Legal Recruitment

Recruitment Agencies Failing at Fastest Rate since 2007.

2012-01-25T10:00:00.002Z

It has been reported today in the Recruitment Press that recruitment agencies across the UK are failing at a faster rate than seen since 2007/2008 according to a new report.

It is estimated that a first two quarters of 2012 will see a record number of recruitment agencies go into administration and get brought out by larger rivals. At particular risk are those with large public sector contracts and medium sized businesses with large overheads.

Recruitment agency client bases are disappearing as more and more firms start to use and develop their own internal networks and cease to use conventional recruitment agencies to conduct their general hiring for them.

In one large multinational company it was recently reported that just 2.5% of their recruitment spend was through employment agencies and the remainder was done using internal mechanisms and external networking.

Recruitment agencies have seen an unparalleled reduction in the amount of business they are able to deal with. Unless a recruitment agency is of a particular size and handling very large corporate accounts on a bulk basis, the days of surviving on a few permanent placements each month have long gone.

Recruitment agencies now need to be employment law consultancies, able to assist with HR processes, provide very low and competitive fees, add advertising to their service and generally do a lot more for their money.

Things may change as the jobs market expands again, but as it stands recruitment agencies who do not change are in for a very bleak future indeed.

Changing the way recruitment agencies work is fairly straightforward, provided you are prepared to be innovative. One such example is our own company, Ten Percent Legal Recruitment. We recognised that in future recruitment spend is going to be something practice managers can no longer splash out on (we find practice managers are the most reluctant to apply new techniques and tend to focus specifically on the old style techniques of using a long list of expensive recruitment agencies to fire CVs through). Partners of law firms and owners seem more geared up to changing their habits.

We have altered our services completely to enable every one of our clients to recruit as many staff as they need for less than £800 a year. Over 45 firms have signed up to this so far and they include sole practitioners, LSC funded firms, large regional practices, commercial firms and high street firms.

This is quite a change from the standard conventional contingency fee recruitment of the usual recruitment agency and makes a considerable difference to the costs per client.

For details please come and visit us. You can sign up online or call us for further details. We are changing the face of the recruitment industry and anticipate driving costs down for everyone (apart from Magic Cirlce firms who are a world apart!).

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment Agencies and PDF Files - avoid the latter!

2012-01-13T11:10:00.002Z

We have recently had about 30% of all CVs sent in by candidates in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. Please think twice before converting your CV and sending it in this format. It drives us insane!

Adobe appears to be one of the most unstable platforms around and crashes our computers when it clashes with Firefox and Windows Explorer and anything else thrown into its' path.

I know that some law firms ask for CVs in pdf format - simply because it makes it easier to read and reduces the risk of viruses, which Microsoft Office appears to be highly susceptible to.

However, as a legal recruitment agency who invested in technology some time ago to enable automated upload of CVs onto our system quickly and efficiently, .pdf files are the bane of our life!

Every time one gets sent, we have to reformat it into a word document, and if we want to use it to send out (*with your consent of course), we have to remove all the text boxes that our specialist converter software throws into the mix for us. This can take anything from 5 to 20 minutes.

Legal recruitment consultants have enough to do at the moment with the constant bombardment of CVs and telephone calls from candidates - the market is still not booming unfortunately - and converting pdf files is not one of our priorities...

I know they look good, and to be honest if I was sending out my own CV I may consider pdf files, but it does not really assist your application.

Please think twice before sending them. I may be slightly crotchety when writing this after just converting 11 CVs in a row!

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

More Family LSC Supervisor Info (yawn)

2011-12-14T16:49:00.003Z

We have yet another LSC family supervisor deadline almost upon us - the 20th December - although quite why this has happened when so many firms were working to the 5th December is beyond me. The LSC are a law unto themselves when it comes to deadlines I think! If law firms miss deadlines that is one thing, whereas if the LSC miss a deadline they simply extend it by a few weeks.

Anyway, anyone registered with us for family law work will be pleased to see the back of these latest deadlines because we have been bombarding them with emails about firms looking for full time salaried supervisors and consultant supervisors working through a monthly retainer system.

I have heard that you can work for more than one firm, provided you are not supervising more than 4 caseworkers. This means that technically you can work for 4 firms all with one caseworker each? Who knows. There doesnt seem to be any guidance on this anywhere and I understand that if you call the LSC the accounts managers dont seem to know either.

Guidance on LSC SQM Supervisor status can be found here:

http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/docs/forms/Supervision_Forms%281%29.pdf

Anyway, if you are a firm or a consultant looking to be married up with a firm needing an LSC supervisor for family or vice versa, let me know. We have just helped a consultant who is part time with a firm in the North of England to join a firm in SE England as their supervisor on her day off each week.

