Legal Recruitment News – March 2013

Newsletter

Welcome to the March edition of Legal Recruitment News. We have included our job market update, new candidate lists, articles on how to post an effective job ad and top interview questions for 2013.

Legal Recruitment News is written by Jonathan Fagan, MD of the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment group (Interim Lawyers, Ten-Percent £60, Ten-Percent Legal Careers and TP Transcriptions).

Job Market Update – March 5th
The job market has been hijacked in February by outstanding skiing conditions in France. I have to confess spending a pleasant week in the Alps enjoying the steady fall of fresh powder every morning and discovering the joys of French wi-fi in the evenings to keep up with clients and work. At the same time recruitment is never helped whenever politicians talk about the prospects of a triple dip recession. I wait with great excitement for 2015 to arrive so I can hear politicians talking about a quintuplet dip recession…

This month’s market report is broken down into four sections, as there is quite a wide disparity between our various lines of work.

LSC areas of work
There are still plenty of firms out there struggling to survive on the various trainee plumber rates being paid by the LSC for highly qualified legal work (not that any bias has crept into this writing). A whole tranche of smaller firms signed up to the most latest round of family contract awards and ended up with a miniscule number of matter starts. I doubt very much whether a lot of firms will have been able to arrange for an LSC family supervisor to actually work for them in view of the small number of cases they have been given.

With redundancies in the past 6 weeks at a number of larger firms still paying salaries of £35k or more to senior crime solicitors, I suspect we may have reached the end of the line for LSC funded work to be a viable career option for more junior solicitors to even contemplate.

We have been through deadlines for LSC contracts in the past two months in family law, housing, debt and immigration. The supervisors required for immigration law contracts are virtually impossible to find (IAAS Level 3). Housing and Family supervisors still exist in good numbers, but the number of firms who can actually afford them is another matter entirely! If you have a need for a contract supervisor, let us know. We only assist members of Ten-Percent £60 with these types of vacancies – for details please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/membership-services.

Crime is coming up again and the next CDS12 duty solicitor deadline is May 14th (as far as we know). Duty solicitors are finding it increasingly hard to get salaried posts at any firm in the country now – most firms are trying to either comply with the LSC terms for salaried duty solicitors only, or alternatively they are just ignoring the LSC and continuing with the self-employed staff on a monthly retainer plus hourly rate. I remain sceptical as to whether the LSC actually have the resources left to bother going after firms who supposedly ‘flout’ their unworkable regulation. We have a large number of duty solicitors available this year including those looking to work in other industries for the majority of the time and just do the minimum required to retain their duty status. This is almost certainly the future for most lawyers.

Property and Private Client
Finally we have seen sustained recruitment for conveyancing and wills & probate in a range of law firms across the UK. There appears to be a renewed drive to expand teams and replace departing staff at a number of law firms. Locum and permanent have yet again picked up for the third month in a row. We are noticing more firms taking increased care over employing staff who have moved around in recent times and recruitment is not (or likely to be) the free for all it was in 2006.

Corporate Commercial
The commercial arm of the industry is fairly steady. Although recent adverts have increased in number for a range of medium to larger sized firms, I would estimate that at least 75% of vacancies are being advertised across a range of employment agencies, meaning that the numbers are somewhat misleading. Redundancies are still occurring as firms offload aging staff (and better paid), still a very common practice.

Locums
Still quiet – occasionally ebbing and flowing. Now is the time to start getting bookings in for 2013, particularly summer holiday cover. A number of our locums have their years fully booked already, but we have plenty of capacity. Employing locums or contractors is a way to expand or cover busy periods without committing to a new member of staff. The only downside is that locums can be slightly more expensive. In the current market this is not so much of a problem because there are plenty of them out there, which is keeping the price down.

Questions
Any questions regarding the above? Contact me via LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/jbfagan), Facebook, Twitter (@tenpercentlegal) or old fashioned email – jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk

Jonathan Fagan, March 5th 2013.

