufficient information about a candidate to know whether you would want to employ them or not.

Try it and let us know!

Comment on this interview at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com

How Long Should a CV be?

How long is a piece of string? I get asked this question almost on a daily basis and hear a lot of different answers once I have given my response.
The usual or fairly common response is someone who has been told by a careers adviser when they were 14 that a CV should never be longer than 2 pages, or someone else who’s been told by a friend who is a lawyer and got a job with a good firm that their CV shouldn’t be longer than 1 page.

The correct answer is that for everyone not applying for a training contract or paralegal work and straight out of university is that a CV is as long as it needs to be. In some cases this can be 12 pages, in other cases this can be 1 page.

We normally recommend having a CV that is between about 2 pages and 7 pages long.

If you are applying for training contracts your CV should never be longer than 2 pages unless you have come from a previous career that is directly relevant to a legal career.

If you are a solicitor your CV should not fit onto 2 pages because you should have lots to say and therefore it should fit onto between about 3 and 6 pages. The more senior you are the lengthier the CV.

I have worked with a client a few days ago who had a CV that was 19 pages long. This was because they had included case examples at the end of the CV and so the actual CV was 9 pages long plus examples of cases they had worked on.

This is important because it means that someone can read the comfortably but then if they want further information about actual cases they can go on and explore these further without needing to contact the candidate again.

The most important part of a CV is the first third of the first page because this is the part that pops up onto your computer screen or comes out of an envelope and is checked.

There are specific techniques for making sure that your CV is quickly readable and catches the eye, and although you can read all about this on our various websites, blogs, article pages, you could also just cut to the chase and use our own CV preparation service or purchase our legal CV writing pack which contains hundreds of examples and templates. And yes – this is a shameless plug!

Jonathan Fagan, Managing Director of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment. Jonathan personally prepares and writes all the CVs for lawyers and law students who use our CV writing services. He has over 10 years’ experience and has worked with clients as diverse as District Judges through to law students. For details please visit our Legal Careers Shop.

How to Write a Good Personal Profile
The first thing to say about a personal profile section is that if you have nothing to say, the best personal profile section for you would be an empty one and the space used more effectively for something else.
You only need a personal profile section to explain about six points. These are

Your job title
The number of years’ experience you have
Any particular tempting assets for a prospective employer
The location you seek work
How much you want
When you are available.
An example of this in a legal career context would be :

“A conveyancing solicitor with 5 years PQE and a personal following worth £120k, looking for a suitable post in North West London. Salary levels £40-£50k, notice period 2 months”.

By including this information it makes it possible for anyone looking at the CV to immediately see who the person is, and whether or not they wish to continue to read the CV or move onto the next one. This section is one of the hardest to get right because if the personal profile is no good then it is highly likely that anyone looking at the CV will immediately form a negative perception of the writer.

The personal profile we have included above complies with the three second rule.

The three second rule is the theory that you have three seconds to impress the reader of your CV before they give up and move onto the next one or fail to take in exactly who you are and what you are looking for.

A personal profile that just contains a load of buzz words and subjective information is completely useless and a total waste of time and space.

An example of this would be

“A gregarious and outgoing law graduate with a can-do attitude to work. Possessing a sense of humour and an ability to achieve great things. Looking to progress career and demonstrate my great ability to any prospective employer”.
We see so many of these on CVs and it is sad to think that it is possible that someone somewhere is advising people to include this nonsense. I would imagine that pretty much every employer would agree that this type of entry is a complete waste of time and effort and should be avoided like the plague.

If this is all you have to write on your CV leave the personal profile section off. Profiles are only really relevant if you have something specific to the post or type of firm you are applying to and if not then it is best to let the employer simply read what you have done to date in your work experience and your academic career.

Jonathan Fagan is MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment – visit our careers shop for CV advice, career coaching and many more products.

Training your Secretaries to sell

This article may assist you at interview – for example if you want to demonstrate commercial awareness or your potential input to a firm at interview stage.

We are all quite bad at selling generally I think. I have to confess to having not really trained some of my colleagues in the various careers services that we offer. How many of my colleagues actually know what I charge to take a career coaching session in central London, or how much one of our interview training videos or training contract packs costs?

