Legal Recruitment Newsletter
Welcome to the January edition of Legal Recruitment News, including a Legal Job Market Update, Latest Candidate Registrations and a revisit of psychic New Year predictions from January 2013.
Legal Recruitment News is written by Jonathan Fagan, MD and non-practising solicitor of the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment group (Interim Lawyers, Ten-Percent, Ten-Percent Legal Careers and TP Transcriptions).
Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
Job Market Update – January 14th
2013 has been one of the strongest years for growth in the recruitment market for a long time. The KPMG and Recruitment & Employment Confederation Report on Jobs dated 9th January 2014 (monthly report) had the following highlights:
1. Strongest rise in permanent placements since March 2010
2. Temp billings increase at fastest pace in over 15 years
3. Permanent salary growth highest since October 2007
4. Decline in availability of candidates – biggest decline since 2004.
A KPMG partner commented: “Combine the latest job figures with news that business confidence has reached a new high and it’s easy to share the renewed sense of optimism amongst employers. Permanent placements alone have hit a 4-year peak and with temporary hires accelerating to a 15-year high there is clearly room for…job creation. There is speculation suggesting Mark Carney might revise the unemployment benchmark at which an interest rate rise will be considered. The recovery is clearly gaining momentum…employers and individuals will be keeping an eye on interest rates and the impact any changes have on the pound in their pocket before deciding if a new job is the way to go. Some uncertainty still remains because the availability of staff to fill roles has seen a steep fall – the biggest for almost 10 years….The risk is that if it continues employers who are desperate to fill a gap could become stretched beyond their means at the same time as over-inflating the market by offering high salaries just to tempt employees to move.”
A few points here – I am not sure the high salaries issue is relevant to the legal job market – salaries have been so stunted for so long that any movement will simply be to take certain posts back up towards where they ought to be rather than over-inflating them.
Secondly, as law firms see massive increases in the property market it is likely that investment will occur in expanding operations and hence the number of conveyancing fee earners needed is set to rise. There is still a lost generation of conveyancing lawyers, some of whom are locums and others quite happy in other fields.
Incidentally if you are reading this and thinking of becoming a conveyancing locum, now would be a good time to start! Let us know – our www.interimlawyers.co.uk contains a lot of information about working as a locum including locum rates. We have managed to keep a couple of our regular property locums in constant employment since the start of the summer with short term and medium term assignments. This was until recently a very rare thing to do. One of our locums came back to the profession after a 4 year break and has not stopped working since.
Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and regularly writes the Legal Recruitment blog, an award-winning selection of articles and features on legal recruitment and the legal profession. You can contact Jonathan at cv@ten-percent.co.uk or visit one of our websites.
Candidate Registrations in the last 7 days
140114 Residential and Commercial Conveyancing Locum Solicitor – Greater London area. Taking bookings for 2014.
130114 Residential and Commercial Conveyancing Locum Solicitor – North London and Hertfordshire. Long and short term.
1301141620 Residential Conveyancing Locum Solicitor – South and Central London – £25 per hour.
13011603 Residential & Commercial Conveyancing Locum Solicitor – West London – £25 per hour.
13011425 Business Crime Solicitor – permanent – available immediately.
13010823 Litigation Solicitor with Privy Council experience. London. General practice work. Permanent.
13011538 Conveyancing Solicitor looking for permanent or contract post in and around Exeter.
13011149 Conveyancing Locum – Res and Com – taking bookings for 2014. London and South.
13011134 Conveyancing Locum – available for East Anglia. Taking bookings for 2014.
10010843 Wills & Probate Solicitor looking for posts in and around Bedfordshire. 5 years PQE.
09012232 Commercial Property Locum Solicitor looking around West London and Middlesex.
08011216 Commercial and Residential Property Locum Solicitor available for Manchester, Midlands, London and South.
We have over 10,000 lawyers registered with us. To request CVs for a specific vacancy please register your vacancy – Locum or Permanent
A Psychic’s 2013 New Year Predictions Revisited
Last year we carried an article in our January Newsletter about predictions for 2013 by an expert online psychic, Craig Hamilton-Parker (taken from www.psychics.co.uk). We have also included his 2014 predictions below to see how he does when we revisit in 2015.
Mr Hamilton-Parker charges £1.53 per minute for his services via telephone consultations.
Online Psychic Predictions for 2013 – how many did Craig get right?
