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Legal Recruitment News September 2012
Legal Recruitment Newsletter Sept 5th
Legal Job Market Report September 5th
Good morning and welcome to the September edition of Legal Recruitment News from the Ten-Percent Recruitment Group. Our websites include Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, Crime Solicitor Recruitment, Interim Lawyers, Legal-Recruitment and many more.
The market report for August is brief. We have been extremely busy on the locum front, both for member firms and clients using our Interim Lawyer service. The Olympics hit the permanent trade, along with annual leave, poor weather and adverse news reports (yet again!). Redundancies are still occurring but not in any great number and tend to affect mid level solicitors earning around £40-50k in high street practices.
At the same time though, we have had a string of locum conveyancing posts in, some from firms with fee earners taking annual leave or needing time off, but more interestingly from firms who are extremely busy on the property side of things. As most of the economy seems to feed off the housing market, this is surely a positive sign for things to come?
Our £3,600 for 5 years Unlimited Recruitment Service is still going strong and we are gradually drawing closer to our 100th member law firm. 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 August 2012 we had 68 new solicitors register with us, together with just short of 900 paralegals and non-qualified staff (in response to specific law firm member vacancies). We restrict our candidate database to ensure we only register qualified or suitably experienced staff.
Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme
Candidate Update 5th September
There are over 9,250 lawyers registered with us looking for permanent work and 750 locums available for assignments in all areas of the country. Register vacancies on our website, email cv@ten-percent.co.uk or call 0207 127 4343.
Selection of Candidates registered in the past 2 weeks:
21000 Paralegal with experience in immigration, employment law, residential conveyancing and civil litigation. Looking for a post in London or Greater London.
21001 2002 qualified immigration solicitor, looking for immigration posts in ideally South East London. Speaks French, Portuguese and Spanish.
21002 September 2012 qualified solicitor with experience in employment law, dispute resolution, corporate and commercial law, wills & probate, tax and trusts. Looking for an employment law post in London or the South East.
21003 1974 qualified conveyancing solicitor, experienced in both commercial and residential property as well as company commercial law. Looking for locum posts in Sussex or London.
21004 February 2006 qualified crime solicitor with police station accreditation, prison law supervisor status and duty status. Looking for a crime or prison law post in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire or Bedfordshire.
21009 April 2008 qualified criminal solicitor, experience in fraud and prison law. Looking for a crime, fraud or prison law post in West Yorkshire. Fluent in Urdu, Mirpuri and Punjabi.
21011 2004 qualified solicitor with experience in crime, civil litigation and family law. Looking for a post in London
21012 September 2012 qualified solicitor with experience in child care law, family law, community care, education and public law. Looking for a post in London.
21015 1993 qualified solicitor, experienced in crime and family law. Looking for family law post in London. Speaks Turkish.
21017 2000 qualified employment solicitor with experience in contentious and non-contentious law. Looking for a post in Kent or Central London.
21020 1996 qualified commercial litigation solicitor, experienced in commercial litigation, commercial property and commercial property litigation, media and entertainment law, maritime and employment law. Looking for a permanent or consultant post in London. Speaks French
21022 Legal executive with over 20 years residential conveyancing experience. Looking for a post in Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire or North/Central London.
21023 July 2011 qualified solicitor, experienced as an in-house legal counsel in company commercial and corporate finance, IP, regulatory law and commercial litigation. Looking for a post in London. Speaks French.
21024 June 2008 qualified family solicitor with LSC supervisor status and experience in both family and child care law. Looking for a post in London or Kent.
21025 May 2006 qualified property solicitor, experienced in commercial property and landlord & tenant (non-contentious). Looking for a post in the North West.
21026 February 2001 qualified crime solicitor with duty and supervisory status. Looking for duty posts in Central or South East London.
21028 Experienced community care and housing law caseworker with LSC supervisor status. Looking for a post in South East London.
21034 Paralegal experienced in working in house dealing with compliance issues and commercial property for a renewable energy firm. Also has experience in immigration, residential property, employment and housing law. Looking for paralegal posts in London.