This has to be the way it works in future I suspect as the money in LSC funded work is so awful.

Jonathan Fagan, MD, Ten-Percent

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Family LSC Contracts Awarded - Family Vacancies increase

2011-11-21T15:35:00.001Z

We have started to see an influx of family and child care posts coming through from firms who have been awarded an LSC contract in the recent rounds of applications and who now need to find themselves a panel member.

So far, most of these are coming from smaller sized practices around London, usually up to about 5 partners, and based outside the centre - East, South East, North and West London.

This is going to move into other areas I suspect as we get closer to the deadline in two weeks for the firms to indicate who their supervisor is.

If you are considering signing up for a firm as a supervisor, whether on a contractual or salaried basis, please let us know and we can keep you informed with vacancies. I understand that you do not need to live near the firm, and someone working as a locum in another area of the country could sign up to a firm as their supervisor (subject to usual LSC requirements).

So far we have:

Berkshire
South East London
East London (x2)
North London
West London
South West London

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Alternative Business Structures - no sign of any ABS Legal Recruitment yet

2011-11-03T15:51:00.002Z

Further to the massive change that has apparently happened in the legal sector, I can say that so far we have received no indication of any vacancies being posted by new ABS law firms.

We have had a request from one of the new brands to advertise on our websites (slightly surprising being that we have criticised the whole franchise concept!) but no sign as yet of any new entrants to the legal profession looking to recruit large amounts of solicitors to sweep up the business.

With the amount of legislation and regulation that affects the legal profession, any cutthroat operators looking to make a quick buck by recruiting armies of paralegals to undertake work are going to have to take a considerable amount of time to plan their operation in order to make any money at all. Furthermore, with the possibility that referral fees are going to get banned very shortly, (for somewhat spurious reasons that are still not entirely clear) I would imagine a good number of companies are watching the space very carefully before making a decision to step in.

If and when we get any ABSs coming through to us we will post information on this site. We did have a caravan park operator looking to recruit an in-house solicitor on an overwhelmingly generous salary of £25-30,000. The person had to be (to put in the caravan park owner’s words) “Top notch”, “highly experienced” and “from a good quality firm background”. I did delicately suggest that the salary being offered was about a 3rd of the usual level for this type of candidate but the person in question sounded quite insulted at this and said that there were plenty of people out there looking for a job and he was sure they would recruit. The vacancy disappeared a few days later when the manager got in touch to say that they had managed to find someone. If you have recently accepted a post as an ex-city lawyer with over 5 years’ experience in property and litigation and are based somewhere in the East of the country please get in touch to reassure me that you have not accepted a salary of £25,000….

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Duty Solicitors - Are the Streets of London Really Paved With Gold?

2011-10-25T07:38:00.003+01:00

Question from Duty Solicitor:

We have spoken and corresponded a number of times over the last 8 yrs or so and I wonder if you are able to help at this juncture of my career. I am interested in freelancing which would mean my duty slots to a large firm. In London I am informed a £1200 retainer is available plus an average of £50k pa working hard one week a month - sounds like a no brainer!

The agency in London I have spoken to who are recruiting on behalf of 3 major London firms certainly talk the talk - but I am suspicious of how much rota work I would get given the volume of freelancers and employed solicitors on the rotas.

I want some security of earnings before I commit myself.

Answer from Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Hello. If it assists, let me tell you about 2 candidates we placed last year in London as freelancers (both central London) - one with a 1 partner firm, the other with a 20 solicitor practice.

The freelancer with the 1 partner firm earned about £25k for the year - this included doing prep work for the firm as well as his slots.

The second one is with a 20 solicitor practice and looks as if he may posssibly get up to around £20k.

There are a number of freelancers this year looking for salaried roles. I have a duty in London who has just accepted a salaried role of £27k.

I suspect that the agency is the one who appear to have made themselves duty solicitor experts this year and advertised heavily in the Law Society Gazette - presumably because so many other lines of legal recruitment work have collapsed in recent times......

That said, I have heard of freelancers in the past who have earnt good money.

Similarly I have also been involved when a very large crime outfit changed their terms and conditions and jettisoned entire duty solicitor teams who were earning too much money.

Think carefully before jumping - the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence....

Jonathan

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Solicitors’ Brands and Franchises - OTT?

2011-09-27T20:26:00.003+01:00

It has become a recent trend in the legal profession for solicitors to start forming brand names and franchises. I think this can be traced back to a commentator who appears regularly in the Law Society Gazette called Neil Myerson who is a Professor at a university somewhere in the UK.

Professor Myerson has warned constantly about solicitors’ firms being eaten up by large multi-nationals coming into the market when the alternative business structures start to form in October 2011. Since then we have seen Quality Solicitors, the High Street Lawyer brand and now one called Face to Face. All of these appear to charge their members considerable amounts of money, promising advertising in return and forming large groups of firms able to compete in the national marketplace.