How do we do? I have checked a few times by cold calling our call centre staff and also the office. Most of the time we are OK, but the advice below relates specifically to law firms.

It is a very common bug bear about law firms that on the whole secretaries are not the best people to take initial first calls. One of the main issues about calling firms of solicitors is getting straight through to a fee earner who can assist there and then with any queries and demonstrate added value. Added value is a major sales issue and regularly crops up in marketing speak. As far as I can gather in recruitment it involves taking your clients to play golf regularly or reducing prices, but in law firms it is surely demonstrating that you know what you are talking about and you value the client enough to give them direct access to a knowledgeable employee.

When a potential new customer calls up, you should ensure they are put through as quickly as possible to a fee earner. Fee earners should be made to understand that new customers are the source of the cash paying their salaries.

Not only does this demonstrate added value, but also indicates the quality of your firm. So many times I call a law firm and get an extremely abrupt receptionist who knows nothing about me or why I have called. A few times I have called London firms and someone has picked up the phone and said “call back” before hanging up! What if that call had been from a customer with a case worth £30k?

The same applies with emails. Quite a few firms have auto responders for any queries and these are really important. They demonstrate that the firm have received the customer’s enquiry and will get back to them. Without an auto responder it is hard to know whether an email has actually arrived safely.

Secretaries need training in sales. There are no two ways about it. These are very often your sales team, whether you like it or not. What about incentivising them? Bonuses for positive feedback or increased take up following a certain length of call? You could ask customers about their first impressions of your secretaries/sales team and reward the secretaries accordingly. This could spice up your work place a little bit….

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment.

£60 Legal Recruitment Statistics
Our innovative new scheme offering all law firms the chance to cover their legal recruitment costs for just £60 per month for 5 years (and yes, we do mean all legal recruitment costs – there are no charges), enables a firm to control their recruitment budget whilst filling vacancies. Some firms use us as sole suppliers, but others purchase the service as an add-on to their existing recruitment provision. We estimate that since July 2011 firms using the scheme have already avoided recruitment agency fees totalling over £100,000.

50+ firms have now signed up.

We have over 8,500 qualified candidates registered with us. These include:

1,394 crime solicitors, police station reps and legal executives. Of these, at least 307 are duty solicitors and over 1,000 are 1+ year PQE solicitors.
1,988 conveyancing solicitors and legal executives. 1,205 of these have 3 years PQE or more.
891 wills & probate solicitors and legal executives. At least 100 of these are STEP.
702 commercial property solicitors. At least 490 of these are over 3 years PQE.
139 corporate finance solicitors.
126 legal cashiers.
935 personal injury solicitors, legal executives and fee earners.
627 corporate commercial solicitors. At least 360 of these are over 3 years PQE.
643 commercial litigation solicitors. At least 365 of these are over 3 years PQE.
237 solicitors and legal executives who describe themselves as professional locums (at least 500 locums on our books)
1188 civil litigation solicitors and legal executives
667 employment solicitors and legal executives
96 intellectual property solicitors
1,568 family solicitors and legal executives. We recently managed to get LSC supervisors for over 90% of the supervisor vacancies on our books before the December 2011 deadlines and every member firm had a selection of LSC family supervisors from us to choose from. One firm even managed to recruit within an hour of the LSC deadline expiring after signing up with us minutes beforehand. At least 960 of our candidates have 3 years PQE or more in family law.

774 of our candidates are based in the North West
952 of our candidates are based in the Midlands
785 of our candidates are based in Yorkshire and the North East
1138 of our candidates are based in Anglia and Essex
422 of our candidates are based in the South West
279 of our candidates are based in Wales
1765 of our candidates are based in London
1037 of our candidates are based in the South Central region (Hampshire to Oxfordshire)
939 of our candidates are based in the South East (Kent, Sussex and Surrey)

We cover all types of law, from high street through to commercial practice. Our member firms can recruit at all levels, whether permanent, locum, support staff or solicitors, fee earners and legal executives. Each vacancy is sent out to all relevant candidates on our database, posted on a variety of job boards, and via social networking including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Click here to instantly register legal vacancies

Low Cost Digital Dictation Outsourcing

TP Online Transcription & Typing Service with offices in London and North Wales. We have a team of 20 UK based transcribers offering digital file and tape transcribing services worldwide. Established in 2001, the company has been handling bulk orders (including over 500 hour projects) and one-off assignments for legal and non-legal clients including a large number of UK Solicitors, B&Q, Endemol, the Office of Fair Trading, Sony, Dundee University, Cartridge World, University of Oxford, NHS Tayside, the British Medical Journal, Marie Curie and many more.

