Legal Recruitment Blog

Duty Solicitors - an update We have had a few enquiries over the last week or so from new firms who have been awarded contracts for crime and on the lookout for duty solicitors and crime supervisors. There is a guide to the regulations regarding the employment of crime supervisors and duty solicitors included on our website at http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/crime-solicitor-contract-2017-extracts-relevant-to-duty-solicitors-and-supervisors/ and the points below relate to our intel so far on the situation: 1. There are reports of a large London firm requiring all their duty solicitors to become limited companies in order to work. Not sure whether the LAA have agreed this structure but it appears to us to be an effort to shift liability for tax and NI onto the duty solicitors. Not entirely sure what HMRC will make of it either! 2. No indication from any firm as to salary levels for duty solicitors or supervisors. Some have agreed that the range should be £30-40k with supervisors bein...

Looking for work in December - a good idea? No!  This could have been one of the shortest articles I have ever written, but we'll pad it out a bit! These are our five reasons why: 1. Work levels in law firms tend to drop off as we approach Christmas. As a result, although you may send in a great CV full of promise and opportunity, the partners will be looking at their staff disappearing off shopping when they can and not showing high productivity levels and wondering whether they can afford you. 2. Interview arranging tends to be a total nightmare. One partner will be away (shopping), another will be off to their daughter's nativity play and getting them together to interview you at a time convenient will be virtually impossible. 3. Candidates start to think that their current firm are really nice and question their sanity for thinking about leaving. This happens fairly often just before Christmas, especially around the time when the senior partner starts to look hu...

Legal Recruitment News November 10th 2016 - Video Version. Jonathan Fagan, Managing Director of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment goes through the news with additional comment and analysis. You can read the printed version at www.legal-recruitment.co.uk Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database.

Education Law - a new growth area?    A quick note simply to say that if you specialise in education law and would like details of new locum and permanent roles coming our way please let us know by emailing us - cv@ten-percent.co.uk. In the last 2 weeks we have seen a number of firms register education law vacancies with us. There seems to be a growth spurt particularly around Special Educational Needs matters. Vacancies have included requirements for advocates in particular - the firms seem to be looking for solicitors to represent clients at LA & school meetings and tribunal hearings and also providing advice on statutory assessments & reviews. Similarly we have had reports of a requirement for judicial review experience. Not sure why these vacancies are suddenly coming through. In fact I would say we have had more requests in the last 2-3 weeks than in the previous 10 years! Does anyone know something we don't? Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director ...

The effect of Brexit on legal recruitment - have there been any changes in 2016? Listen and watch Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment as he wanders around a field in North Wales discussing the effects. Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database. Our Legal Careers Shop has eBooks on CV Writing for Lawyers, Legal Job Interview Guide, Interview Answers for Lawyers, NQ Career Guide, Guide to Finding Work Experience or a Training Contract and the Entrants Guide to the Legal Profession.

Google, Pandas and Penguins - recent updates in Google listings On September 23rd 2016 Google announced a major update to the way they list their natural rankings. Some years ago Google basically upended the entire Search Engine Marketing industry by bringing in new elements to their algorithm which were called Panda and Penguin (the names sound quite cuddly but the results were positively terrifying for some businesses!). The new update is called Penguin 4.0. This part of the algorithm has now gone real time, which means that it is continually refreshed. Penguin now devalues anything that looks to be "the thing that rhymes with ham" and adjusts the page ranking rather than affecting the ranking of the whole site.” This means that if a solicitors firm 'stuffs' a page on their website with loads of keywords to try and encourage Google to rank them higher in the organic listings then Google will not necessarily devalue the rest of the site. So anyone planning on f...

We recently received the following job application from an online job board: "Dear Jonathan,   You have received a reply to your ad: "Law Firm Receptionist" posted in Reception & Switchboard Jobs in [a greater London area].   From: Anna To offer £16,000 p/a you must be either very greedy or not performing well as a company. I believe that London's living wage is £9.40 p/h. In fact- cleaners earn more in these days. If I accepted your salary - I would have to choose between either paying my London rent -or buying food. And because I would not be afford to use a public transport to get to work ,- to your office I would fly on a magic carpet. By the way- Would you survive on 16k in London?"      Hello Anna – many thanks for your application, which we agree with completely!! I have written the following response and posted your application and my response onto the Legal Recruitment Blog (your email address has been removed). We know of a ...

Hourly Rates of Pay for Locum Solicitors and Legal Executives - September 2016 update Locum hourly rate payment varies widely according to the demand, length of assignment, level of experience and advance notice available. NB: These rates are intended as a guide only. Hourly rates can vary according to the location, duration and level of expertise. September 2016 Private Practice Law Firm Locum Rates:   * Conveyancing Locum Solicitors – 1-3 years PQE, handling residential standard sale price only – £28-30 per hour (variation for central London – £29-33 per hour). * Conveyancing Locum Solicitors & ILEX – 5-35 years PQE, handling all levels of conveyancing including managing a department – £30-£40 per hour, including central London. * Commercial Property Solicitors – 1-40 years PQE - £35-45 per hour. * Wills & Probate Solicitors and Executives – 3-35 years PQE – £35-45 per hour. * Family Solicitors – 4-40 years PQE – £25-30 per hour. Occasionally this goes up to £35 per ho...