I voice a minority opinion I suspect, but I think that any firm signing up to these brands is probably flushing a rather large portion of cash straight down the toilet.

Franchising, which is what this model is, has been around for many years. You can purchase franchises in anything including Costa Coffee, McDonalds, Burger King, health and fitness clubs, estate agents, and many more. Most of the time these franchises are simply a way for large businesses to spread their operations and ensure other people take on the risks involved. I imagine that for the majority of time most companies are better off not being franchised and instead using the money they would have spent on the franchise to market their own business and brand name. Consider for example the Paul Rooney Partnership, based in Liverpool and advertising on Classic FM across the country for many years for Accident and Personal Injury matters.

Some of these brand names just sound as if a new business has opened up and do not really explain very much about what benefits you get as a consumer from using a firm working through a franchise than using a firm on the high street who have been there for many years.

I particularly admire the latest attempts to franchise with an upfront fee of £25,000 and 8% of profits shared with the umbrella company. What difference would it make if a consumer is looking for a solicitor in Stoke on Trent that one of the solicitors’ firms is called Quality Solicitors, the other is called Face to Face and the final one called High Street Solicitor? The consumer can to firms on the high street who have been there for many years and perhaps have an established brand known to a good proportion of the population.

Look at accountancy. Many years ago a new accountancy brand came onto the scene with the word "tax" in. There seemed to be quite a lot of firms who signed up for this brand, but if you phoned round for a quote these were actually more expensive than the smaller businesses and it was not clear what advantage one got from going through a company with the word Tax in the title as opposed to going through a company called Smith & Co Accountants. In fact in that case I have to confess to being put off the notion of an accountancy firm with the word Tax because at the time I was looking for an accountant, not someone who could offer me taxation advice. I appreciate this may be my own ignorance but this is an example of how franchises and brands can work against you.

The new Face to Face brand is an example of this perhaps. How many consumers want actual face to face advice from their solicitors and how many want 24 hour access via the internet? Does Face to Face really sum up what a consumer wants out of their lawyers or would Lawyer 24/7 perhaps have been the better brand name? Any firm which is thinking about signing up to one of these franchises may want to bear that in mind.

As ever I have not written this article to criticise the companies question, or to try and put down the businessmen setting up these business models. I will allow any comments from anyone linked to any of these businesses onto this site including a web link to your own site.

Afterall, we are legal recruiters and are supplying legal recruitment services to the legal profession and it hardly serves our own purpose to alienate our customers!

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment, specialists for an integrated recruitment service for law firms offering a low cost system for just £60 per month per law firm. For further details please get in touch.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Fascinating Tales and Common Queries from Law Firms Enquiring about the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment £60 a Month Recruitment Service

2011-09-17T07:40:00.006+01:00

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment is slowly (very slowly!) revolutionising the way law firms recruit. In July 2011 we decided to alter our fee structure to do away with contingency fee-based recruitment and instead ask all law firms who use our services to pay a monthly subscription. We set the monthly subscription at a level so low (£60) that most firms would not even notice they were paying it.

We also decided to impose a 5 year membership term to stop any firms planning to take a candidate from us and then cancel within a few weeks!

The responses from law firms have been fascinating. They include

"what a fantastic idea. You have altered my view of recruitment agencies as being money grabbing parasites." Partner, Lincolnshire Firm, September 2011.

"your service is outstanding. Within a few days of joining you had found us the candidates we had been looking to recruit for some time." Practice Manager, South East London Firm, August 2011.

We have also had some very interesting responses from some partners as follows:

"If we sign up to your service and recruit from another agency, we will be paying out two lots of recruitment fees."

and:

"This deal discriminates against smaller firms. We shall not be using your services in future." (a good percentage of our clients are sole practitioners and firms with less than 10 partners).

and:

"We only pay contingency fees because we want to pay for success."

Absolutely fascinating. We have also had HR Managers call up to ask why they should give us £3,600 when they rarely recruit and it will cost them £3,600 whether we are successful or not. They seem to miss the point that their recruitment needs are covered for 60 months - locum, permanent, support staff and fee earners. The service is a membership service, not a one-off recruitment process each time. I suppose after 30 years of recruitment agencies, it is difficult to get away from the mentality of one-off recruitment each time you are looking for a new member of staff.

Some law firms have also tried to argue that they should only have to join once we have found candidates and they have interviewed them. A partner at a medium sized central London firm suggested that the service was expensive and comparable with other deals he was getting from the legal recruitment market.

To be frank, all of the above is a complete load of nonsense. It reminds me of the time I went to a car boot sale to shift a load of possessions when we were moving house.