21036 1992 qualified family law solicitor with experience in private and publically funded cases, panel membership and supervisor status. Looking for posts in West London.
21040 1981 qualified solicitor, experienced in in house company commercial law, compliance, commercial litigation, corporate fraud and professional negligence. Looking for a post in East Anglia but willing to travel for right post.
21042 Senior employment solicitor with over 25 years experience in contentious and non-contentious employment law. Looking for locum posts in the UK.
21044 March 2007 qualified property solicitor with experience in residential conveyancing and landlord & tenant. Looking for a conveyancing post in London.
21049 Costs draftsperson with over 20 years experience. Looking for a post in South Wales.
Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme
Top 10 Tips for Locums and Law Firms
Interim Lawyers and Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment’s Guide to Surviving as a Locum. 10 Top Tips for Lawyers and Law Firms.
Here are our ten top tips for surviving work as a locum – tips for locums and for law firms.
Locums – make sure you turn up.
Always useful. If you don’t turn up, you may be surprised when your locum agency decides not to offer you any more assignments and in fact may even choose to ignore you….
Locums – when you turn up, make sure you are smartly dressed.
Turning up to work wearing a pair of jeans and trainers can be beneficial if you are planning to work for Google, but in a law firms these items of clothing are only seen on partners at weekends, and even then only when they are mucking out their horses or wandering around Legoland.
Locums – be nice to the secretaries and support staff (TOP TIP)
This is our top tip. Think about it. When you leave the firm after completing your assignment and your legal locum agency requests a reference, who will the partners ask for feedback? The solicitor or fee earner you have covered for or their secretary who you have worked with? Most secretaries are very nice to locums and appreciate the difficult position they are in – parachuting into a firm and trying to assimilate to local working practices etc.. etc..
Others will hate you more than they hate their own bosses. Not only do they fail to get a relaxing two week break whilst their normal boss is on holiday, they get pestered by you asking where the stationery cupboard is. There is nothing to do but remain professional, polite and calm, even if someone is fairly hostile back again. Professional locums who work in firms all year round seem to handle this kind of atmosphere extremely well and almost let it wash over them. After all, you won’t be there in two weeks!
Do not view the secretaries as being inferior. Big mistake. They are not – the secretaries hold the key to your future work as a locum. See above re references…
Locums – try to work hard.
May seem obvious but some locums appear to believe they are there simply to fight any fires that crop up. Most firms do not want a locum to do this. They want the locum to work as if the normal fee earner was there. The normal fee earner will not sit back in his/her chair and wait for work to cross their desk. They will be proactive and ask about if there is anything they can do.
Locums – do not fail to complete the assignment.
Similarly applies to locums who accept assignments they are not experienced enough to handle. Rarely happens, but just occasionally it does. See ‘don’t fail to turn up’ above for your future work prospects.
Law Firms – do not expect miracles.
I get the impression that some partners at law firms put the locum lawyer on a target at the end of the range and attempt to shoot them down. Locums generally are either semi-retired lawyers looking to generate a bit of income, professionals who spend 9 out of 12 months in the year locuming and 3 months skiing or sunbathing (ie lifestyle choice), or unemployed lawyers who cannot find permanent work. You are not going to get the perfect lawyer to cover your vacancy – ie you will not find a mirror image of yourself!
Law Firms – pay the locum.
It always helps if you pay the locum on time, not 6 weeks later. Can be a trifle annoying for the locum to have to break into their overdraft!
Law Firms – avoid cancelling the assignment with 24 hours notice and then reposting a few days later.
This can lead to a lack of any applicants. Most locums are registered with various agencies and not just one. You will get a bad reputation and potentially struggle to recruit in future.
Locums – don’t use the opportunity to sell your services to other law firms.
It is generally considered poor practice bordering on a breach of various data laws to advertise your wares as a locum to lots of different law firms on the other side whilst working on an assignment.
Locums – be nice to estate agents and other introducers.
