Legal Recruitment Newsletter Employers August 2nd

Legal Recruitment Newsletter for Employers August 2nd – Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Contents
* Legal Job Market Report
* Candidate Update 1st August
* Shocking Working Conditions in a Law Firm
* Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
* £60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme

Legal Job Market Report August 1st
Late June and early July have been pretty slow months generally, although this is not unexpected. We have had Wimbledon, Euro 2012 and the build up to the Olympics taking place, all of which result in very little thought being given to the exciting topic of legal recruitment and taking on new staff!

It is now exactly 12 months since we launched our £3,600 for 5 years unlimited recruitment service and we have seen a very enthusiastic take up. Clients who have used us for many years probably account for about 25% of our current membership but plenty of new clients have joined. We hope to reach 100 member firms very shortly. Cost savings to our 60+ firms are already estimated to be around £225,000. 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 July 2012 we had 69 new candidates register with us, which is the lowest amount of new registrations since 2008. Good news? Possibly. It may have something to do with the slow down in recruitment this month and also in the number of redundancies currently being seen.

Again we have expanded further on the locum side and now have over 750 locums registered with us. We have seen a large increase this month in the use of contractors (aka locums) by law firms, which appears to be the new trend.

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

Candidate Update 1st August

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 Permanent Candidates registered in the past week:

DUTY SOLICITOR, Leicester/Northants. Prison Law Supervisor. Ref 31071852.
CHILD CARE/FAMILY SOLICITOR. LONDON. 9 months PQE. Ref 31071653
HOUSING LSC SUPERVISOR. Consultant or Salaried. Greater London. Ref 31071218
CRIME DUTY SOLICITOR. Freelance sought. North West England. Ref 30072126
RESIDENTIAL CONVEYANCING EXECUTIVE.15 years exp. Leicestershire. Ref 30072016
DUTY SOLICITOR, HCA WITH CC TRIALS EXPERIENCE. Freelance. London. Ref 28071820.
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY AND LITIGATION SOLICITOR. Leicester. 3 years PQE. Ref 26071606
EMPLOYMENT SOLICITOR HERTFORDSHIRE, ENFIELD AND NORTH LONDON. Senior Solicitor, over 3 years PQE. Contentious and non-contentious, applicant and respondent work. Marketing and networking ideas. Ref 23072135.
LITIGATION SOLICITOR NORTH LONDON, HERTS. 3 years PQE. Civil, Property and Employment Litigation, plus Family Law. Ref 20071314.
PERSONAL INJURY FEE EARNER TEAM LEADER, KENT AND LONDON. 7 years experience. RTA, Costs, EL, PL and OL. Ref 20071107.
CONVEYANCING SOLICITOR, BEDFORDSHIRE. Good training background, 2 years experience. £25k salary. Ref 190723023.
MHRT, CRIME AND FAMILY SOLICITOR WITH HRA, NEWCASTLE AND NORTH EAST. 10+ years PQE. Duty Solicitor. Ref 19070750
FAMILY AND CARE SOLICITOR. MILTON KEYNES. 1 year PQE. LSC and privately funded. Ref 18072148.
LEGAL CASHIER. SOMERSET AND BRISTOL. 4 years experience. Ref 18071959.
CRIME SOLICITOR, VHCC A, HCA AND DUTY. SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, LAKE DISTRICT AND THE MIDLANDS. 10 years PQE. Location more important than salary. Ref 18070922
LEGAL CASHIER. LONDON. 2 years exp. Tikit software plus others. Ref 16072118

Selection of Locum Candidates available:

23071751 Conveyancing Solicitor. Midlands. 5 years PQE.
20071027 Commercial Property, Wills & Probate and Conveyancing Solicitor. National coverage. £30 per hour.
23071236 Family Locum. National coverage. 20 years. Available for selected dates through August.
20071457 Fraud and White Collar Crime Locum. 15 years. Hourly rate £50.
19071700 Conveyancing Locum. London, Home Counties. Available from 6th August.
28061259 Wills and Probate Locum. Nationwide coverage.
03071419 Conveyancing Locum. Midlands, Shropshire and Cheshire.
22052001 Conveyancing and Personal Injury Locum. £25 per hour neg. Midlands, Wales, NW.
22051953 Residential Conveyancing. Cambridge + 30 miles. £25 per hour neg.
22051539 Housing and Civil Litigation. Greater London. £25 per hour neg.
22051512 Commercial Contracts £250-400 per day. London
22051451 Civil & Commercial Litigation. Surrey & London. £25 per hour neg.
22051449 Personal Injury (Claimant) and Civil Litigation. £20 per hour. Home Counties.
22051302 Family Locum. Northampton, Midlands and London. £20 per hour.
22050910 Residential and Commercial Conveyancing. Greater London. £20 per hour neg.
23071153 IP and Commercial Litigation Fee Earner Greater London. Fee Earner with 20 years experience.

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

Shocking Working Conditions in a Law Firm
We recently spoke to a solicitor who was dealing with unbearable conditions at work, but with a familiar story to us.

This particular candidate works in a law firm where they have:

1) No staff perks at all.
2) No days out, meals out or any staff events.
3) No staff induction when you join the firm, no pay rises and no annual appraisals.
4) No words of encouragement at any time from any other member of staff during this person’s time at the firm (well over 5 years).
5) No social events at all amongst any staff whether organised by the firm or by the staff.
6) A process whereby if someone requests annual leave, one of the partners formally speaks to the employee to determine whether they are going for a job interview.
7) If a complaint about a manager’s behaviour is made then the person who has made the complaint is usually dismissed within 3 weeks.
8) A reasonable salary is paid in line with other firms, but the firm expects a level of billable hours that is next to impossible without working a 60 hour week.
9) An expectation that each employee will work for at least 10 hours per day and not leave the office before 7pm each evening. Work has to be taken home each weekend.
10) Work reviewed by email and only negative points highlighted.