About half way through the sale, we realised that the remainder of our offerings were not shifting fast enough, and as the plan was to drive home with an empty boot, we started to offer everything at 10p.

Conversations included:

"how much for your skateboard?"

"10p".

"hmm....what's wrong with it?"

"nothing - we just want to sell it."

"hmm.... (examines the skateboard very suspiciously).... I'll think about it."

We did not sell very much at all at 10p. We managed to shift a computer that someone actually haggled us up on - offering us 50p.

Instead we changed the pricing structure to "everything free of charge".

We sat back and waited for a mad rush of customers. It didn't happen. Browsers still came up to the stall, examined the items carefully, asked us how much they were (despite a huge sign saying "Free to a Good Home").

The tale illustrates a human weakness - we are always looking for "the catch". Each one of the partners and HR managers calling me to find out why we are offering recruitment services at such a low price is simply following their human instinct that something is wrong with the service and that is why it is so cheap.

Our catch is the commitment. We want 5 years from each firm. If we get 5 years, we are happy to offer recruitment at a ridiculous price.

Apart from this? No catches. We have been around a long time. We want to mop up the recruitment market and get the majority of UK law firms on board. If we are first level providers to firms, just about any solicitor or support staff member will register with us in the first instance and not bother with other legal recruitment agencies.

The days of contingency fees for recruitment agencies in legal recruitment are numbered.....

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Training Contract Application Help - new product from the Ten-Percent Legal Careers Shop

2011-07-14T16:06:00.003+01:00

Get immediate assistance with your training contract applications. Purchase online and send over your application forms, covering letters and your CV. Each piece of work costs a certain number of credits. £25 buys 5 credits, which for most applications will cover 2 full application forms or a CV and covering letter. Full credit cost given before work undertaken. Credits can be topped up as needed.

All work is undertaken by a qualified recruitment consultant and solicitor with at least five years experience working within the legal profession.

http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop/product.php?id_product=37

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Save 20% on your Firm's Professional Indemnity Insurance Renewal

2011-07-14T14:15:00.003+01:00

Every law firm in the UK can make a saving of approximately 20% on their Insurance Renewals in 2011, including Professional Indemnity Insurance.

Save 20% by transferring your policy or alternatively leave with your existing provider and save 10%.

The 20% savings are made through bulk purchase and cutting out intermediaries. All benefits & conditions remain the same with the 10% deal.

Interested? Send an email over to cv@ten-percent.co.uk

We are providing this information as exactly that - information only.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Law Graduate sought for Advocacy Experience

2011-06-13T14:57:00.003+01:00

We are looking for an LPC student, graduate or LLB graduate to attend at Dudley County Court for us on Friday 17th June at 10am to deal with a Charging Order application. Very straightforward, documentation all ready to go, just can't get there ourselves! Will pay travel expenses plus an hourly rate.

Contact us urgently if you would like to be considered. 0207 127 4343. Jonathan Fagan, MD, Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

Transferring a Training Contract

2011-06-07T12:05:00.001+01:00

I was wondering if maybe you could help me! I am currently a trainee solicitor and looking to transfer my training contract....
Could you recommend any routes? I am applying via the conventional route.

Very difficult! There is no route as such - the way most people transfer is simply to identify potential firms who may be interested and write to them. Alternatively apply for an advertised training contract in a smaller sized practice and indicate that it will take you x amount of time shorter than any other trainees because of your existing experience.

Make sure that your existing firm does not find out. This is very important. After all you will want something to fall back on if everything else fails.... If you are experiencing problems at work speak to the Trainee Solicitors Group - most solicitors have been where you are now and experienced every type of behaviour in the book - bullying, alcoholic partners, mentally unstable employers etc...

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Careers - Changing Fields of Law to get more Advocacy Experience

2011-06-03T16:54:00.002+01:00

Careers Enquiry:
I am a trainee solicitor. I have been working in benefits, debt, housing and family. I have enjoyed these subjects, and have gained a lot of experience in the Legal Aid sector. The main problem is that I have not been able to do very much advocacy. This was something I always enjoyed throughout my degree and LPC. I also enjoyed the subject of criminal law throughout my studies and carried out a number of work experience placements in this area. I am considering transferring to Crime, but I am not sure how to make this change. I did an advanced criminal module on the LPC, but I do not have my police station accreditation.

Advice:
Firstly, do not jump out of the frying pan and into the fire! It appears that you have not really gained any experience in crime, and neither have you experienced advocacy and whether it is something suitable for you depends on this experience. Changing fields of law is not a decision to be taken lightly - it can come back to haunt you throughout your career.

If at all possible, go and get experience in crime before taking the step to change. Perhaps a week off work and work experience with the CPS or shadowing a solicitor in another firm in another town?