Your client law firm is very dependent on estate agents and other referrers of work. If you do not remain on good terms with these people, however horrible they are, they will not refer work through to your client law firm. This will almost definitely result in a poor reference, which will almost inevitably result in you not getting a lot of work in….
Generally, be nice to everyone, and you will probably find they are nice to you. Similarly work hard and don’t ask obvious questions…
Jonathan Fagan, Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and InterimLawyers.co.uk
Register Vacancies – Locum or Permanent
£60 Per Month Recruitment Scheme
Duty Solicitor Season Starts – are there any left?
Yes, is the very quick answer, despite the LSC’s best efforts! 14th November 2012 is the next deadline and the mad rush to recruit duty solicitors will start very shortly.
Recruitment appears to fall into the following categories for most firms:
Firms looking to become ‘the daddy’.
Firms looking to expand without risk (freelancers)
Firms looking for replacements or in house (salaried)
Firms looking for new signings to bolster their squad (football managers)
Firms in categories 1 and 4 tend not to be particularly profitable business for us – mainly because most candidates respond with a ‘no thank you’ whenever we send the vacancies through, but we are always happy to assist with options 2 and 3!
We were horrified to hear of one firm who fall into category 1 above – they recruited lots of new duty solicitors before the last deadline…..and made them all redundant again about 4 weeks later!!
Needless to say, the LSC were not exactly very helpful to these duty solicitors when it came to transferring slots to other firms…
To register a duty solicitor or HCA vacancy, please visit our website – www.ten-percent.co.uk
Salary Review Update
The Ten-Percent Legal Salary Survey is available online – Click the link below to view the surveys, which are broken down into geographical areas: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/salary-reviews
Our most recent Crime Solicitor salary list is available on our blog at http://www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com/
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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.
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
Sept 26th New Candidate List Update
Locum and Permanent Solicitor Update – Sept 26th
- Locum Support Interim Lawyers
- All recruitment covered for £60 per month Ten-Percent Legal
- Permanent Recruitment – no placement, no fee Jonathan Fagan Legal
- Duty Solicitor Rota Site open for CDS12 Nov 2012 Crime Solicitor Recruitment
Register vacancies on the sites above, email cv@ten-percent.co.uk or call 0207 127 4343.
National coverage.
Permanent – Regions
26090814 Crime Solicitor, Duty. Monthly retainer £1500 sought in London or North East.
25091908 Clinical Negligence and PI Solicitor. Defendant. 5 years+ PQE. Manchester and nationwide.
25091409 Commercial Litigation Solicitor. Associate/Partner level. Full range of experience. Hertfordshire and London. Salaried roles.
23091355 Litigation Solicitor 3 years PQE. Lives near Bournemouth and New Forest.
21091441 Costs Draftsman and Solicitor looking in London. 3 years experience.
21091318 Costs Draftsman and Billing Clerk. London or Manchester. 12 years experience.
20091856 Wills & Probate ILEX. 10 years experience. Cardiff and Newport area. £25k.
19092143 Duty Solicitor with HCA looking for salaried role in South Wales.
19092035 5 years PQE In House lawyer looking for role as share scheme administrator and company secretary.
19091036 Family Executive with property experience. Berkshire and Middlesex.
18091838 Conveyancing Executive – 3 years experience. Norwich and surrounds.
19090949 Family Solicitor – 10 years PQE. Partner in practice. Children Panel (adult and child), Resolution Accredited for Children Law and Domestic Violence, qualified collaborative lawyer. Looking in and around Kent, East Sussex and London. Keen on more private client work.
17091356 Duty Solicitor. VHCC Supervisor. Looking for more work in VHCC matters. North West or home based consultancy considered.