We can transcribe from all audio & digital files, whether WAV, WMA, DSS (Olympus) or MP3 (plus a host of other formats), CD or DVD, Standard Cassettes, Mini and Micro Cassettes and Video (VHS). We have FTP facilities. For legal work we are happy to take templates to transcribe into. Our main service for law firms is our capacity to free up ‘in office’ secretaries to undertake daily tasks whilst reducing the backlog of work or any large transcription jobs. For details of the service please visit http://www.tptranscription.co.uk/ call 01352 751945 or email pearl@uk-transcription.co.uk.

About Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
Formed in April 2000, Ten-Percent is an innovative recruitment membership service run online for law firms and employers across the UK and offshore, offering fixed monthly fee recruitment to members. Over 1,300 law firms and companies have used our services, and we have over 8,000 solicitors & legal executives registered for opportunities, as well as other fee earners and support staff. We donate 10% of our annual profits to charity. http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/

Please email us details of any vacancies to cv@ten-percent.co.uk or register the vacancy online on our website.

Legal Recruitment News
For older editions of the Legal Recruitment News, and free articles on recruitment, legal careers, training, SEO & Web Marketing, please visit https://legal-recruitment.co.uk/ . You can also visit the http://www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com/ for over 200 articles on Legal Recruitment including advice for candidates.

Legal Recruitment News and Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
Email: cv@ten-percent.co.uk
Website: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/ : https://legal-recruitment.co.uk/
Tel: 0207 127 4343

Legal Recruitment Newsletter for Candidates March 2012

Sponsored by Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Contents:

Vacancy Update

Legal Job Market Report 1st March 2012
Recruitment Statistics

Application Forms for Legal Jobs – a waste of time?

A Perfect Interview – what would the questions be?

Training Secretaries to Sell You

How long should a CV be?

Dictation Outsourcing

How to write a good personal profile section for your CV

Legal Job Market Report 1st March 2012

February 2012 was again a very busy month in recruitment, but again vacancies are going up and down like a yo yo. One minute we are flat out, the next very quiet. Very different to recruitment of old, where there was a constant drip of vacancies and candidates coming into us. The main thing we are noticing is that there is starting to be a bit of a shortfall in numbers of applicants. I think some candidates have got a bit fed up of constantly applying for vacancies where the goalposts change or the firm decide not to recruit right at the last minute, and others have simply left the profession.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment is now the preferred supplier to over 50 law firms, and they continued to post vacancies with us throughout February.

Locum posts have recently dropped off.

In February we saw 97 new solicitor and legal executive registrations with us.
Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. T: 0207 127 4343 or email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
Links:
Register Vacancies Online
About Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
£60 Recruitment Service

Vacancy Update from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Recent vacancies are as follows:

14529	Civil Litigation, Employment and Personal Injury Solicitor	Civil litigation, employment and claimant PI/clinical negligence solicitor sought by a Hounslow firm in a good location. They ideally seek a salaried solicitor but will also consider someone on a consultancy basis. Looking for someone able to assist in all three fields, or, at the very least, two of them.
14530	Conveyancing Assistant	VACANCY JUST IN – Conveyancing Assistant sought by a smaller size Northampton firm. The firm seek someone who is able to assist with the fee earning side on files (you will be doing tasks for the conveyancing partner), assist with the administration side of the work – keeping track of quotes given, filing, answering the phone, dealing with clients on a daily basis, handling matters post-completion, opening files etc. This is not just a fee earning role, but also an administrative role. The firm are small and the role encompasses a wide range of work. Salary levels are £17-20k. You will be dealing with elderly clients on a regular basis and hence need to be patient, confident and comfortable speaking on the telephone. Case management software experience very useful. Conveyancing experience is essential.
14527	Crime Solicitor Duty	Duty Solicitor sought by medium sized firm based in the North Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire areas. Specialist litigation firm with a high street mix of work as well.
14526	Crime Solicitor – Freelance – Duty	Legal 500 Birmingham firm seek duty solicitors. Ideally seeking them on a freelance basis but similarly will look at salaried candidates as well. Offices in the Black Country and Birmingham.
14525	Wills & Probate Solicitor	Medium sized firm of solicitors based in Leeds seek a private client solicitor – 5yrs pqe + , salary at market rate, STEP qualified and confident in marketing and business development. Preferably already in the Leeds/West Yorkshire area.
14524	Crime Solicitor Duty	Duty Solicitor sought by firm based in the Leicester area. Salaried or freelance options considered. Medium sized practice.
14523	Paralegals for LSC funded work	Experienced paralegals to carry out legal aid work in the following areas of law:- -Immigration (accredited case workers) -Housing -Family -Prison law The firm also require an admin person, preferably one who lives not too far from Sutton in Surrey.
14522	Associate Solicitor	Associates – Kent and Lincolnshire Medium sized firm with commitment to both private and LSC funded work, are looking for solicitors and other senior fee earners, with a client following, who would wish to work on an Associate basis. You will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of quality legal services. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Remuneration commensurate with experience and qualifications.
14520	Crime Solicitor Duty	Duty Solicitors sought on a freelance basis – monthly retainer plus hourly rate. This is a VHCC firm with a good mix of quality work and based in West London. Medium sized practice.
14519	Crime Duty Solicitor	Duty Solicitor sought by medium sized multi office firm in Reading. Seeking someone to work out of the Reading office. Salary up to £40k, dependent on experience.
14518	Industrial Disease Fee Earner	Our clients, a firm of solicitors based in Skegness, handle a broad spectrum of industrial disease work including, lung conditions, noise induced hearing loss, repetitive strain injuries, asthma and dermatitis. Their team is rapidly expanding and we are looking for the right candidate with a minimum of 2 years experience of handling their own industrial disease caseload, in particular noise induced hearing loss claims.
14517	Crime Solicitor (Duty)	Duty Solicitor sought by leading Essex firm to join a team based in Chelmsford. Full range of work required – Magistrates Court, Crown Court preparation and police station. Larger sized practice with Legal 500 status.
14516	General Practice Lawyer	Medium sized firm seek candidates who can work on and off on cases on a part time basis. Upon cases coming in, the firm will recommend you and work on a percentage basis. Types of law will be Employment, Family Law, Conveyancing. Vacancies will suit persons who do not want to commit full time and looking for flexibility. The firm will award 40 – 50% of the income. The firm are based in South West London and happy to have preliminary discussions on a confidential basis.
14515	General Practice Solicitor	Small to medium sized firm looking for fee earners with their own case load and a following who are prepared to work on a self-employed 50-50 basis. The firm will also consider solicitors prepared to go out and find work on the same basis.
14514	Family Supervisor sought	Family Panel member sought to act as LSC supervisor for firm based in London SW2. You do not need to be locally based, but can be located remotely and act on a consultancy basis. Monthly retainer plus hourly rate available.