This is not a smaller sized high street practice and neither is it an LSC funded firm – ie they don’t do legal aid work – which I think gives some firms an excuse of sorts for this type of behaviour when hourly rates can be £45 per hour and stress levels permanently high!

Some firms seem to have got very big very quickly on the back of tenders etc.. but have absolutely no idea how to treat their staff. The partners themselves under immense pressure because of the level of tender they have pitched at and in order to achieve the levels required under the tender they have to work both themselves and their staff to the bone.

This almost inevitably results in totally unacceptable working practices. Why law firms think they can get away with this I have no idea, but I see it so many times. The behaviour being exhibited by the partner in charge of the person I coached recently is nothing short of bullying (constant criticism, telephone calls at weekends to check on work, shouting at employees etc..), and if a client had gone to see that partner complaining of behaviour like this then no doubt he would be advising them to take a tribunal case against their employers.

Of course there are plenty of extremely good law firms who treat their employees with respect and dignity and have a good relationship with the local community.

If you exhibit signs of behaviour similar to the above and are reading this, please stop and think. Not only do you make your employees’ lives a misery, in the long term it also makes your life pretty awful as well. Think about the benefit you will get out of being nice to your staff. Friendly smiles all round, harder working staff, committed and loyal employees….

Jonathan Fagan – MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

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

Head Office:
Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
Nant
Village Road
Llanferres
CH7 5LU

©2012 Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited | Nant, Village Road, Llanferres CH7 5LU

Legal Jobs Newsletter August 2nd

Legal Recruitment Newsletter August 2nd – Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Contents
* Legal Job Market Report
* Vacancy Update 1st August
* Shocking Working Conditions in a Law Firm
* Skills Sections on a CV
* Career Coaching in London or Chester
* CV Writing, Review and Interview Training
* More Legal Career Articles

Legal Job Market Report August 1st
Late June and early July have been pretty slow months generally, although this is not unexpected. We have had Wimbledon, Euro 2012 and the build up to the Olympics taking place, all of which result in very little thought being given to the exciting topic of legal recruitment and taking on new staff!

It is now exactly 12 months since we launched our £3,600 for 5 years unlimited recruitment service and we have seen a very enthusiastic take up. Clients who have used us for many years probably account for about 25% of our current membership but plenty of new clients have joined. We hope to reach 100 member firms very shortly. Cost savings to our 60+ firms are already estimated to be around £225,000. 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 July 2012 we had 69 new candidates register with us, which is the lowest amount of new registrations since 2008. Good news? Possibly. It may have something to do with the slow down in recruitment this month and also in the number of redundancies currently being seen.

Again we have expanded further on the locum side and now have over 750 locums registered with us. We have seen a large increase this month in the use of contractors (aka locums) by law firms, which appears to be the new trend.

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

Vacancy Update 1st August

14639 Cardiff Resolution Accredited solicitor with domestic violence specialism or a Family – Law Society panel member with domestic violence specialism sought by Cardiff firm. Permanent or locum candidates considered.

14638 Plymouth Legal Cashier sought on temporary basis for minimum of 1 month.

14637 West London Family Child Care Solicitor sought by West London firm of medium size. Looking for either an experienced child care paralegal or NQ solicitor level. Essential to have care experience. Mainly representing adults.

14636 Twickenham 4 SOLICITORS of 4 years PQE or more required on a permanent, part time, or fee split arrangement/consultant basis. Candidates must have the ability to practice at least two of the following: civil/commercial litigation, personal injury/clinical negligence, employment, wills probate and trust, family/children/matrimonial, and crime.

14635 Twickenham PURCHASE/MERGER: A Firm of solicitors located anywhere in England and Wales with an LSC franchise in at least one area of practice or has submitted a PQQ for an LSC contract in the current exercise is wanted urgently for immediate purchase or merger. No size is too small, all locations are suitable.

14634 Bournemouth Wills & Probate Solicitor sought by medium sized Poole practice. Seeking an experienced practitioner to join either on a full or part time basis.

14633 Milton Keynes Conveyancing Solicitor sought by Bedford firm – looking at a salary range suitable for a 0-2 year PQE solicitor. Will also consider a legal executive or fee earner.

14632 Dudley Employment Solicitor sought by commercial practice based in Dudley. Legal 500 firm of smaller size. Well known for work in a range of industries. Mainly respondent work.Salary levels negotiable. 2-4 year PQE level on salary but all applicants considered.

14631 Dudley Commercial Property Solicitor sought by commercial practice based in Dudley. Legal 500 firm of smaller size. Well known for work in a range of industries. Salary levels negotiable. NQ-2 years PQE level.

14630 Dudley Corporate Solicitor sought by commercial practice based in Dudley. Legal 500 firm of smaller size. Well known for corporate transactional work in a range of industries. Salary levels negotiable.

14629 Llandudno Commercial Contracts Solicitor or Lawyer sought by Rhyl firm of medium size – looking for someone with expeience of renewable energy – they are about to enter into an agreement to supply legal services to a national company with a lot of work in this field. Contracts and leases likely to be the main parts of this work.

14628 Hemel Hempstead Child care solicitor sought by High Wycombe firm – looking for someone with an interest in child care work – panel membership not essential. LSC funded work and well regarded practice.