10 New Candidates in last 24 hours
Selection of new candidates registered in the past 24 hours. Got a permanent vacancy or locum assignment? Get in touch and we will send over CVs to assist, sometimes almost immediately. Over 10,000 solicitors and legal executives are registered with us.
E: cv@ten-percent.co.uk
Twitter: @tenpercentlegal
Tel: 0207 127 4343

04031200 Conveyancing Locum – Res and Com. 9 years PQE. Permanent also. London.
04031906 Conveyancing & Wills and Probate Solicitor looking around Berkshire.
04031642 Legal Cashier – 5+ years experience. Thames Valley. Permanent.
04031525 IP/Media/Entertainment Solicitor. 15 years PQE. London. Permanent salaried roles.
03031812 Conveyancing Locum – Res and Com. Leeds/Yorkshire. 15 years PQE.
02031625 Legal Cashier – Locum and Permanent. Over 10 years experience. London and Essex.
04032327 Crime Solicitor with HR and Duty Status – 5 years PQE. Relocating to London.
04031935 Children Panel member looking in Lancashire and Manchester.
04031325 Duty Solicitor looking for freelance VHCC and Crown Court work – Manchester.
01031017 Family Solicitor, Nottingham. 15 years PQE.
01031420 Wills & Probate Locum – London and South East. 25 years PQE+.
28022150 LSC Housing Supervisor – West Midlands or London.

How to post an effective job advertisement
So many advertisements we see in the back of the Gazette are completely rubbish. So bad that most solicitors just scratch their heads when reading them. Put yourself in the shoes of a job seeker looking for a new position and try reading one.

Usually one of the following is missing:

1. The level of experience required.
2. Any indication on salary levels. Competitive or negotiable does not help.
3. The location of the firm.
4. Contact information.
5. Anything to sell the vacancy to the candidate.
6. A call to action other than ‘get in touch’.

The first thing to say about job advertisements is that they are advertisements. The clue is in the title…. You can’t expect a candidate to want to join your firm and be really grateful for the opportunity you are offering them. It doesn’t work like this. You have to sell to them. What have you got to offer? If all you have to offer is a 30% split of any work they bring to your firm plus office space, you are either going to end up with an alcoholic solicitor about to be struck off or some crazy person who may decide to set fire to your filing cabinets at any time. Candidates need selling to – why should they want to come and work for your firm? What have you got to offer?

Consider these two job ads:

1. Conveyancing solicitor needed. Non-smoker who can do own typing essential. Time wasters need not apply. Must have own following and work on fee split. Apply in writing by closing date in 7 days. Letter and CV must be handwritten.
2. Conveyancing Solicitor required by medium sized solicitors firm based near to train station, 20 mins from London Victoria. All levels considered – salary range of £30-40k. Partnership a possibility in 2-5 years time. Email bobcarolgees@smithsolicitors.com or call 02070271234 for an informal discussion.

Which one would you go for? You can leave off the salary range – not essential – but very useful at filtering candidates from the outset.

Be nice to the applicants when they apply – you can be as horrible as you usually are later but in order to recruit you must get them through the door! Do not send them abrupt emails prior to interview informing them to check the specification before continuing – ie – “you must have a following to be considered” or “please provide a copy of your practising certificate and three references.”

Are you employing a member of staff or looking to go into business with the person? It is important not to get the two mixed up. If looking for someone to go into business with (ie bringing their own sources of work) do not give them too many specifics from the start.

Charity Donations
The Ten-Percent Foundation currently has about £4,500 to donate before the end of March 2013 to a range of causes. We like giving money to legal charities or charities with links to solicitors or charities operated or established by solicitors.

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. 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. Apart from a small blip caused by the recession in 2008, we have carried on with this tradition since we formed in April 2000. So far over £35,000 has been donated to charities in the UK and Africa including LawCare.

10 Top Interview Questions for 2013
Interviews have got a lot tougher in recent times – reports of honest feedback being given (‘candidate was useless and just mumbled’ or ‘candidate was completely over the top and needs to calm down’) means that employers are being much more selective as to whom they invest in and employ.