See if you can get some advocacy work in your current fields of law and make absolutely sure advocacy is something you are comfortable with. A lot of solicitors fall into crime work and find it very stressful as it can be a difficult area to work in at the best of times.

Good luck with your thoughts. Jonathan Fagan, MD and Legal Career Coach - www.ten-percent.co.uk

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

North West Legal Recruitment Market a Cold Spot in 2011

2011-06-03T16:46:00.002+01:00

Query from Client: Hi Jonathan, you may recall we spoke last summer when I used your application review service (I got down to the final 5 but lost out to a much more experienced candidate from London). I'm emailing you because I've just googled "legal recruitment market 2011" and what appeared was a blog written by you in January 2011. In the blog you stated that the North West (especially Manchester) would be a recruitment "cold spot" for 2011. Can I ask (1) why this is and (2) as 2011 progresses, is re recruitment in Manchester still very quiet?

My answer to this is as follows:
1. Manchester and the surrounding area have been hard in recent months by the collapse of Halliwells, the Consumer Credit Solicitor fiasco and other smaller firm closures.
2. The Manchester and North West legal markets at corporate level appear to be very dependent on the business of a couple of large companies, local authorities and government funded project work.
3. With the reduction in public spending happening, we think the Manchester legal job market will remain stunted and a cold spot for some time, together with the North East and Newcastle.
Please correct me if I am wrong - we are locally based (one of our offices is in North Wales) so would love to see the area boom! Jonathan Fagan, MD
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.
www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Newly Qualified Solicitors - Don't Panic!

2011-05-08T20:15:00.000+01:00

NQ Solicitor? Don't panic. Expect to work hard finding a suitable job
Every year we get called by NQ solicitors with the following questions:
1. When should I register?
2. How much should I be paid?
3. What does NQ or PQE mean?
4. I am not sure if my current firm will be keeping me on - what should I do?

Our answers depend on individual circumstances, but in a nutshell:
1. As early as you can. Unless specialist. register with a number of job boards and agencies. Very important to get wide coverage of all options. Give no-one consent to send out your CV without your permission.
2. Depends on circumstances. Visit our website for salary reviews or email to ask us.
3. Newly Qualified and Post Qualification Experience.
4. Look around as much as possible and use any job offers to lever an offer out of your existing firm if you want to stay.

Visit our website at www.ten-percent.co.uk/nq.htm for further advice.
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.
www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Selling Training Contracts and Work Experience - is it legally and morally acceptable?

2011-05-08T19:40:00.000+01:00

We have recently heard about a firm in the North of England offering training contracts for £20,000 and work experience for a lot less. I suspect the Law Society may have something to say if anyone ever reported the firm for doing this, but we were thinking about it from a moral standpoint.

Many years ago we were approached by a redundant manager from a large manufacturing company who had taken an LLB and LPC in his later years. He could not get anything from any law firm, which was fairly understandable as he had no experience and academic performances were not great.

This candidate came up with the idea of offering to buy the equity of a law firm. My understanding is that he was intending to purchase part of the freehold or leasehold of a law firm's building and then waive the rent over a period of time in return for the chance to do work experience and a training contract with the practice. I recall that he had a number of serious enquiries!

Even if it was legal to sell training contracts, I hope we do not go down that route as a profession. It seems that the entrance into law is so easy with every university selling LLB courses, LPC and BPTC qualifications for figures seemingly plucked from the sky, but no-one ever gives the harsh reality of how much a law student would be earning once they have qualified into any firms other than central London commercial firms.

I reckon I would have been happy to pay about £5,000 to do a 2 year training contract in a decent commercial firm. How much would you have forked out?

Jonathan Fagan is MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, a non-practising solicitor and legal careers coach.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.
www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

The Law in WHSmiths? Quality Solicitors Law Society Gazette ad

2011-05-08T19:38:00.000+01:00

We received our copy of the Law Society Gazette yesterday with an advert attached for Quality Solicitors. They have teamed up with WHSmiths to offer legal services from a range of WH Smiths outlets and there appears to be a recruitment drive for more firms to join the operation in light of this and other expansion.

I was thinking about the WH Smith side of things and noticed that the advert gives 2 scenarios for customers considering which solicitor to instruct - Scenario 1 - Yellow Pages, telephone quotes, internet search and then needing to book time off work to see a traditional solicitor operating during standard office hours, unfriendly receptionists giving quotes, paying up front fees, and nervousness about being in a solicitors office. Scenario 2 - go into WHSMiths and see a Quality Solicitors firm when shopping on a Saturday.

From a marketing perspective, I think the approach Quality Solicitors have taken is commendable. They have obviously invested money in pushing a national brand and aim to get themselves noticed by consumers and business.