14627 Leicester A leading and reputable Leicester City practice, seeks recently qualified solicitor with Crime experience to assist in supporting and developing an existing sound client base. Good prospects for right candidates in this progressive Firm. Salaried role. Police station accreditation is preferred.

14626 Harrow Family Solicitor with 2 years PQE and upwards sought by firm based in Harrow. The firm have specialisms linked to the health care sector. The family solicitor will be undertaking privately funded family law work and building up the caseload.

14625 Swindon Swindon firm looking for a family solicitor, legal executive or fee earner with some experience of legal aid work. NQ level and upwards. Full time post. Experience of care work desirable.

14624 Leeds Mental Health Solicitor sought by Leeds firm of medium size with Legal 500 status. Salaried role running a department in one of the firm’s Leeds offices.

14623 East-Central London New post in from medium sized London firm – looking for a family law department administrator. Based at the north London office – 6 month contract starting August. Will need to have family law department admin experience. Salary levels £16k.

14622 Leicester Solicitors firm based in Loughborough, Leicestershire seek a conveyancing lawyer for mainly residential conveyancing work. Some commercial experience would be an advantage but not essential. This is a full time position with an existing workload. The firm are willing to look at any level of experience.

14621 Dartford “South East London and Kent firm (LLP with one main office and two satellites) has two opportunities to offer the person with the right qualifications and ambition. The first opportunity on offer is at a branch which is in a secondary shopping area premises with good footfall. There is cross pollination of work but not necessarily of transfer between offices. The second opportunity is at one of the satellite offices where the Senior Partner is currently based. The candidates the firm are looking for must be hardworking and motivated to build their own business yet dedicated to meeting the needs of the client. The work attracted by the firm is a variety of non contentious work including, domestic conveyancing, commercial conveyancing (shops, warehouse units, office and the like for small businesses) some commercial work involving partnerships agreements and shareholder agreements, possibly wills and probate, although the work type undertaken is open to negotiation.
Although open to discussion the firm are looking for candidates who will be willing to work on a salary to start and once work has built up move onto a commission based basis and who will be prepared after an initial trial period to become a partner in the practice and build their own profit centre. The senior partner of the firm is wishing to slow down and become a Consultant but will remain active in attracting in work. Although there is a reasonable volume of work readily available we do want someone who is willing to try and attract more and willing to share in networking requirements.”

14620 Dartford Children Panel member sought by Dartford firm. Looking for a family solicitor to deal with an expanding children law caseload. LSC funded work.

14617 Redhill West Sussex firm are looking for a legal assistant/paralegal with around 1 to 2 years experience in defendent civil litigation to deal with primarily insurer work. The ideal candidate will be familiar with defendent procedures to fast track level, although some training is available for candidates with pre-litigation experience. Salary level 24k to 28K plus bonus depending on experience.

14615 Hereford A new vacancy has arisen with a firm based in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire. The firm are looking for an extra pair of hands to assist for at least 3 months, more likely to be 6 months, possibly longer. May become a permanent role. Light commercial property work. Hourly rate will reflect fact that this is going to be a vacancy suitable for NQ-2 years PQE.

14614 Enfield A new vacancy has arisen with a firm in Enfield. Medium sized practice. Permanent. Looking for a solicitor, ILEX or licensed conveyancer for residential conveyancing work. 3 years of conveyancing experience required. Full time role. Salary £30,000 plus bonus scheme paying an additional £12k on last years figures.

14613 Leicester A new vacancy has arisen with a firm based in Melton Mowbray. They are looking to recruit a Private Client solicitor to deal with wills, estates administration and elderly client work including Powers of Attorney. There will also be a small amount of trusts administration work.Ideally they would be looking for a candidate with around 2 years’ post-admission experience.

14612 Peterborough Medium sized Lincolnshire firm looking to recruit an experienced Costs Draftman to deal with their costs. The post will include preparing schedules of costs, bills of costs, negotiating with third parties, attending Court (advocacy). The candidate must be experienced and have at least 5 years experience dealing with costs. Costs will predominantly be PI based (Personal Injury and Industrial Disease). Salary levels negotiable.

14608 Liverpool Liverpool based law firm specialising in service charge and ground rent debt recovery are looking for a litigation solicitor ASAP to assist with an increased work load. Ideal candidate will be at least 3 yrs PQE.

14607 Birmingham Crime Solicitor sought with practising certificate, ideally with VHCC experience for scheduling work in a major crime case. £8 per hour, working from home. You must be a qualified solicitor and be prepared to work from home. The firm need you to be familiar with Excel. The post is for a Grade B fee earner so if you are classed as this in accordance with the VHCC guidelines you can also apply. 10 years crime experience, FILEX, Solicitor or Barrister. Locum post on consultancy basis on hourly rate.

Any interest, please email us with the reference number and a copy of your CV attached. Salary levels always useful as well.

Shocking Working Conditions in a Law Firm
We recently spoke to a solicitor who was dealing with unbearable conditions at work, but with a familiar story to us.

This particular candidate works in a law firm where they have:

1) No staff perks at all.
2) No days out, meals out or any staff events.
3) No staff induction when you join the firm, no pay rises and no annual appraisals.
4) No words of encouragement at any time from any other member of staff during this person’s time at the firm (well over 5 years).
5) No social events at all amongst any staff whether organised by the firm or by the staff.
6) A process whereby if someone requests annual leave, one of the partners formally speaks to the employee to determine whether they are going for a job interview.
7) If a complaint about a manager’s behaviour is made then the person who has made the complaint is usually dismissed within 3 weeks.
8) A reasonable salary is paid in line with other firms, but the firm expects a level of billable hours that is next to impossible without working a 60 hour week.
9) An expectation that each employee will work for at least 10 hours per day and not leave the office before 7pm each evening. Work has to be taken home each weekend.
10) Work reviewed by email and only negative points highlighted.