Here are our top 10 interview questions for 2013:

1. Outline ‘quantitive easing’ in 20 seconds.
2. I see you have moved about a bit. Does nobody like you?
3. Why were you made redundant in 2007?
4. Have you used the recession as an excuse for your own poor performance?
5. Why hasn’t your billing increased in the last 2-3 years?
6. How do we know you will not just take a better job in 6 months?
7. What is your ideal job and how do we differ from it?
8. What steps have you taken to reduce your own exposure to credit?
9. Have you paid your mortgage off yet? Why not?
10. What would be a good hourly rate/annual salary for you at this stage in your career? What about in 3 years time?

For 300 legal job interview questions for law firms please email me – jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk and I will send you them over in pdf format by return.

We look forward to hearing from you if we can assist further.

Warm regards

Jonathan Fagan
Consultant

Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme

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
Legal Recruitment Newsletter – www.legal-recruitment.co.uk

T: 0207 127 4343
E: jobs@interimlawyers.co.uk
E: jobs@ten-percent.co.uk

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Legal Recruitment News January 8th 2013

Legal Job Market Report January 8th

Good morning and a Happy New Year to you. Welcome to the January edition of Legal Recruitment News from the Ten-Percent Recruitment Group. Our newsletter includes articles on how to get rid of customers without even seeing them, candidate lists, predictions for 2013 from a psychic, common myths regarding locums and the top 10 New Year resolutions.

Our websites include
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment,
Interim Lawyers,
Legal-Recruitment.

The market report for January is extremely short.

December was possibly one of the quietest months we have ever seen in 12 years of trading. Whether this is because the staff at most law firms (and ourselves) spent half of it Christmas shopping is of course another matter entirely!

Both locum and permanent recruitment was down a very long way, although this pattern is very common for recruitment. This year the dip was bigger than usual,
although our company has relocated offices and our local electricity board decided to cut down trees for 2 days, switching us off for the day each time!

Company News
Interim Lawyers, our locum service, has now opened offices in Manchester, London, Basingstoke and Gloucester (see our last newsletter for details of our swift office opening techniques!).
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.

Candidate Update January 8th 2013
Many thanks to Dinesh Raja at Bowling & Co for suggesting we split our candidate lists up into regions.

London and Home Counties
06011836 Commercial Contracts Paralegal – 2 years exp. – London.
06011803 Private Client & Immigration Solicitor, 3 years exp. East London.
05011544 Residential and Commercial Conveyancing Locum. 20 years. Guildford.
05011511 Residential and Commercial Conveyancing Locum. 25 years. London and Surrey.
04010955 Private Immigration – part time. Level 2 & Solicitor.
03012220 Residential and Commercial Conveyancing Locum. 20 years. London and Home Counties.
03011842 Litigation Locum – available for hearings and work in London and Home Counties.
02012242 Legal Secretary and Legal Assistant – High Street, 2 years exp. Hounslow.
02011959 In House Solicitor, General Commercial and Investment Management exp. 1 year PQE.
21121034 Commercial Property Solicitor Locum, 20 years PQE. Central London.
18121728 Personal Injury Locum, 15 years experience. Essex, London and Suffolk.

14121113 Family Solicitor, LSC supervisor, Part time or full time salaried only. London, Kent and Essex.

19122302 Duty Solicitor and HRA, West London, Salaried roles sought.
07012218 Police Station Rep – East Midlands and London.
02011625 Duty Solicitor Crime, 4 years PQE. Available for temporary work until next rotas.
01011137 Housing Solicitor with LSC Supervisor status. Looking for salaried role. Sussex and London.

Kent
02011316 Employment, Wills & Probate, Litigation, Commercial Contracts Locum, Kent and London. 25 years experience.
01011233 Legal Cashier returning to profession. 10 years experience.
18121320 Legal Cashier, over 10 years experience looking for a move in Kent.

East Anglia
30122152 Wills & Probate Solicitor Locum. Over 15 years PQE. East Anglia and Hertfordshire.
27121054 Locum Secretary with experience as an ILEX in residential development and construction. Norwich and surrounds.
18121728 Personal Injury Locum, 15 years experience. Essex, London and Suffolk.