14512	Higher Court Advocate Crime with Duty Status	Firm in Bedford seek a replacement Higher Court Advocate with Duty solicitor status. The individual may be a Barrister provided they have duty status. Salary to reflect level of experience and potential. The post is located at Bedford and primarily will serve Luton, Northampton and Cambridge Crown Courts. However, there is potential to travel further afield to Oxford, Reading and Leicester. Salary is £45k+.
14510	Crime Solicitor Duty	Crime Duty Solicitors sought by a rapidly expanding Ashford firm in Kent. Looking to recruit solicitors on a salaried or consultancy basis. Part time hours are encouraged. Medium sized practice seeking to expand further.
14508	Family Solicitor	Specialist practice in East London seek a family solicitor and supervisor, preferably with housing supervisor status and/or housing law experience to join them on a full or part time basis. Family Panel membership or Resolution accreditation essential for this role.
14507	Associate Solicitor	Associates – Kent and Lincolnshire Medium sized firm with commitment to both private and LSC funded work, are looking for solicitors and other senior fee earners, with a client following, who would wish to work on an Associate basis. You will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of quality legal services. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Remuneration commensurate with experience and qualifications.
14506	Conveyancing Lawyer	Innovative and expanding firm, with offices in Kent and Lincolnshire, seek conveyancing fee earners to join their practice at the Kent office based in Herne Bay. The vacancies arise from expansion in terms of conveyancing work at the Kent offices, and the firm need to find solicitors or legal executives, who are commercially minded, client focused individuals, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of quality legal services.Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.
14505	Housing Law Supervisor	Housing law supervisor sought in Long Sutton (Lincolnshire). The firm is an innovative and expanding firm, with offices in Kent and Lincolnshire. Owing to their expansion and the grant of a new legal aid contract in housing law, they need to find a solicitor or legal executive, who is qualified to supervise this category of law for the purposes of the Legal Services Commission. The successful candidate will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of legal services to the poorer members of society. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.
14504	Family Solicitor and Panel Member	Family law supervisor sought in Long Sutton (Lincolnshire) – near Kings Lynn. National firm with vacancy locally. The firm are an innovative and expanding practice, with offices in Kent and Lincolnshire. Owing to expansion at the office in terms of the services they offer, and the grant of a new legal aid contract in family law, they need to find a solicitor or legal executive, who is a panel member and therefore qualified to supervise this category of law for the purposes of the Legal Services Commission. The successful candidate will be a commercially minded, client focused individual, with technical expertise and a commitment to the delivery of legal services to the poorer members of society. Ideally, you will also have management experience (either team or department supervision), although full training and development opportunities will be provided. Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.
14499	Legal Secretary x 2	Two secretaries sought by Dartford firm – looking for secretaries with experience in dealing with either family, employment or housing, but will consider secretaries coming from a high street law firm background. You MUST have legal experience in a law firm setting to be considered for this post.
14498	Debt, Welfare Benefits and Housing Lawyer	Debt and Welfare Benefits Lawyer sought by smaller sized Dartford firm – ideally someone with Housing law experience as well.
14497	Family Solicitor	Family Solicitor sought by small Dartford firm – looking for someone around the 2-3 years PQE mark in terms of salary and must be able to handle a mixed caseload of LSC funded and privately funded work.
14496	Crime Solicitor	Crime Solicitor sought by Lancashire firm. Looking to recruit a criminal defence duty solicitor to be based at their Kendal office providing cover at both Barrow and Kendal offices also on rota duties out office hours. The salary package is dependent upon experience.
14495	Housing. Welfare Benefit or Debt Supervisor	Housing, Welfare Benefit or Debt LSC Supervisor sought by firm based in SE2. This is a smaller sized practice with a commitment to LSC funded work. The firm need to replace a member of staff. Salaried or fee sharing role available – the firm are quite flexible. LSC Supervisor Status essential.
14492	Personal Injury Fee Earner	Personal Injury Fee Earner sought by Surrey/Hampshire border firm with a significant amount of RTA work coming in. Looking for someone able to stand on their own two feet and handle a caseload. Salary levels negotiable – all levels of qualification considered. Claimant work.
14491	Mental Health Consultants	Mental Health Supervisors and Consultants sought by East London firm of medium size to work on a profit share basis. MHRT panel members probably most suited. Generous fee split arrangements.