This is not a smaller sized high street practice and neither is it an LSC funded firm – ie they don’t do legal aid work – which I think gives some firms an excuse of sorts for this type of behaviour when hourly rates can be £45 per hour and stress levels permanently high!

Some firms seem to have got very big very quickly on the back of tenders etc.. but have absolutely no idea how to treat their staff. The partners themselves under immense pressure because of the level of tender they have pitched at and in order to achieve the levels required under the tender they have to work both themselves and their staff to the bone.

This almost inevitably results in totally unacceptable working practices. Why law firms think they can get away with this I have no idea, but I see it so many times. The behaviour being exhibited by the partner in charge of the person I coached recently is nothing short of bullying (constant criticism, telephone calls at weekends to check on work, shouting at employees etc..), and if a client had gone to see that partner complaining of behaviour like this then no doubt he would be advising them to take a tribunal case against their employers.

Of course there are plenty of extremely good law firms who treat their employees with respect and dignity and have a good relationship with the local community.

If you exhibit signs of behaviour similar to the above and are reading this, please stop and think. Not only do you make your employees’ lives a misery, in the long term it also makes your life pretty awful as well. Think about the benefit you will get out of being nice to your staff. Friendly smiles all round, harder working staff, committed and loyal employees….

Jonathan Fagan – MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Skills Sections on CVs – Waffle?

One thing that crops up a lot in recruitment is the addition of subjective Skills Sections on CVs.

These are the bane of every recruiter’s working life (whether HR people in firms/companies or recruitment agents) – even solicitors with 10 years PQE still write them down.

An example would be:

“good interpersonal skills, able to communicate effectively and use transferable skills in a way to benefit the firm. Punctual, generous and with a good sense of humour. Outstanding lawyer with impeccable credentials.”

I have read CV’s with pages of this stuff on them, and can never understand why anyone with any common sense would not realise that there is absolutely no point including any of it on the CV.

According to many students I have spoken to over the years, careers advisers at various universities and colleges have said that this is the way you do your CV, and this is the sort of thing that employers want to see.

I must say that our approach (and that of other recruitment consultants I have spoken to) has always been that a CV should contain factual information only. I see many CVs prepared each week from some of the bigger legal recruitment agencies and they spend considerable time and effort on organising and structuring their CVs, probably more so than smaller agents (we fall into the extremely small category these days!).

Every single one I have been sent over the years by candidates using their agency CVs contains streams of factual information setting out numbers of files, caseloads, billing levels, types of law, any technical issues dealt with, anyone worked with on particular cases etc. I have never seen a prepared CV containing the sort of waffle I see on CVs from careers services.

A CV should contain objective information, not subjective. How do you know whether you have a good sense of humour? Who says you have good communication skills? This is partly why you attend interviews, so that the interviewer can gauge for themselves who you are, where you are coming from and whether you will fit in at that firm or company.

So if you are writing a cv and reading this – I would not use bulletpointed lists or paragraphs of information about your skills set – I am not interested as an employer – I never read them – I could probably send a good one out myself saying that I have a good sense of humour, but this would be a complete lie!

For further assistance with CVs – please visit our careers shop – we sell legal careers ebooks, CV templates for solicitors plus bespoke legal CV writing and review services. http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

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

Head Office:
Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
Nant
Village Road
Llanferres
CH7 5LU

©2012 Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited | Nant, Village Road, Llanferres CH7 5LU

Legal Recruitment Employers Newsletter June 2012

Legal Recruitment Newsletter June 12th – Ten-Percent Legal

Contents

Legal Job Market Report June 12th

May and early June have been up and down like a yo yo, although I have been writing this since March 2008 for every newsletter we have sent out! We see pockets of very frenetic activity, followed up with a long gap without very much occurring.

The main points from the June 12th KPMG report on the jobs market reveals:

Growth of permanent placements eases
The Midlands outperforms the rest of the UK
Engineering/Construction sector sees growth in permanent and temporary vacancies
Weak pay growth signalled
Total number of hours worked per week in the UK increased by 8.4 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the previous three months.
Number of people securing permanent jobs has increased for the fifth consecutive month and official figures show a drop in unemployment.
If you would like to see a full copy of this report, please let us know and we will send it over to you.

In June 2012 we had 121 new candidates register with us. We have seen another round of redundancies, mainly in the larger firms, as management appear to be trying to streamline operations. Most of the redundancies appear to be for senior and middle level employed solicitors, which was the pattern emerging back in 2008 when the recession started to bite.

We have seen a large increase this month in the use of contractors (aka locums) by law firms, which appears to be the new trend. There is an article below outlining the benefits of using contractors as opposed to permanent staff to cover any busy periods of work.

Register Vacancies with Ten-Percent or Interim Lawyers – click here. Ten-Percent offers law firms unlimited permanent and locum recruitment for 5 years at £60 per month. Interim Lawyers offer locums and contractors on hourly rates.

How to Recruit in an Unpredictable Market

In today’s fluctuating economy, a flexible workforce is key. We hear so many times of firms where they have put all their permanent staff on 3 or 4 day weeks because the level of work has dropped to such significant levels that they cannot afford to keep everyone on and justify the wage bill.