Yorkshire & Manchester
30120143 Duty Solicitor based in Sheffield but looking to relocate if needs be. 3 years PQE. £30k salary.
28121600 Practice Manager with over 15 years experience. Manchester, Yorkshire and Lancs.
17122104 Personal Injury Locum looking around the North West and Yorkshire.

Liverpool & Merseyside
07011708 Commercial Property Solicitor – locum/contract – available 2 days pw.
19121556 Personal Injury Paralegal – Team Leader and Case Handler.

South West
07011556 Locum 5 year PQE Solicitor covering Corporate Finance, IP, Commercial Property, Company Commercial and Employment.
28121848 Employment Lawyer with Conveyancing. 6 years experience. Cardiff, Somerset and Bristol.
21121132 Crime Solicitor, 1 year PQE, Hereford or Leominster.
20121314 Conveyancing and Wills & Probate Locum, 25 years PQE. Bristol and South West.
17120715 Employment Solicitor with over 10 years experience, Bristol and Somerset.

Midlands
29120223 Costs Draftsman with Personal Injury experience looking in the Midlands.
07011207 Prison Law and Police Station Rep. 3 years experience.
02011420 Competition/Regulatory Solicitor, 15 years PQE. £100k salary.
05011044 Crime Solicitor looking in Hull, North Lincs, South Yorks and Derby/Nottingham.
28121324 Personal Injury Solicitor, 1 year PQE, Claimant, East Midlands.
26121854 Duty Solicitor with slots to transfer – Birmingham rotas.

Wales
01012243 FILEX Family and Personal Injury Lawyer. Cardiff & Bristol area.

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How to get rid of 80% of your customers without speaking to them

I recently made a number of telephone calls to businesses in the Chester area to get a quote for conveyancing services. Out of 6 solicitors firms I called, none put me through to a solicitor and all relied on their receptionists to give me a price.

Responses included:

“the solicitor has gone to the loo and he might be a while calling you back.”
“the usual price is £600 for a sale and £500 for a purchase – does that answer your question?”
“he’s busy at the moment (no mention of who ‘he’ is).”
“the person who usually deals with this is out – can he call you back (he didn’t).”
“oh, just a minute. I’ll put you on hold. (on hold for 5 minutes). Now, what did you want again?”
“£500 all in. Is that OK?”

In actual fact, my query was very specific – I needed advice on sale of part of a property, retention of agricultural land and the possible later sale of a barn for development. Not one person I spoke to was qualified to handle the query and none of them let me ask the question or were prepared to put me through to the right person. In the end I went online, found a specialist in the Legal 500 and called him directly.

How much do you throw away from not handling initial queries effectively?

Assuming your business gets 10 requests for quotations every week and you convert 2 of them into business, how much extra business would you be gaining if you could convert the remaining 8 requests into actual orders?

It doesn’t take much at times. In all the examples above, the firms in question simply needed to put me through to a solicitor who could demonstrate his or her knowledge, show me a bit of understanding and then give me a price to reflect his or her worth. What the firm did not need to do was let me speak to a secretary or receptionist who clearly didn’t care less whether I used their services or not.

So make a resolution for the new year – train the people who answer your telephone calls to sell your business to every person who makes a call.

Jonathan Fagan is MD and recruitment consultant for Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and Interim Lawyers. His blog is at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com and all our articles are published here and also at www.legal-recruitment.co.uk – our monthly newsletter site.

New Year Predictions
Last year we carried an article in our January Newsletter about predictions from 2011 by the experts (and ourselves) on the state of the legal profession, the economy and general life.

This year, for something different, we have included a list of predictions from a
self-professed online pyschic, Craig Hamilton-Parker (taken from www.psychics.co.uk).

