Legal Job Market Report December 12th
Good afternoon and welcome to the Candidate December edition of Legal Recruitment News from the Ten-Percent Recruitment Group. Our websites include Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, Interim Lawyers, Legal-Recruitment and many more.
The staff at Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment wish all our clients and candidates a very peaceful break and a prosperous New Year.
The market report for December is fairly short. Permanent recruitment has been very quiet indeed since the traditional half term break at the end of October. We had a spurt of family and children panel member posts coming in, probably to do with yet another Legal Services Commission deadline cropping up.
There seem to be quite a lot of Children Panel member vacancies floating around – the LSC appear to have gone through one of their contract deadlines again and a number of firms are hunting around for a supervisor.
The locum market has quietened down as it always does at this time of year. Locums quite often book off November and December in their diaries as they expect to be off in any event and this can make it harder to source a lawyer even with less work around.
Commercial Law Firms and In House:
Quiet still – we are getting news of redundancies here and there, but a lot of the larger law firms now have contracts tied up with larger recruitment agencies and don’t tend to put a lot through the smaller companies like ourselves. Employers seem to have been holding back in recent times still and not much activity spotted at all. We have had a few commercial litigation posts in and a couple of employment locum posts but that is about it. We do find that even with in house counsel recruitment the HR departments put out requests for CVs and then decide not to proceed.
On the High Street:
Redundancies seem to have stopped, although we are starting to notice a new pattern emerging in business of partners dismissing permanent members of staff and reverting to locums and contractors. Recently we have had a locum assignment in from a law firm in London where we knew the departing permanent member of staff. We were told by the firm that the locum was needed to cover sick leave, whereas in fact the locum had been recruited to take over the caseload of the solicitor who had been laid off.
Conveyancing, private client and commercial property temporary and contract work has been busy up until the middle of November. Conveyancing still occurring, which is a good sign that the market has now changed and property is starting to move again.
Company News
Interim Lawyers, our locum service, has now opened offices in Manchester, London, Basingstoke and Gloucester. We cover the whole of the UK, offering swift and cost effective services for any law firm looking for temporary or contract law staff at all levels. We guarantee to make a locum available for every assignment posted with us (provided the assignment is reasonable – obviously we will struggle to recruit a Welsh speaking 20 year PQE solicitor to work for £5 per hour in the Outer Hebrides!).
Ten-Percent Legal’s £3,600 for 5 years Unlimited Recruitment Service is still going strong and we are (very) gradually drawing closer to our 100th member law firm. Cost savings to our 70+ firms are already estimated to be around £275,000. Over 60% of members undertake LSC funded work in some capacity and 33% have less than 2 partners. The service is restricted to firms with less than 100 staff.
In October/November 2012 we had 143 new solicitors and legal executives register with us, together with just short of 900 paralegals and non-qualified staff (in response to specific law firm member vacancies). We restrict our own legal candidate database to ensure we only register qualified or suitably experienced staff.
10% CV Discount
To celebrate the fact that it is Christmas, and we are full of cheer, general excitement and near total exhaustion handling very excited children (!), we would like to offer all registered candidates a 10% discount on our CV services. If you are thinking of getting your CV revamped or checked out in the New Year, simply log onto our Legal Career Shop Site, purchase a CV service (CV Reviews and CV Preparation both included) and we will give you 10% cashback within 24 hours. Email us straight after your purchase to let us know. No catches or terms, unless you can think of any!
LinkedIn and Ten-Percent/Interim Lawyer Vacancies
From January 2013 onwards we will be posting all our vacancies directly onto LinkedIn as updates to Jonathan Fagan’s profile. To receive instant updates from us, simply request a connection from Jonathan Fagan – uk.linkedin.com/in/jbfagan and we will agree to connect. LinkedIn is a very useful source in any event, but well worth connecting to get updates from us.
Locum Q&As
We have recently put together a collection of Frequently Asked Questions and guidance on hourly rates for our locum site – www.interimlawyers.co.uk – if you would like to take a look please visit the site or click the links below:
http://www.interimlawyers.co.uk/about/faqs
http://www.interimlawyers.co.uk/about/locum-solicitor-rates-of-hourly-pay-2013
Questions answered on Locum work include:
Am I considered self-employed or as an employee?
Am I covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance if I work as a locum?
What are the rates of pay for a Locum Solicitor or Lawyer?
What are the Terms and Conditions of Employment for a Locum?
How, when and what will I be paid for my locum services?
Will I get any travelling allowance whilst working as a locum?
Will working as a locum affect my chance of permanent employment in future?
Can my locum contract be checked?
What do I do if I have had change in circumstances or a change of contact details?
How do I register for work as a locum solicitor with Interim Lawyers?
Once I am registered how do I get booked to work as a Locum?
Who do I contact if I become available for more Locum work?
How do you communicate with your locums?
Why work as a locum?
How much do I as a locum have to pay you the agency?
Who pays my tax and National Insurance?
What do I do if I can’t fulfill an assignment?
What is the cost of having a locum?
How far ahead can I plan my locum cover for holidays?
How can I be sure you will send a fully qualified Locum Solicitor?
The Locum we used was not as good as expected, what can we do?
How are locum solicitors screened – what qualifications do they have?
You can also comment on any of the answers – we will gladly publish any corrections or additions.
Salary Review Update
The Ten-Percent Legal Salary Survey is available online – Click the link below to view the surveys, which are broken down into geographical areas: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/salary-reviews
Legal Recruitment News is produced by Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment – you can view all versions of the e-newsletter at www.legal-recruitment.co.uk. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment was established in 2000 and donates 10% of profits to charity, hence the name.
Interim Lawyers – www.interimlawyers.co.uk
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment – www.ten-percent.co.uk
T: 0207 127 4343
E: jobs@ten-percent.co.uk
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