Over the past 25 years of industry the methods of employing staff have changed quite considerably as specialist management consultants have identified that using a flexible workforce can be considerably more cost effective than having permanent staff.

If you have a contractor (or locum) in place, when the work drops off you simply dispense with their services and wait until the work picks up again before employing another contractor to take their place. This means that your firm can budget for times when the work is not sufficient to justify employing considerable numbers of staff. If you have permanent staff and the work drops off you have to go through the whole process of making redundancies, reducing their hours each week or be re-assigning staff to different areas. This all requires cost, effort and considerable amounts of time and leaves you open constantly to the chances of an employment tribunal claim, which can be every employer’s worst nightmare.

Using contractors means that not only is it tax efficient, but also you do not need to risk any liability for redundancy or employment claims when a permanent member of staff decides that you have targeted them for redundancy and not followed the correct procedures.

Ten Percent and Interim Lawyers provide an alternative solution to firms who find their case load has picked up or they need covert for maternity or sickness. You can book a contractor simply by visiting one of our websites and entering your requirements.

You cannot get contractors to work on a fee sharing basis as this defeats the whole purpose of the exercise, but you can get them to work on a fixed hourly rate. The usual sort of fixed hourly rate can be anything from £14 per hour for a recently qualified solicitor up to about £35 per hour for a very experienced contractor or somebody covering a very short holiday leave. Some contractors charge upwards of £60 per hour. All contractors will provide you with two references, their practising certificate (if relevant) and proof of ID on their first day of employment and it is always open to employers to speak to the contractors on the phone and face to face before they commence work.

Contractors work on a self-employed basis and invoice your firm at the end of each week for the number of hours they have worked during that week. When you decide that the contractor is no longer needed you can simply ask them to leave and that is the end of their assignment with you. When your work picks up again you can either book the same contractor if they are available or alternatively look for a new one. This means that at all times your work load can be covered but your overheads stay at a minimum level.

By utilising this method of employment your firm can stay competitive without needing to budget for leaner times. There are law firms out there with over half their workforce being employed on this basis, which means that at any time the extra workforce can be asked to stop and the permanent work force can deal with the diminished caseload if work drops off.

Register Vacancies with Ten-Percent or Interim Lawyers – click here. Ten-Percent offers law firms unlimited permanent and locum recruitment for 5 years at £60 per month. Interim Lawyers offer locums and contractors on hourly rates.

Online Locum and Contractor Register

You can access our Contractor Register at www.interimlawyers.co.uk

There are over 600 locums/contractors on our books so if you have a specific requirement please reply to this message with further details or register the post online with us.

Removing the Minimum Pay for Trainees – A Good Thing?
The Solicitors’ Regulation Authority have recommended the removal of the training contract minimum salary, something that appears to have been broadly welcomed by a large number of organisations which include a significant number of vested interests, such as LPC providers.

Is this a good thing? I don’t think so. Probably a very controversial opinion, but I don’t think the legal profession as a whole can be trusted not to exploit potential trainee solicitors and take advantage of large numbers of desperate students and graduates who believe they need a training contract at all costs.

Furthermore, what on earth is the point of permitting law firms to effectively take on large numbers of low paid workers who can then be permitted to carry on and qualify as solicitors? Where does this leave the status of a newly qualified solicitor? Already in debt to the tune of around £25,000, NQ salaries in non-commercial practices are almost certain to plummet.

There are a good number of law firms out there whose sole purpose is to exploit just about everybody they have any contact with including their own workers, their clients and any third party such as the Legal Services Commission. These firms have to be regulated and monitored closely and the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority appears to spend its vast majority of time trying to avoid undertaking too much work and keeping very close tabs on firms.

One area where a vulnerable workforce is in dire need of an external organisation keeping close tabs on their employer is trainee solicitors. Trainee solicitors are particularly vulnerable because they invariably have large debts, are in need of a training contract in order to progress their career and fairly naïve in terms of the work place and any work they are asked to do.

By removing the minimum salary cap from trainee solicitors the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority will be giving these firms carte blanche to recruit as many trainee solicitors as they wish on a ridiculously low salary, provide a so-called training contract which in reality is anything but and to send these people out into the work place 2 years later as fully qualified solicitors.

The SRA have had no thought at all into the future large numbers of trainee solicitors who are going to struggle to get a newly qualified position. Furthermore they have had no thought at all to the likely future salary of any newly qualified solicitor as chances are firms will be able to drop newly qualified salaries even further than they currently have because there will be so many desperate trainee solicitors looking for their first newly qualified position.

We already have a profession where entrants into the profession are some of the lowliest paid. It made me laugh recently to hear of the Police Federation vehemently protesting that they thought a fairly recently qualified police officer could be earning as little as £22,000, when I am regularly dealing with 5 year PQE conveyancing solicitors who earn less than that because their firms have either taken the opportunity to mercilessly exploit them by claiming they cannot afford any more or because market forces dictate that there is so little work out there at present, they simply cannot justify a salary higher than this.

I don’t think the legal profession is responsible enough to regular itself with minimum salaries for trainee solicitors and I think the removal of the minimum salary is nothing short of a catastrophe for generations of younger potential solicitors to come.

Jonathan Fagan – MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

This article is shortly due to appear at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com – if you have any comments to add please let us know and we will incorporate them with the entry and a link to your website.