However I have been thinking about the WH Smiths side of things and wondering how much of the scenario played out on the front of the flyer is actually ever going to happen.

The last time I needed a solicitor it was for commercial litigation. I looked at http://www.legal500.com/, found the local firms recommended for the work, checked out a few websites to see who was up to date and contactable by email and then called a couple for a price. I spoke to partners on both occasions and got competitive quotes. My decision to go with one firm rather than the other was based on price at the time.

The previous time before that was for a will. I looked at http://www.legal500.com/, found out who the highly regarded local firms were, called up and spoke to a legal executive and booked an appointment once the price was established. This was based on expertise and reputation, both very easy to research now on the web with online directories and forums.

Personally I am not sure a consumer or businessman would ever want to discuss a legal issue with a lawyer, paralegal or sales person in WHSmiths (my apologies to Quality Solicitors - I couldnt tell from your ad which of these would be present - please email to add into the article) on a shopping trip on a Saturday. My wife would probably have kittens for starters, and I wonder whether people will think that the business is claims management or some sort of franchise being operated like a will writers business. Would I get to speak to a partner or solicitor immediately in the same way I did when calling up on the two occasions given above, or simply someone manning the stall and making appointments?

Of course only time will tell whether this is a shrewd move or one that backfires. It would be interesting to know how much business DHL pick up from teaming up with WHSmiths for parcel delivery services. I go into WHSmiths to buy Private Eye, browse books, go to Costa Coffee, look at the games or get a gift card - legal services? I'm not sure. Will the brand pick up passing trade and get business this way?

It reminds me of the RAC and the AA manning stalls outside service stations. How much business comes in from that particular activity? Does it add anything to the brand to be teaming up with the service stations to sell breakdown services to anyone passing or do they just tend to sell to someone desperate at that moment as they think their engine is about to blow and their subscription has expired?

I have not written this article to criticise Quality Solicitors and if anyone from the company or an individual law firm within the group would like to comment, please note that I will post this news item onto the http://www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com website - all comments added (provided they are not from SEO companies trying to boost rankings!).

It is certainly the case that a lot of law firms need to up their game with marketing and advertising, and so many still live in the Stone Ages. A friend of mine was recently recounting calling round firms in a market town in North Wales for a quote for conveying a piece of land, getting very surly receptionists giving one size fits all prices, opening times that were inconvenient and being extremely depressed at the end of it....

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

Getting out of Law - our experiences from career coaching

2011-05-08T19:37:00.000+01:00

Career coaching is a fairly integral part of our business and something we have been doing since 2001. Quite a few of the people who come to see us are solicitors who have completed betweeen 3 and 5 years post-qualification and disillusioned. One of the most popular queries is: "surely there is something more to life than this?".

Getting out of the legal profession is similarly a very popular topic that we spend some time advising on. If you are considering this yourself, please bear in mind the following quick advice.

Lawyers tend to fall into two categories.

1. Those who think they want to leave the legal profession but actually have problems in their workplace.
2. Those who have no problems with the work place but actually thoroughly dislike law and the legal profession.

It is important to differentiate between the two situations if you are considering your own position. Highly paid London solicitors often want to leave their jobs because although they are very well paid they work long hours or there is a partner causing problems at work or systematically bullying staff. Lowly paid high street solicitors often want to leave the profession because they are badly paid. High street solicitors want more money, commercial solicitors want more time.

http://www.lawcare.org/ have a good list on their site of alternative jobs and professions lawyers have gone into that may be of interest. Some solicitors feel trapped as any advice sought is often met with well-intentioned "are you sure, seems a waste to leave after all that training."

For legal career coaching please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/career.htm
We have two dates available in the next 4 weeks in central London - 24th May and 1st June.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

CDS12 deadline with the Legal Services Commission for Duty Solicitors

2011-04-27T13:42:00.006+01:00

The next CDS12 deadline for duty solicitors is approaching very quickly on Friday 7th May 2011, although our gut feeling is that the Legal Services Commission will extend it. I am not sure they have appreciated the delay that will inevitably be caused by the bank holidays. We have a number of duty solicitor interviews arranged, but the bank holidays will eat into decision making time. Duty solicitors looking for jobs may have to move very quickly indeed on the 3rd May if they are to get their interviews in, offers made and considered and CDS12 forms signed up in time....
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.
Our Legal Careers Shop sells a Training Contract Pack offering savings of over £100, 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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.
www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment News Published for April 2011

2011-04-12T15:13:00.000+01:00

April Legal Recruitment News now published live on http://www.legal-recruitment.co.uk/ Please visit the site to read and subscribe to our newsletters for: 1. Law Firm Employers 2. Candidates 3. Legal Careers. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