1. War in the Middle East – February. Israel will attack Iran.
2. Terrorist attack on Chicago in the summer.
3. Syrian uprising to continue. Iran to invade.
4. Poor grain harvest to occur in Russia.
5. Robert Mugabe will be assassinated in the Autumn.
6. Revolution in China – June 2013. China to split up.
7. Google will be attacked by terrorists.
8. Search engine to be released in Europe – funded by the EU.
9. Spain’s economy to fall apart.
10. Ed Milliband to be replaced by Yvette Cooper.
11. NIck Clegg to fight off a challenge from Vince Cable.
12. Victoria Beckham to launch a range of maternity clothing.
13. Kate Middleton to announce she is pregnant in May 2013.
14. Simon Cowell to become more spiritual.

Number 13 looks as if it may have been written a little prematurely…

It would be very interesting to hear of Mr Hamilton-Parker’s methodology for predicting these events – does it involve reading tea leaves, studying the stars or simply writing random thoughts in his head after reading the newspaper?

New Year Predictions

Here are the top 5 predictions you will not keep and suggestions for making them work. Article abridged and taken from www.forbes.com.

Go on a Diet

Some weight loss experts will tell you flat out, diets don’t work. For many people, unfortunately this is very true. Diets only work for a while – usually for as long as you stick to the carefully regulated plan. And studies show, after awhile, most people get tired of following such a strict regimen and go back to eating pretty much what they ate before. Sadly, diets also make many people gain weight!

What Does Work: Making small changes to your eating habits. Here are a few small changes that pack a big calorie punch. Giving up a daily habit – eg stop drinking a latte every day at 10.30am…. Switch from whole milk to semi skimmed milk.

Stop Smoking

If you’re waiting for that perfect day when you’ll just be able to stop because you promised yourself you would, it’s not going to happen.

What Does Work: Who knows! Lots of different techniques…

Get More Exercise (Related Resolution: Join a Gym)

The problem with this one is, it’s too vague. In other words, it’s too easy to make a stab at, and then let yourself slide because it’s cold outside, or it’s too dark when you get home, or your muscles hurt, or the gym’s too crowded and the equipment smells sweaty.

What Does Work: To make a significant lifestyle change and make it stick, you need to replace an old habit (being a couch potato or workaholic) with a new one. You also need to make it pleasant, or at least not too unpleasant. A few ways to do this are to start a new sport, one you actually like, or join forces with someone else to keep you motivated.

Lose a stone

Like quitting smoking, it’s not that you shouldn’t lose weight. If your body-mass index is over 25, you qualify as overweight and you want to tip the scales downwards. But the typical promise, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by June so I can wear a bathing suit,” is not going to be kept. Just ask anyone who made this resolution last year.

What Does Work: Not attaching a number to your goal. That’s not to say you shouldn’t watch the scale. Recent studies suggest that regular weight checks are important for keeping any weight loss program on track.

What really works: calories in < calories out.

Stop Biting My Nails, or Twirling My Hair, Or….

It’s almost impossible to break a physical habit with willpower alone, experts say. That’s because we’ve been doing it so long (hence the name habit…) that we’re no longer aware of it.

What Does Work: Becoming aware of the cues that trigger our habits, even when we’re not paying attention.

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

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 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.

Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme

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

London Office:
Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
2nd Floor
145-157 St John Street
London
EC1V 4PY

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

London Office:
Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
2nd Floor
145-157 St John Street
London
EC1V 4PY

Legal Recruitment News Dec 5th 2012 – Ten-Percent Legal

Legal Job Market Report December 5th
Good morning and welcome to the 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 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.

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.

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£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme

Expanding your Firm Quickly – Marketing Ideas

We have recently taken the decision to expand Interim Lawyers, our online locum recruitment service, and increase our locum offerings across the UK and overseas.

In order to do this, we researched the different options available for our marketing spend, and I thought this may be of interest to law firms thinking up ideas to expand business and increase their client base.

As a company, we have taken the following steps:

1. Opened offices in Basingstoke, Gloucester, Manchester and London.
2. Made sure our web presence reflects this (work in progress – more below!).
3. Increased our Google Adwords account spend in the keywords we are looking to offer our increased service in – ie conveyancing locums, family locums, Manchester solicitor locums, London locum services, Hampshire locums, etc.. etc.. Our keyword list is about 150 long at the moment and it may be increased now to well over 300 with the new office addresses.
4. We have added extra web pages and started to look for additional backlinks online.
5. Law Society Gazette advertising for early 2013.