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

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

Head Office:
Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
Nant
Village Road
Llanferres
CH7 5LU

©2012 Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited | Nant, Village Road, Llanferres CH7 5LU

Legal Recruitment Candidate Newsletter June 2012

Legal Recruitment Newsletter June 12th – Ten-Percent Legal

Contents

Legal Job Market Report
Search Legal Job Vacancies
Does a Masters Degree improve Career Prospects
Removing the Salary Cap for Trainee Solicitors – a good thing?
Legal Careers Services
Legal Career Coaching Service

Legal Job Market Report June 12th
May and early June have been up and down like a yo yo, although I have been writing this since March 2008 for every newsletter we have sent out! We see pockets of very frenetic activity, followed up with a long gap without very much occurring.

The main points from the June 12th KPMG report on the jobs market reveals:

Growth of permanent placements eases
The Midlands outperforms the rest of the UK
Engineering/Construction sector sees growth in permanent and temporary vacancies
Weak pay growth signalled
Total number of hours worked per week in the UK increased by 8.4 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the previous three months.
Number of people securing permanent jobs has increased for the fifth consecutive month and official figures show a drop in unemployment.

In June 2012 we had 121 new candidates register with us. We have seen another round of redundancies, mainly in the larger firms, as management appear to be trying to streamline operations. Most of the redundancies appear to be for senior and middle level employed solicitors, which was the pattern emerging back in 2008 when the recession started to bite.

We have seen a large increase this month in the use of contractors (aka locums) by law firms, which appears to be the new trend.

Does a Masters Degree improve Employment Prospects?
I have recently seen an advert in the Law Society Gazette for a well-known London university offering law graduates a chance to enhance their career prospects by taking one of their Masters Degrees. A question we regularly get asked by candidates is whether taking a Masters Degree will increase their chances of success in the workplace.

The very quick answer, based on 12 years of recruitment in the legal profession is that a Masters Degree has absolutely no effect whatsoever in any circumstances on your future employment prospects. Speaking as a Masters Graduate myself I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed studying for my LLM and found it to be quite eye-opening in the sense that I was able to research a practical area of law I was working in and gain benefit from doing so personally.

However I got no benefits at all from a career perspective because a Masters Degree has absolutely no bearing on any future employment prospects. Furthermore, I found that it hindered me when making an application to join a Law Society Panel. When I went for the interview to join the panel I found that the panel members were more keen on trying to test out my perceived superior level of knowledge because I had done a Masters Degree rather than assessing my suitability to be on the panel.

In fact, when the feedback came from the panel to tell me why I had not been selected, it included the line “did not have the level of knowledge we would have expected from a Masters graduate”.

I think you would be better using the many thousands of pounds you were planning to expend on the Masters Degree by taking 6 months off and travelling round the world. When you get back from travelling round the world if you are looking to break into the profession make a concerted effort for a further 6 months to get as much legal work experience as you can and if you are already in the profession you will find that your 6 months break will have made you think very carefully about life, your existence on earth and your future.

Yes, I hear you say, but what about if you have a 2:2 or 3rd class Degree and are trying to get into a decent firm? I can safely advise you that the same advice applies. Law firms do not give two hoots for a Masters Degree. It has no effect at all on the fact that you may have low A-Levels or a low LLB, these things cannot be altered once they happen.

Furthermore, I challenge any higher education providers to provide evidence where their Masters Degree has led to a higher level of employment amongst their graduates than those graduates who do not have a Masters Degree. Simply comment on this entry and we will publish your response on our website.

Jonathan Fagan, MD, Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Removing the Minimum Pay for Trainees – A Good Thing?
The Solicitors’ Regulation Authority have recommended the removal of the training contract minimum salary, something that appears to have been broadly welcomed by a large number of organisations which include a significant number of vested interests, such as LPC providers.

Is this a good thing? I don’t think so. Probably a very controversial opinion, but I don’t think the legal profession as a whole can be trusted not to exploit potential trainee solicitors and take advantage of large numbers of desperate students and graduates who believe they need a training contract at all costs.

Furthermore, what on earth is the point of permitting law firms to effectively take on large numbers of low paid workers who can then be permitted to carry on and qualify as solicitors? Where does this leave the status of a newly qualified solicitor? Already in debt to the tune of around £25,000, NQ salaries in non-commercial practices are almost certain to plummet.

There are a good number of law firms out there whose sole purpose is to exploit just about everybody they have any contact with including their own workers, their clients and any third party such as the Legal Services Commission. These firms have to be regulated and monitored closely and the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority appears to spend its vast majority of time trying to avoid undertaking too much work and keeping very close tabs on firms.

One area where a vulnerable workforce is in dire need of an external organisation keeping close tabs on their employer is trainee solicitors. Trainee solicitors are particularly vulnerable because they invariably have large debts, are in need of a training contract in order to progress their career and fairly naïve in terms of the work place and any work they are asked to do.

By removing the minimum salary cap from trainee solicitors the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority will be giving these firms carte blanche to recruit as many trainee solicitors as they wish on a ridiculously low salary, provide a so-called training contract which in reality is anything but and to send these people out into the work place 2 years later as fully qualified solicitors.

The SRA have had no thought at all into the future large numbers of trainee solicitors who are going to struggle to get a newly qualified position. Furthermore they have had no thought at all to the likely future salary of any newly qualified solicitor as chances are firms will be able to drop newly qualified salaries even further than they currently have because there will be so many desperate trainee solicitors looking for their first newly qualified position.

We already have a profession where entrants into the profession are some of the lowliest paid. It made me laugh recently to hear of the Police Federation vehemently protesting that they thought a fairly recently qualified police officer could be earning as little as £22,000, when I am regularly dealing with 5 year PQE conveyancing solicitors who earn less than that because their firms have either taken the opportunity to mercilessly exploit them by claiming they cannot afford any more or because market forces dictate that there is so little work out there at present, they simply cannot justify a salary higher than this.