Law Firm seek a Magician

2011-04-12T13:54:00.002+01:00

Can you do Magic? A London Law Firm are looking for a Magician A firm in South West London are interested in employing a solicitor who is an experienced magician. This may sound a little bizarre, but the firm have had the idea of someone doing magic tricks whilst pitching to clients. Is this a wind up? We dont think so - the firm sounded deadly serious. They mentioned possibly hiring someone who had done quite a bit of work on stage as an alternative. If you think you can stand on your head whilst balancing an apple on your chin and juggling three chain saws with your feet, and at the same time do a presentation on recent changes to employment legislation, please get in touch. VAC 14295. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Interview Training for Lawyers - interactive online pack now available from the Ten-Percent Legal Careers Shop

2011-03-25T16:56:00.005Z

Ten-Percent Legal Careers Shop release the new interactive Interview Training Pack for Lawyers and Law Students. Available online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Sample video from the series - 107 minutes of film, 25 interview questions with sample answers, feedback and advice, 3 written exercises and extensive advice on succeeding at law firm interviews, whether training contracts, paralegal posts, qualified lawyer and solicitor positions or in house roles.

Please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop for further details.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Solicitors Regulation Authority - a response

2011-02-28T11:15:00.003Z

Response received from the Solicitors Regulation Authority last week (see my earlier blog entry re reporting a firm of will writers (IWC Limited) masquerading as solicitors through Google AdWords). I am amazed that the contact centre officer has the cheek to apologise for not assuring me the correct action would be taken instead of just simply apologising for misreading an email or generally being somewhat incompetent! I make no apology for printing the email in full - if this is the standard of regulation being applied to advertising by the SRA, what chance does the 'solicitor' brand have of remaining a quality one?

Dear Mr Fagan
Thank you for your email of 09 February 2011. I apologise if our previous communication did not assure you that correct action would be taken. The matter has been referred to our Fraud Intelligence Unit who will investigate the information that you have provided and will contact you directly with their response. Thank you for contacting The Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Yours sincerely
Nicola Hicks
Contact Centre Officer
Solicitors Regulation Authority
Tel: 0870 606 2555
Fax: 0207 320 5964
Email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk

From: Jonathan Fagan [jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk]
Sent: 09 February 2011 14:10
To: Contactcentre
Subject: RE: Tracing a firm

You obviously didn't read my email - I am reporting a company who are masquerading as solicitors and advertising on the internet as such..

I suspect this is something you are supposed to investigate?

Regards
Jonathan Fagan
Director
www.ten-percent.co.uk
Email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

The Solictors Regulation Authority - whats it all about?

2011-02-09T16:05:00.003Z

It may be me - I could have completely the wrong body to report matters to, but I recently noticed a will writers firm masquerading as a solicitors practice, and being a responsible citizen, decided to report them, even though they were advertising on Google Adwords and showing on this very site!

I completed an Solicitors Regulation Authority enquiry form online, indicated what my query was - ie that IWC Limited were committing a criminal offence (I think?) by calling themselves solicitors when they were not (their advert read Will & Probate Solicitors Low Cost Probate Service Guaranteed Qualified, Friendly Staff, Call Now IWC-LTD.co.uk). In fact for the avoidance of doubt, here is my form!

Title: Mr
Name: Jonathan Fagan
Phone Number: 01352810850
Enquiry: Advert seen on Google Adwords from a company as follows - this company do not appear to be solicitors and hence committing criminal offence. suspect this is your remit?
Will (sic) & Probate Solicitors Low Cost Probate Service Guaranteed Qualified, Friendly Staff, Call Now IWC-LTD.co.uk

Imagine my surprise to get the following email back again from someone who obviously struggles to pay very much attention to detail, and leaves me wondering why the SRA is any better than the Law Society was at self-regulation:

Dear Mr Fagan
Thank you for your e-mail of 04 February 2011. I have carried out a search of the records held by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and am pleased to provide you with the following information:

I cannot locate a solicitors firm by the name of IWC-Ltd.

If you can provide any further information then I will happily search our records again.

I hope that this information is helpful. If you have any further queries that you would like to discuss, please contact us by telephone on 0870 606 2555. Our lines are open 09.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday. If you are calling from overseas please use + 44 (0) 1527 504450. Please note calls may be monitored/recorded for training purposes. Alternatively you can e-mail us on contactcentre@sra.org.uk

Thank you for contacting the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Yours sincerely

Nicola Hicks
Contact Centre Officer
Solicitors Regulation Authority
Tel: 0870 606 2555
Fax: 0207 320 5964
Email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk
P Go Green; keep it on screen.

Is it me, or is this completely bonkers? Perhaps it is just me.... need to get out more..