1. War in the Middle East – February. Israel will attack Iran. Incorrect. Thank goodness.
2. Terrorist attack on Chicago in the summer. 1/2 marks – Boston in April.
3. Syrian uprising to continue. Iran to invade. 1/2 marks. Iran hasn’t invaded.
4. Poor grain harvest to occur in Russia. Incorrect. Up 30% on 2012.
5. Robert Mugabe will be assassinated in the Autumn. Incorrect.
6. Revolution in China – June 2013. China to split up. Incorrect.
7. Google will be attacked by terrorists. Incorrect.
8. Search engine to be released in Europe – funded by the EU. Incorrect.
9. Spain’s economy to fall apart. Incorrect.
10. Ed Milliband to be replaced by Yvette Cooper. Incorrect.
11. Nick Clegg to fight off a challenge from Vince Cable. Incorrect.
12. Victoria Beckham to launch a range of maternity clothing. Not entirely sure so half marks!
13. Kate Middleton to announce she is pregnant in May 2013. Impossible.
14. Simon Cowell to become more spiritual. Is there any way of assessing this?
Total score (allowing for the Victoria Beckham maternity wear prediction as it is not clear whether or not she has produced a range): 2 out of 14.
Craig’s predictions for 2014:
1. The Dalai Lama will be taken seriously ill.
2. Pope Francis will initiate a new spiritual mission to help the mentally ill.
3. Syria will be partitioned into Alawite and Sunni provinces. Assad will go into hiding.
4. Gunman rampage in Kansas. Similar attack on the London underground.
5. Strange luminous plankton seen under the sea that cannot be explained by scientists.
6. Remains of an ancient civilisation uncovered in Greenland.
7. Oprah Winfrey launches new spiritual chat show bringing many world religious leaders to book.
8. UK postal strikes backed by other trade unions and transport brought to a standstill.
9. Nick Clegg resigns
10. Massive fire in Mexico City
11. New Orleans flooded again
12. Factory explodes in Southern USA causing a chemical cloud.
13. Australia has biggest bush fire ever.
14. Japan builds a nuclear bomb
15. US economy soars ahead.
16. Massive riots at the Brazilian World Cup.
If you would like to make your own predictions for 2014 please visit www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.co.uk and add your comment to this article. We will then revisit them all in January 2015.
Recent Salary Levels and Hourly Rates
In case of interest, here is a selection of recent salary levels we have come across.
In House Counsel – large multi-national plc – South of England – £65k plus package.
Locum Conveyancing Solicitor – Manchester – £25 per hour.
Locum Conveyancing Solicitor – South Coast – £25 per hour.
Salaried Conveyancing Executive – South London – £30k
Salaried Conveyancing Solicitor – South London – £30k
East Midlands Conveyancing Solicitor Locum – £20 per hour
West Midlands Wills & Probate Solicitor Locum – £35 per hour
Salaried PA and Receptionist – Central London – £25k
Commercial Property Solicitor Locum – Central London – £30 per hour
Paralegal North London – £18k
East Midlands Wills & Probate Partner – Permanent – £45k
London Conveyancing Permanent – Solicitor 5 years PQE – £35k and £42k
Jonathan Fagan is a solicitor, qualified recruitment consultant and Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed here – www.linkedin.com/in/jbfagan
Charity Donations
The Ten-Percent Foundation is still determining its charitable donations for 2013. We like giving money to legal charities or charities with links to solicitors or charities operated or established by solicitors. So far in 2013 we donated money to two Lincolnshire charities at the behest of Hodgkinsons Solicitors, Merseyside Welfare Rights and Alder Hey childrens hospital. We also expect to donate to the CAB, a new charity set up to provide dogs for injured soldiers and the British Stammering Association.
If you have any suggestions please email Jonathan Fagan at jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk. The foundation likes to donate sums of around £500-£1,000 although we donate larger sums as well. No form filling is required and we prefer specific projects or smaller charities.
The Ten-Percent Group of Legal Recruitment websites gives 10% of annual profits to charity. We have carried on with this tradition since we formed the company 13 years ago. So far over £51,000 has been donated to charities in the UK and Africa including LawCare and the CAB.
We hope you have enjoyed reading our newsletter and look forward to hearing from you if we can assist further.
Warm regards
Jonathan Fagan
Consultant
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.
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