To enquire/apply about any of the above jobs, please email us at cv@ten-percent.co.uk

Spotlight on Gramdan Solicitors.

Gramdan Solicitors are a progressive practice based in central London and Birmingham. They have a unique model for recruitment, which is to encourage and nuture solicitors and caseworkers to join and benefit from their support.

They are looking to recruit as follows:

“We seek Solicitors, Caseworkers, Conveyancers, Legal Executives and Paralegals of all disciplines and areas of law with own privately funded client base and a willingness to work on commission basis only. It is important that you have your own client base with a constant flow of work or regular sources of work. Chosen candidates shall be provided professional training support including CPD costs; Indemnity cover, accounts and IT Support. The option to work flexibly and/or from home for those that prefer this option is provided. Work shall be made available by the office to set candidates but it is important that they have a base. There are good career advancement prospects for the right candidates at our offices in both London and Birmingham.”

Interested? Please email cv@ten-percent.co.uk

Application Forms for Legal Jobs – waste of time?

1. Get each applicant to go online and fill out a form consisting of:

a. Their name, address, postcode, telephone number and email address.

b. Their A Level grades or equivalent.

c. Their degree class or anticipated class.

d. Nothing else.

2. At the closing date, use automated software to cull anyone who has not got a minimum of a 2.1 and AAA or ABB at A level. We think this happens anyway at most firms.

3. Send each remaining applicant a list of questions you want them to answer.

4. Give each applicant a ring and interview them for 5 minutes on the basis of these answers.

5. Select from the list of applicants remaining and call these candidates in for interview.

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. You can comment on this article at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com

Register Vacancies – Permanent or Locum, Qualified Lawyers or Support Staff

The Perfect Interview
If you could conduct the perfect interview how would it go? Here is our suggestion. If you have any others, let us know via www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com or our facebook account.

1. Set up the interview room with the interviewee’s chair in an odd position.

2. Get one of your employees to sit in the waiting room and engage the interviewee in conversation about anything non-work related.

3. When greeting the interviewee, shake their hand for a minimum of 5 seconds.

4. See what they do with the chair.

5. Interview questions as follows:

a. If you were conducting this interview, what would you want to find out about yourself?

b. Tell me about yourself in 30 seconds.

c. Tell me about myself in 30 seconds.

d. If I was to go onto the internet and find out about you, what would I find?

e. If I was to tell you that there is no salary offered for this role and I want you to pay me to work here, what would you say?

f. Tell me a joke.

g. What is 24 x 67?

h. If man had three legs, what added benefits would there be to our lives?

i. As a bank manager, would you ever loan money to a solicitors firm who did not have a website or presence?

j. Five people are in a room. How do you determine which one is a leader?

k. Are you a leader or a team player? Do you want my job?

l. If we were to ask your office cleaner about you, what would they say?

m. Have a look at this file. Do you think we have done enough work on it or not enough?

n. How do you streamline a business like ours?

I think this interview would last about 20 minutes and give you sufficient information about a candidate to know whether you would want to employ them or not.

Try it and let us know!

Comment on this interview at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com

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How Long Should a CV be?

How long is a piece of string? I get asked this question almost on a daily basis and hear a lot of different answers once I have given my response.

The usual or fairly common response is someone who has been told by a careers adviser when they were 14 that a CV should never be longer than 2 pages, or someone else who’s been told by a friend who is a lawyer and got a job with a good firm that their CV shouldn’t be longer than 1 page.

We normally recommend having a CV that is between about 2 pages and 7 pages long.

If you are applying for training contracts your CV should never be longer than 2 pages unless you have come from a previous career that is directly relevant to a legal career.

The most important part of a CV is the first third of the first page because this is the part that pops up onto your computer screen or comes out of an envelope and is checked.

How to Write a Good Personal Profile

The first thing to say about a personal profile section is that if you have nothing to say, the best personal profile section for you would be an empty one and the space used more effectively for something else.

You only need a personal profile section to explain about six points. These are

Your job title
The number of years’ experience you have
Any particular tempting assets for a prospective employer
The location you seek work
How much you want
When you are available.

An example of this in a legal career context would be :

“A conveyancing solicitor with 5 years PQE and a personal following worth £120k, looking for a suitable post in North West London. Salary levels £40-£50k, notice period 2 months”.

The personal profile we have included above complies with the three second rule.

A personal profile that just contains a load of buzz words and subjective information is completely useless and a total waste of time and space.

An example of this would be

We see so many of these on CVs and it is sad to think that it is possible that someone somewhere is advising people to include this nonsense. I would imagine that pretty much every employer would agree that this type of entry is a complete waste of time and effort and should be avoided like the plague.

Jonathan Fagan is MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment – visit our careers shop for CV advice, career coaching and many more products.

Training your Secretaries to sell

This article may assist you at interview – for example if you want to demonstrate commercial awareness or your potential input to a firm at interview stage.