I don’t think the legal profession is responsible enough to regular itself with minimum salaries for trainee solicitors and I think the removal of the minimum salary is nothing short of a catastrophe for generations of younger potential solicitors to come.

Jonathan Fagan – MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

This article is shortly due to appear at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com – if you have any comments to add please let us know and we will incorporate them with the entry and a link to your website.

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

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

Head Office:
Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
Nant
Village Road
Llanferres
CH7 5LU

©2012 Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited | Nant, Village Road, Llanferres CH7 5LU

Legal Recruitment Employer Newsletter May 2012

Newsletter for Law firms in the UK

Candidate Update April 10th – May 1st 2012
30041607 Billing Assistant, LSC experience, 2 years in practice, looking around London.
29041537 Family Paralegal, 5 years experience, looking in London.
29041511 Family Solicitor, Panel member, looking around South Lincs, North Leics and East Notts.
25041334 Wills & Probate STEP Solicitor locum – available for South West and South East assignments.
25041049 Private Client, Tax & Trusts Solicitor with business development and finance experience. 10 years PQE.
24042203 Property Solicitor Locum – residential and commercial – London and Berkshire. 8 years PQE. HNW experience.
24042123 Family Solicitor, looking for care work posts in South Kent. 0 years PQE.
24041622 Commercial Property Solicitor Locum, 20 years experience. Has worked in city firms and Legal 500 practices.
24041558 General Commercial Solicitor – Property, Commercial Contracts, M&A, Environmental, Com Litigation. 3 years PQE. Locum/Perm.
24041544 Employment Lawyer – available for locum work – UK coverage. £25 per hour.
24041253 Personal Injury Solicitor – claimant and defendant. 10 years PQE. Essex and Suffolk.
24041130 Costs Draftsman with over 2 years experience, looking in Manchester and the North West for a post.
23042029 Immigration Solicitor with own practice looking to bolt on or consultancy work. LSC supervisor. LSC funded immigration. London
22042313 Wills & Probate Solicitor looking for work 3 days per week. 10 years PQE. Locum or permanent, North London.
19041905 Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence Paralegal with Costs Drafting experience. Hull, Leeds and Doncaster.
19042013 Family LSC Supervisor looking to work as a consultant on a monthly retainer plus hourly rate. Anywhere.
19041607 Commercial Property Locum – high level of experience in good quality firms. London and Home Counties
19041430 Wills & Probate Solicitor with STEP qualification. 6 years PQE. Cardiff and surrounding areas.
19041225a Trademarks Paralegal, 10 years experience – ITMA qualified. £33k. London
19041225 Costs Draftsman looking in Bristol or Cardiff.
19041130 Litigation Solicitor, 25 years experience. Wide range of civil and commercial litigation. London and Home Counties.
19041048 Conveyancing Lawyer, 7 years residential and commercial property. Own network but salary sought. London.
13041254 Legal Cashier available for contract work in East Anglia and Essex.
18041422 Credit Controller looking in Leeds and West Yorkshire. £19k.
16041300 Contracts, Property and Litigation Solicitor, 5 years PQE. Milton Keynes and surrounds.
15042031 Conveyancing Lawyer – 4 years experience, relocating to Wrexham, Rhyl and Chester areas.
10041914 Conveyancing FILEX – looking around Merseyside and Lancashire. Available immediately.

To request a CV, please email us at cv@ten-percent.co.uk. Click here to register a vacancy and receive suitable CVs.

Duty Solicitors looking to move before the CDS12 deadline

RC – Duty Solicitor with higher rights looking in Manchester, Chester, Cheshire, Lancashire and Liverpool. 5 years PQE.
CT – Duty Solicitor, 5 years PQE, looking in the South West and South East excluding London.
BS – Duty Solicitor, 8 years PQE, looking in central London only. Salary levels £38k and above.
RH – Duty Solicitor looking for a monthly retainer for his slots from a London firm.
TP – Duty Solicitor looking in Bristol. Over 7 years PQE.
CB – Duty Solicitor looking for part time salaried posts in London or Birmingham.
MR – Duty Solicitor looking for a monthly retainer for her slots in Southampton or Portsmouth.
CC – Duty Solicitor looking around Cheltenham and Gloucester.
SS – Duty Solicitor relocating to Cornwall.
MC – Duty Solicitor looking for freelance roles in SW London. £1200 pcm plus 1st refusal on duty slots.
CR – Duty Solicitor looking for monthly retainer on posts in London.
CC – Duty Solicitor looking for freelance roles anywhere – South or London.
TR – Duty Solicitor looking around Leicestershire – salaried roles only.
BH – Duty Solicitor with HRA looking in London. Salaried role £40k+, VHCC experience.
MB – Duty Solicitor looking for monthly retainer roles on posts in London and the South East.
JA – Duty Solicitor looking for part time or consultancy roles in the West Midlands.
GJ – Duty Solicitor looking around the North West.
HP – Duty Solicitor looking for freelance posts in South East London and Kent.
RV – Duty Solicitor looking for freelance posts in the Midlands and the North West.
FS – Duty Solicitor looking for salaried posts in the East and West Midlands. Salary £36k+.
DR – Duty Solicitor looking for salaried posts in West Yorkshire. Salary £35k.
KZ – Duty Solicitor looking for monthly retainer posts with opportunity to do family law. Salary for family work.
DN – Duty Solicitor looking for freelance posts in London.
HA – Duty Solicitor looking for part time salaried posts in the West Midlands.
AS – Duty Solicitor looking for freelance/monthly retainer posts in the West Midlands or London.
SM – In House Counsel/HRA looking for salaried or fee split arrangement in London or Hertfordshire. Not duty.