06091320 Corporate Commercial, IP. 10 years PQE. P/T 4 days. City background. SURREY, SUSSEX KENT. Salaried role.
17091240 Personal Injury (Claimant) Executive. Over 10 years experience. KENT area.
15092108 Commercial Litigation Solicitor. Looking in and around SOUTHAMPTON. 1 year PQE.
12091620 Duty Solicitor and HCA. LONDON, MIDDX, HERTS. £45k salary negotiable.
12092041 Duty Solicitor and HCA – WORCS, WEST MIDS, DEVON. £40k salary levels. No freelance.
07091546 Conveyancing FILEX and legal cashier. EXETER, TORBAY.
07091046 Mental Health Solicitor – MHRT accredited, with crime also. ESSEX LONDON.
05091625 Duty Solicitor with HCA. Looking in SUNDERLAND and NEWCASTLE.
04090856 Costs Draftsman and Litigator. WEST MIDLANDS.
Permanent – London
25091409 Commercial Litigation Solicitor. Associate/Partner level. Full range of experience. Hertfordshire and London. Salaried roles.
24091438 Family Panel member. North, East and Central London. Salaried roles.
19092014 Duty Solicitor looking to lodge slots with central London firm.
19091828 Professional Negligence Solicitor. 3 years PQE. London.
19091027 Commercial IT Solicitor. In House to date, 4 years experience. Home Counties & London.
18091715 ILFM Legal Cashier – 5 years experience in medium, large and smaller sized practices. Available immediately. Hammersmith based.
1109942 Wills & Probate Solicitor – looking for a part time role. Has duty crime slots to sell on monthly retainer.
11091007 LSC Family Supervisor – looking for a role – part time or full time.
11090031 Duty Solicitor – 2 years PQE. Salaried £30-34k.
10091815 Clinical Negligence Paralegal and Nurse. 1 year experience.
10091759 Duty Solicitor and HCA. 5 years PQE. Salaried or consultancy.
08090017 Duty Barrister with HCA. NQ. £30k salary.
07091617 Duty Solicitor looking to sell duty slots for January 2013.
06092028 Duty Solicitor looking to sign duty slots to firm for Jan 2013.
12091620 Duty Solicitor and HCA. London, Middlesex, Herts. £45k salary negotiable.
Locums (you can search our locums online at www.interimlawyers.co.uk)
25092225 Employment Locum. South East and London. £30 per hour.
20092017 Wills & Probate Locum. Northern Home Counties. STEP member.
18091550 Property Locum. National coverage. £22 per hour. 7 years PQE.
18091005 Property and Probate Locum. Home Counties & London. £25 per hour.
18091034 Family Panel member locum. Looking for long term assignments. National.
18091214 Commercial Property and Corporate Commercial Locum. National coverage.
17091321 Conveyancing Locum. Over 5 years experience. West and South Yorkshire. £16 per hour.
17091136 Family, Wills & Probate and Contentious Probate Locum. Bucks, Beds and Northants. £20 per hour.
17090831 Litigation Locum – mediator and senior solicitor. Agricultural, commercial and complex personal injury covered.
10091726 Commercial & Residential Property Locum, Beds, Herts, London. £20 per hour.
07081600 STEP Wills & Probate Locum. Yorkshire. £30 per hour. 3 days pw.
07081555 Commercial Property & Construction Locum. North West. £30-35 per hour.
07081450 Residential & Commercial Conveyancing Locum. North West. £25-30 per hour.
07081635 Property and Private Client Locum. Anywhere. £30 per hour.
06081621 Employment Locum. London and Kent. £30 per hour.
Click here to register locum vacancies – 600 available, email cv@ten-percent.co.uk or call 0207 127 4343.
Members of the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment £60 monthly scheme get their locum and permanent recruitment at no cost as well as full access to the Duty Solicitor Rota Slot Shop and Crime Solicitor Recruitment. Over 65 law firms have signed up since August 2011 and saved considerable sums in advertising and recruitment costs.
We also supply our standard recruitment services via www.JonathanFagan.co.uk – suitable for larger practices ineligible to join Ten-Percent Legal and law firms/in house legal departments who do not want to commit to the £60 monthly payment scheme. No fee if no placement.
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 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
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
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
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London
EC1V 4PY
Head Office:
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©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
- Employing Staff on Fixed Term Contracts
- Online Register of Contractors and Locums
- Removing the Salary Cap for Trainee Solicitors – a good thing?
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