How do we do? I have checked a few times by cold calling our call centre staff and also the office. Most of the time we are OK, but the advice below relates specifically to law firms.

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment.

Register Vacancies – Permanent or Locum, Qualified Lawyers or Support Staff

£60 Legal Recruitment Statistics

Our innovative new scheme offering all law firms the chance to cover their legal recruitment costs for just £60 per month for 5 years (and yes, we do mean all legal recruitment costs – there are no charges), enables a firm to control their recruitment budget whilst filling vacancies. Some firms use us as sole suppliers, but others purchase the service as an add-on to their existing recruitment provision. We estimate that since July 2011 firms using the scheme have already avoided recruitment agency fees totalling over £100,000.

50+ firms have now signed up.

We have over 8,500 qualified candidates registered with us. These include:

1,394 crime solicitors, police station reps and legal executives. Of these, at least 307 are duty solicitors and over 1,000 are 1+ year PQE solicitors.

1,988 conveyancing solicitors and legal executives. 1,205 of these have 3 years PQE or more.

891 wills & probate solicitors and legal executives. At least 100 of these are STEP.

702 commercial property solicitors. At least 490 of these are over 3 years PQE.

139 corporate finance solicitors.

126 legal cashiers.

935 personal injury solicitors, legal executives and fee earners.

627 corporate commercial solicitors. At least 360 of these are over 3 years PQE.

643 commercial litigation solicitors. At least 365 of these are over 3 years PQE.

237 solicitors and legal executives who describe themselves as professional locums (at least 500 locums on our books)

1188 civil litigation solicitors and legal executives

667 employment solicitors and legal executives

96 intellectual property solicitors

1,568 family solicitors and legal executives. We recently managed to get LSC supervisors for over 90% of the supervisor vacancies on our books before the December 2011 deadlines and every member firm had a selection of LSC family supervisors from us to choose from. One firm even managed to recruit within an hour of the LSC deadline expiring after signing up with us minutes beforehand. At least 960 of our candidates have 3 years PQE or more in family law.

774 of our candidates are based in the North West

952 of our candidates are based in the Midlands

785 of our candidates are based in Yorkshire and the North East

1138 of our candidates are based in Anglia and Essex

422 of our candidates are based in the South West

279 of our candidates are based in Wales

1765 of our candidates are based in London

1037 of our candidates are based in the South Central region (Hampshire to Oxfordshire)

939 of our candidates are based in the South East (Kent, Sussex and Surrey)

Click here to instantly register legal vacancies

Low Cost Digital Dictation Outsourcing

We provide ongoing typing contracts and also work on a one-off basis. Our transcribers are all based in the UK and we maintain a high standard of quality output. Our transcribers are experienced secretaries from the legal profesison, medicine or general business and some are educated to degree level and higher.
We can transcribe from all audio & digital files, whether WAV, WMA, DSS (Olympus) or MP3 (plus a host of other formats), CD or DVD, Standard Cassettes, Mini and Micro Cassettes and Video (VHS). We have FTP facilities. For legal work we are happy to take templates to transcribe into. Our main service for law firms is our capacity to free up ‘in office’ secretaries to undertake daily tasks whilst reducing the backlog of work or any large transcription jobs. For details of the service please visit http://www.tptranscription.co.uk/ call 01352 751945 or email pearl@uk-transcription.co.uk.

About Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
Formed in April 2000, Ten-Percent is an innovative recruitment membership service run online for law firms and employers across the UK and offshore, offering fixed monthly fee recruitment to members. Over 1,300 law firms and companies have used our services, and we have over 8,000 solicitors & legal executives registered for opportunities, as well as other fee earners and support staff. We donate 10% of our annual profits to charity. http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/

Please email us details of any vacancies to cv@ten-percent.co.uk or register the vacancy online on our website.
Legal Recruitment News
For older editions of the Legal Recruitment News, and free articles on recruitment, legal careers, training, SEO & Web Marketing, please visit https://legal-recruitment.co.uk/ . You can also visit the http://www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com/ for over 200 articles on Legal Recruitment including advice for candidates.

Legal Recruitment News and Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
Email: cv@ten-percent.co.uk
Website: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/ : https://legal-recruitment.co.uk/
Tel: 0207 127 4343

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