We have others as well, plus VHCC members and police station accredited solicitors without duty status.

Current freelance/monthly retainer rates we have come across so far include £1,000 per month plus 75% callouts, £1,200 per month, plus 70-80% callout, 100% unsocial, PC paid.

To register a duty solicitor vacancy, please email us at cv@ten-percent.co.uk. It is always useful to know the salary range or freelance rates you are considering.

On Yer Bike – Just how Committed are Candidates to Finding Work?

I must have spent about 10% of my time as a legal recruitment consultant over the past 3 years talking to desperate lawyers, conveyancers in particular, who have either had to find alternative work or take drastic pay cuts in order to stay either in their posts or move to a new one. At times I have felt a little bit like a counsellor as opposed to a recruitment consultant because so many of these people have found themselves in desperate situations.

If you rewind the clock back about 7-10 years conveyancers were the kings of the high street. If we got a conveyancing candidate in we would immediately market them to as many different firms as possible because so many firms were keen to take on extra staff and there was a massive shortfall in the number of staff available. At times it felt as if we had to cajole people into positions and sell the benefits of joining an individual firm to them.

This all changed of course and the roles reversed exactly opposite. If we got a conveyancing job in over the last 3 to 4 years we would be selling candidates to firms in the hope of finding someone the firm liked as opposed to vice versa. However a recent phenomenon has occurred of vacancies coming in, but no candidates are bothered about applying.

A recent example would be a probably very well paid locum position up in the North West of England. This will last between 4 to 12 months and is at a fairly senior level of 5 years PQE or more. We have over 250 conveyancers based within commuting distance of this particular firm who have 5 years PQE or more and have expressed an interest in locum or longer term contracts or permanent roles. I sent this vacancy out to all of them a few days ago, and had precisely one response from a candidate who did not fully fit the job description. I know for a fact that at least 10 out of the 250 are unemployed and desperate for work (because they call us fairly regularly) and yet none of them bothered to get in touch.

I can almost guarantee their response if I phone them to ask if they are interested: “Sorry this is slightly too far away and I am only looking to work on Monday to Thursday and possibly alternate Wednesdays”.

It seems that so many people have got set in their ways with specific requirements to the way they work that they have lost touch with reality and the fact that they need money in order to survive. If a fairly lucrative contract comes up in a different area but maybe slightly inconvenient and not fit around a shopping trip or picking the kids up from the nursery then a lot of people simply won’t entertain that post. There are so many people in this recession who, it seems, still think that the world owes them a favour and that things need to be served up to them on a golden plate.

We see this with vacancies coming through when we get a good candidate who fits the vacancy and the vacancy fits them, but the good candidates suddenly decide that they are looking for something more and start to negotiate right at the end of the process. It seems to be almost that a culture exists of wanting to feel wanted yet at the same time wanting more than you can possibly expect and being surprised when that is not handed to you.

It seems to be right across the PQE range. I have a number of solicitor candidates registered with us who have taken jobs working as an administrative assistant, stacking shelves in Tescos and working in bars/pubs. The Jobcentre itself seems a very good employer of non-practising solicitors… These candidates will do what it takes to survive and apply just about anywhere in the UK. Similarly I know of plenty of other candidates who have just sat back and waited for work to come to them without making any effort at all to market themselves, get work of any kind or pull out all the stops to get by.

From the candidate’s perspective, a number of solicitors must be completely fed up with firms who waste their time by advertising vacancies that don’t exist, changing the spec to request a following, interview and then offer a commission-only post…..

Legal Job Market Report 1st May 2012
April 2012 was a very strange month in recruitment. It was affected by the Easter break, but we went very quiet mid-month and then very busy towards the end of the month. The shortfall in good quality candidates still exists, but we have had a range of very good quality candidates come on stream over the last month and we have also noticed some redundancies at larger practices.

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

Locum posts have recently got very busy indeed, with commercial property positions picking up nicely – www.interimlawyers.co.uk is our specialist locum site for non-member firms.

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 April we saw 159 new solicitor and legal executive registrations. Over 700 candidates applied for advertised vacancies through us.

Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. T: 0207 127 4343 or email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
£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 you to control your 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. After all, what have you got to lose? £60 per month to save thousands, potentially tens of thousands of pounds in recruitment costs? We estimate that since July 2011 firms using the scheme have already avoided recruitment agency fees totalling over £100,000.

55+ firms have now signed up.

We have over 8,750 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. 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.

Our related site, www.tenpercentfinancial.co.uk can also assist with the recruitment of IFAs and accountancy staff (included in the monthly price).

Interested in finding out more? Reply to this email (cv@ten-percent.co.uk), call us on 0207 127 4343 or visit our website at www.ten-percent.co.uk

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.

April 2012 Free Lawyer Salary Reviews

Ten-Percent Salary Reviews for April 2012 are now available. To view or download them, simply visit our website at www.ten-percent.co.uk/membership-services and click on the link to ‘Salary Reviews’ on the right hand side. You can also get personalised salary reviews in our careers shop (free to members).

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

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

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.

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.

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)

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 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

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

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.

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

  1. Your job title
  2. The number of years’ experience you have
  3. Any particular tempting assets for a prospective employer
  4. The location you seek work
  5. How much you want
  6. 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.

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)

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 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