Legal Recruitment Blog

Ten Percent Foundations - Charity Donations 1 2018 Our trustees met a few weeks ago and we have decided to make the following donations: First Steps - £2,500 Centre 63 - £2,500 Kilimatinde Trust - £2,200 British Stammering Association - £2,000. Full article to follow next month on the decisions made, but we have realised our charitable donations are going to drop dramatically as of next month due to the changes to the tax structures of companies (the Dividend Tax in particular) and as such our profit levels are going to be considerably lower. This has meant that in the current round of donations we have not been able to support the nominated charities from candidates and clients, but instead make our payments committed already - the four projects are all on 5 year terms ending next year. The charity still retains about £8,000 and we will revisit the donations in the summer to see if we can free up some more money to additionally donate. Thank you to all those who nominated charities...

We have been involved in two cases recently where we queried status and issues with the Modern Slavery Unit, which I understand is a charity operating a helpline on behalf of the National Crime Agency. 1. The first situation was where we had concerns about a disabled solicitor being exploited by a solicitors firm. Payment made to this lawyer for his services was less than £5k for 2 years. 2. We had a request from a law firm to advertise unpaid trial periods to staff for 4 weeks before a paid permanent job was offered. I rang the Modern Slavery Unit to get advice on these two situations. What powers did they have and whether these two issues came within their remit? The advisor informed me that the unit was able to only investigate in scenario 1 if the disabled solicitor in question referred themselves to the unit. At that point they would be able to investigate and assist if necessary. So far as the second scenario is concerned employers are perfectly able to offer unpaid trial period...