New article on accepting a training contract in a smaller sized high street law firm: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/ive-had-a-training-contract-offer-from-a-small-high-street-law-firm-should-i-take-it/  Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database.

New Candidate Update now available from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/new-candidate-registrations-dated-24th-august-2016-for-ten-percent-legal-recruitment / Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database. Our Legal Careers Shop has eBooks on CV Writing for Lawyers, Legal Job Interview Guide, Interview Answers for Lawyers, NQ Career Guide, Guide to Finding Work Experience or a Training Contract and the Entrants Guide to the Legal Profession.

Candidate Update from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment now available - new candidates into us over the last 7 days - 18th August 2016. Market has changed a bit in recent times... Link is here: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/new-candidate-update-18th-august-2016-solicitors-ilex-paralegals-and-legal-support-staff/ Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database.

New Candidate update out for the 5th August 2016 from the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment Group. No change in the frequency of candidates registering, much to the anticipated disappointment of some senior partners who call expecting us to have 100s of redundant conveyancing solicitors! Link for list is below: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/new-permanent-and-locum-solicitors-candidate-update-5th-august-2016/ Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database. 

We have published the first Legal Job Market Report post-Brexit - click the link below to view it: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/legal-job-market-report-july-6th-2016/ In a nutshell we anticipate issues with the property sector, short term uncertainty affecting recruitment in the legal profession, and hopefully a resurgence in the mid-to long-term.  Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database. 

Our new candidate update has just gone live on the Ten-Percent website. It contains a list of all the candidates registered with us in the last 7-10 days. You can view it here: http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/new-candidate-update-june-22nd-2016/ Previous 7 days list is here:  http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/new-candidate-update-june-14th-2016/ Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database.

The latest edition of Legal Recruitment News has been released. It can be read at www.legal-recruitment.co.uk  Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database. Our Legal Careers Shop has eBooks on CV Writing for Lawyers, Legal Job Interview Guide, Interview Answers for Lawyers, NQ Career Guide, Guide to Finding Work Experience or a Training Contract and the Entrants Guide to the Legal Profession.

Euro 2016 finals and how to survive them Its that time of year again when football has an effect on just about everything going on in the workplace and the economy. Forget the ins and outs of the EU referendum campaign - we have noticed the effect of the football phenomenon every year the World Cup or the Euros have been played. Business seems to just stop. Suddenly the national team takes pride of place. Some employers are very good at identifying the desire of their employees to watch the match, or at least pay it some attention rather than their work. Other employers are pretty hopeless. Here is our guide to surviving the Euros - for employed staff and employers: 1. Shut the office for the afternoon on Thursday June 16th. This is when England play Wales - kick off at 2pm. Even if you stay open the vast majority of your employees will be busy staring into space and glaring at you intermittently. People never forget this type of thing and it will be remembered... 2. Give staff the o...

New Candidate Update just out on the Ten-Percent Legal site - http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/legal-solicitors-update-may-18th-2016/ Includes Solicitors, Legal Executives, Legal Secretaries, Office Managers, Paralegals and Legal Cashiers. Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals . Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database. 

Locum hourly rate payment varies widely according to the demand, length of assignment, level of experience and advance notice available. NB: These rates are intended as a guide only. Hourly rates can vary according to the location, duration and level of expertise. April 2016 Private Practice Law Firm Locum Rates: * Conveyancing Locum Solicitors – 1-3 years PQE, handling residential standard sale price only – £28-30 per hour (variation for central London – £29-33 per hour). * Conveyancing Locum Solicitors & ILEX – 5-35 years PQE, handling all levels of conveyancing including managing a department – £30-£40 per hour, including central London. * Commercial Property Solicitors – 1-40 years PQE - £35-45 per hour. * Wills & Probate Solicitors and Executives – 3-35 years PQE – £35-40 per hour. * Family Solicitors – 4-40 years PQE – £25-30 per hour. Occasionally this goes up to £35 per hour for short notice or a few days cover. * Civil Litigation – 1-35 years PQE. £25-35 per hour. The...

New analysis, reported in the Gazette this week, has shown that almost 5,000 students started the course between 2012 and 2014, 72% of these have passed so far, and 35% of BPTC graduates have gained pupillage since completing the course between 2011 and 2013. This means that 2/3 of graduates do not get pupillage despite spending the equivalent of a house deposit on a course that has essentially failed to progress their professional careers. With the cost ranging from £12,500 up to £18,000 (mostly at the upper end), this means that in two years the course generated up to £90 million in course fees for the various providers and from this only roughly 1,500 are likely to actually have succeeded in gaining pupillage and as a result succeeding with the aim of the course. The Bar course (and the LPC) should both carry large warnings in any literature - if you spend £10-18k on this course there is a very good chance you will not progress your legal career any further than i...