Opening up offices is not exactly a difficult option, although I appreciate that there will be issues with the SRA in terms of supervision for solicitors firms.

For recruitment agencies it is possible simply to purchase a virtual office address with local meeting room facilities and the cost is minimal. Our Manchester office has cost £34.99, our Basingstoke office £65 and our London office £100. Each of these means that we get extra geographical coverage in search terms whenever a law firm types in ‘Manchester solicitor locums’ or similar.

Our Adwords account costs are also fairly low cost – we pay around £5 per day for all our advertising, and this picks us up enough leads to make it worthwhile. I know of companies who spend over £75,000 a year on Google Adwords, but we are not one of these. After all, if I write an article on legal recruitment, Google very kindly publish it for me and our company picks up extra visits to our various websites as a result.

We had a think about advertising and decided the best read journal was the Gazette and if I had been looking to recruit a locum when in practice, this would have probably been the first port of call. Advertising does not need to cost the earth, although it sometimes feels like it….

I often get asked by solicitors in career coaching sessions how much should a company spend on marketing and advertising, and I think the answer remains the same – spend what you need to in order to generate enough business each month. This varies depending on your circumstances and is often very hit or miss, regardless of what the marketing experts say… Obviously if there is a magic formula I am not aware of, please let me know and I will publish it everywhere possible! .

Jonathan Fagan is MD and recruitment consultant for Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and Interim Lawyers. His blog is at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com and all our articles are published here and also at www.legal-recruitment.co.uk – our monthly newsletter site.

LinkedIn Offer – Backlink worth up to £250
Our Christmas offer for December 2012: Simply request a link to Jonathan Fagan – uk.linkedin.com/in/jbfagan and we will give you a backlink at http://www.businessbusstop.com/index.php/business-directory – Google Page Rank 3. These links cost around £250 on some sites. When you request the link, simply put the words ‘Link please’ in your description.

Click Here to Request a Link

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

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 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.

Candidate Update 5th December

There are over 9,250 lawyers registered with us looking for permanent work and 750 locums available for assignments in all areas of the country. Register vacancies on our website, email cv@ten-percent.co.uk or call 0207 127 4343.

Selection of Candidates registered in the past 2 weeks:

21305 Legal secretary and legal practice manager with over 5 years experience within residential conveyancing. Looking for a post in Central London, Ealing, Uxbridge or Hounslow.
21304 2010 qualified solicitor with experience in civil litigation, family law and residential conveyancing. Looking for a post in Surrey and South/West London.
21303 2001 qualified commercial solicitor with experience in corporate commercial law, M&A, IT and IP. Looking for a post in London.
21302 Paralegal with over 18 months experience in commercial and some civil litigation. Looking for a post in Hertfordshire, North or Central London.
21299 1992 qualified crime and serious fraud solicitor with further experience in civil & commercial litigation. Looking for either locum litigation posts or permanent civil litigation, crime or fraud posts in Warwickshire and the West Midlands.
21298 Barristers clerk with 3 years experience. Has criminal billings experience. Looking for a crime paralegal, clerk or billings post in Kent or South East London.
21295 Legal practice manager and accountant with 3 years as a legal practice manager and a further 20 years business development experience. Looking for a post in the South West.
21294 2003 qualified accredited police station representative and crime paralegal. Looking for a post in the West Midlands.
21292 Conveyancing assistant/fee earner with over 7 years residential & commercial conveyancing experience both in private practice and in house. Looking for a conveyancing post in Berkshire, Surrey or West London.
21291 October 2008 qualified solicitor experienced in dispute resolution, crime and civil litigation. Looking for a civil litigation or dispute resolution post in North West London, Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire.
21289 October 2001 qualified solicitor, looking to return to work following a career break. Has experience in child care law, family law, crime, employment law and residential conveyancing. Looking for part-time family or child care posts in London.
21288 March 2006 qualified commercial property solicitor with further experience in landlord & tenant. Looking for a locum or permanent commercial property post in the East Midlands or Birmingham. Speaks Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi.
21287 Legal secretary with over 20 years experience. Looking for locum or permanent posts in London.
21286 Paralegal with around 18 months experience in corporate, company commercial law, banking & finance, energy and commercial litigation. Looking for a post in London and the South East. Speaks French and Spanish.
21285 September 2001 property solicitor with experience in commercial property, landlord & tenant and projects. Looking ideally for part time commercial property posts in Hertfordshire.
21284 1977 qualified commercial solicitor experienced in shipping, insurance, international trade and finance litigation. Looking for a long term locum or permanent post in the London or the South East.
21283 October 2012 qualified solicitor and fully accredited police station representative with experience in crime, prison law and immigration. Looking for a post in London or Hertfordshire.
21282 Fee earner with over 30 years residential conveyancing experience. Looking for a conveyancing post in the North East of England
21281 Family law paralegal with child care law experience. Looking for a post in South Wales, Bristol or Bath.
21280 Legal administrator/conveyancing assistant with over 10 years experience. Also has some wills & probate experience. Has legal secretarial skill. Looking for a post in Kent or South East London.
21279 February 2012 qualified accredited police station representative with a background of over 30 years in the police force. Looking for an accredited rep post anywhere in West London, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex or Hertfordshire
21278 Legal practice manager with 12 years experience of managing a large legal firm. Looking for a post in the South West
21277 May 2012 qualified barrister dealing with crime and mental health law. Looking for a post in the Midlands.
21276 September 1993 qualified property solicitor returning to the profession with experience in commercial & residential property. Looking for a locum or part-time permanent post within 20 miles of Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
21275 2005 qualified property solicitor, experienced in commercial and residential conveyancing. Looking for a post in the North East.
21273 Conveyancing paralegal with over 2 years experience in residential conveyancing and further experience in crime, housing and family law. Looking for a residential conveyancing post in Berkshire or Middlesex. Speaks Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi.
21272 1997 qualified barrister specilising in fraud and white collar crime. Looking for an in house or private practice post in the Midlands.
21271 Legal assistant/paralegal with 5 years experience in residential conveyancing. Looking for locum posts in the North East of England
21270 Paralegal with around 2 years legal experience in residential and commercial conveyancing, personal injury (RTA, EL, PL) and family law. Looking for a paralegal post in Buckinghamshire or Berkshire.
21268 Billings clerk/legal cashier with 12 months experience. Looking for a post in Central, North or East London or Essex.
21267 Litigation paralegal with over 5 years experience in crime and prison law, personal injury (RTA, EL, PL), clinical negligence, debt recovery, housing law and general civil litigation. Looking for a locum or permanent post in Central, West or South West London, Twickenham, Kingston or Sutton.
21266 March 2005 qualified crime and civil litigation solicitor with police station accreditation and higher rights of audience. Experienced in serious crime and fraud and member of VHCC panel. Obtained VHCC case manager status. Looking for crime or fraud posts and willing to relocate.
21265 2004 qualified criminal solicitor with police station accreditation, duty status and higher right of audience. Looking ideally for a HCA post in South London but will travel further afield.
21264 Crime and family law paralegal/fee earner and accredited police station representative with over 2 years experience. Looking for a post in the Midlands.
21263 Costs draftsperson with over 2 years experience, looking for a post in Essex, North or East London.
21262 Febrary 2011 qualified solicitor with experience in housing law, welfare benefits and debt advice and some further experience in residential conveyancing and family law. Has LSC welfare benefits supervisor status. Looking for a post in South Wales, Bath or Bristol.
21261 Paralegal with experience in residential and commercial conveyancing and a small amount of family law and wills & probate experience. Looking for a permanent or locum property post in London.
21260 2008 qualified litigation solicitor, experienced in claimant and defendant personal injury work including RTA, EL and PL. Has managerial experience. Looking for locum posts in Cheshire, Manchester, Mersyside and the North West of England.

Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme

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

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