Locum hourly rate payment varies widely according to the demand, length of assignment, level of experience and advance notice available. NB: These rates are intended as a guide only. Hourly rates can vary according to the location, duration and level of expertise. They are sourced from our work through www.interimlawyers.co.uk and www.ten-percent.co.uk dealing with a range of locum assignments across the UK. April 2016 Private Practice Law Firm Locum Rates:   * Conveyancing Locum Solicitors – 1-3 years PQE, handling residential standard sale price only – £28-30 per hour (variation for central London – £29-33 per hour). * Conveyancing Locum Solicitors & ILEX – 5-35 years PQE, handling all levels of conveyancing including managing a department – £30-£40 per hour, including central London. * Commercial Property Solicitors – 1-40 years PQE - £35-45 per hour. * Wills & Probate Solicitors and Executives – 3-35 years PQE – £35-40 per hour. * Family Solicitors – 4-4...

Recently the BBC did a study on salaries to be expected by graduates entering the different professions ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34475955 ) - this was in the context of analysing how much junior doctors were paid. Lawyers came out top and the BBC gave an average starting salary of £37k. This week the Law Society Gazette have given exposure to a pretty obvious press release from an investment company, Bower Cotton, who had done a far reaching study of c.100 lawyers to determine that over 40% were going to rely on property to fund their retirement. I suspect that the press release has been copied word for word into the Gazette! The article also refers to it being possible for lawyers to be 'amongst the top earners' and having a good amount to invest. Both of these are strong evidence of either a high level of ignorance or a total lack of interest in checking facts before producing articles. Quite how the BBC got to the average they did in their article is not clear. Wo...

The Co-operative Bank, Co-operative Legal Services - an amazing demonstration of subliminal referrals An elderly relative has recently died in our family and I rang the Co-operative Bank to ask them what information they required from the family in order to remove a name from a joint account. I called the main bank number and explained I was simply making an enquiry about name removal. The operative asked me for the bank account number in question and a bit more information about the deceased. I gave them this and was advised that I would be put through to the probate team who would be able to advise me. After waiting for about 5 minutes I spoke to someone I thought was in the bank's probate department who advised me that I simply needed to take a certified copy of the death certificate into a local branch or post it to head office. He then advised me that he just needed to take a few more details from me for their "Bank Notification Scheme" and that it shouldn...

Hmm. Slater & Gordon are struggling - job losses, share value dropping, company turnover plummeting.. Our local radio station seems to have stopped playing adverts mentioning the local law firm brand aged 100 years+ with the added catchphrase "part of Slater & Gordon". Is this going to be a new competition? Guess how long the new legal market entrant is going to last? When are large multinationals and organisations going to realise that high street law is profitable to a certain degree but seemingly very dependent on a relatively small scale operation? Anyone remember the bulk conveyancing operations of the 1990s and 2000s? Barnetts in Southport is a good example. The senior partner there seemed to be the Law Society Gazette favourite whenever a quote was needed on modernising the way high street law firms worked. He was forever commenting on how profitable everyone could be if only they looked to the future. Now look at them - RIchard Barnett was struck off for u...

The Sutton Trust, a foundation with the aim of encouraging more state educated school children to attend better quality universities and reach the higher echelons of society, has published a report in the last few days. It has concluded that 74% of judges, 71% of barristers and 51% of solicitors went to independent schools, with 78% of barristers and 55% of solicitors going to Oxbridge. I have to pick fault with this research - when you look at the sources of information used by the Sutton Trust to determine these figures they have basically been through the Chambers Directory. Great. The report seems to have been penned by an academic, but the selective nature of the report makes wonderful headlines but is almost certainly inaccurate to a wide extreme. Damned lies and statistics and all that. There are over 110,000 solicitors in the UK. How many of these are in the Chambers Directory? Does Chambers really list the elite solicitors in the profession? I remember being in practice and...

Centre 63 and The First Step - charities supported by the Ten-Percent Foundation The two trustees of the Ten-Percent Foundation (the charitable trust linked to Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and responsible for distributing the annual 10% donation of profits) visited a couple of charities in North West England today. Both are within an hours drive of our company head office in Mold and we have supported them in the past. We have made a decision to look at developing long term funding for both charities and so went to meet the charities to discuss how and what we can assist with. Both charities fit our spending criteria as follows: The charity deals with a range of work that appeals to us. The charity has no ulterior motive – eg religious teachings or political leanings. The charity appears to do some good and does not just hoard money or spend it frivolously. The charity pays its staff a reasonable and not excessive level of remuneration. We went to visi...

Choosing a charity to donate hard earned money to is not a particularly easy task. Every year the trustees of the Ten-Percent Foundation sit down to work out how to distribute our funds to worthy causes. The Ten-Percent Foundation is a charitable trust linked to Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. Every year the company donates 10% of its profits to charity via the Foundation. There are two trustees and we determine how to spend the money, which is usually aimed at charities in the UK and Africa together with locally based sports organisations.  This article would be of interest to all those people who feel strongly about donating money to charity that actually makes a difference. It sets out the decisions made by the charity’s trustees on a number of causes and how we came to make those decisions. We wrote an article last year detailing the top paid staff at charities and it is one of our most popular and commented on articles on the Legal Recruitment Blog.  NB: ...