Jonathan Fagan, www.ten-percent.co.uk

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Is there a General Lack of Commitment to a finding a Training Contract or Legal Job from Law Students and Graduates?

2011-02-04T09:27:00.003Z

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment are currently offering a free legal careers day for people looking to get a training contract, pupillage, work experience or just to get into the legal profession. We are developing an online training programme for students looking to get on in their legal career and need 10-12 people prepared to be filmed but in return receive a full day of training free of charge.

Imagine our surprise when we sifted through the countless applications we received from a post out to our law student and graduate email list and found the following email from a law graduate:
"Ridiculous concept. Attempting to profit from naive/eager students. This borders on unscrupulous. You need to be reported old chap. Remove my details from your pathetic mailing list immediately."

We obviously emailed back to point out there was no catch at all to the day - we simply need to do some filming and wanted to offer free training in return. We had the following response:

"Free job search and interview training - what numpty thinks that Universities and Law Schools do not already offer this service?? Those that you are targeting/robbing are those from less privileged backgrounds who have not attended the better Universities and therefore are struggling to obtain a training contract. Preying on young people's pipe dreams....Shame on you, old chap."

It got better. We shortlisted our 12 people, all of whom had needed to send us a CV together with a covering email explaining why they felt they were suitable to attend. Anticipating emails straight back again confirming their attendance (after all they had gone to the trouble of writing a mini-essay to explain why they wanted to attend), we were amazed to receive no response at all from 3 of the successful applicants, one declining because his local accommodation had fallen through and another sending the following email:

"Hi, I just wanted to check - you do cover our train fares?"

Obviously, spluttering with indignation at the barefaced cheek of such a request, we managed to write a fairly polite response to this email.

This could turn into a rant, and apologies if it does, but I get so frustrated with law students and graduates whinging about how there are no opportunities out there, there are no legal jobs, they have large debts, cant get work, moan, moan, moan. Life is hard, getting into law is particularly hard and always has been. Go back 30+ years and trainee solicitors did not get paid... Every solicitor, apart from those who walked straight into central London firms and regional commercial practices, has been in exactly the same position and succeeded simply by perserverance. Seize every opportunity and don't wimp out at the slightest obstacle. So many do....

Interestingly, some of the people who responded instantly to our offer and to accept a place were those who have 3-4 pieces of legal work experience on their CV, good academics, clear evidence of a good work/life balance and lots of extra information that is going to be of interest in the legal recruitment process.

Many years ago we set up a Job Creation Scheme for students. We had loads of applications and a legal job came in. It was in Kent and we sent three people along. One was offered the job, which, it later transpired, was a training contract. One of the applicants was successful and started work. On the third day we had a telephone call from the firm to say that the person had not showed up for work that morning and had not bothered getting in touch.

We immediately stopped the Job Creation Scheme. The firm in question have never used us again for conventional legal recruitment (ie recruiting solicitors etc) and we still fume whenever we think about this. There are so many people out there looking, but often I think a good proportion of these cannot be bothered when push comes to shove. Good news for anyone prepared to grind away until they get a result perhaps....

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, a company that tries desperately hard to try to help entrants to the legal profession alongside standard legal recruitment services for solicitors and legal support staff (including legal cashiers).

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment News for Candidates - February 2011

2011-02-01T15:18:00.003Z

Please see also our Newsletters for Legal Careers and Employers in the Legal Profession.
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment News February 2011 for Employers

2011-02-01T13:42:00.002Z

February 2011 Legal Recruitment News from www.ten-percent.co.uk

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Careers News February 2011

2011-01-31T15:34:00.002Z

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Wills and Probate Focus Jan 2011

2011-01-26T14:31:00.001Z

Please find below details of recent Wills & Probate vacancies registered with Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment.

VAC 14199 - Firm in the New Forest on the Hampshire/Dorset border have a vacancy for a Private Client Solicitor or Legal Executive. Caseload will be the full range of Wills, probate, estate administration and elderly/vulnerable client issues. The ideal candidate will be highly personable. Salary levels are market rate and there are excellent prospects in place for partnership/heading up the department. Firm are based 20 miles from Southampton. This is a replacement vacancy.

VAC 14194 - Berkshire firm, Reading area are looking for a private client lawyer. they have a vacancy for a full-time permanent private client solicitor or legal executive or body with requisite experience (e.g. ex bank/investment etc). The role involves Will drafting, tax and estate planning and probate including the completion of IHT forms etc. They need at least 3 years PQE preferably 5 and the candidate must be good with direct client contact. STEP membership or willingness to qualify would be ideal. Salary dependent on experience. Firm are based about 5 mins from the M4. Replacement vacancy. Salary indicated from about £40,000 upwards, negotiable.

VAC 14102 - North Yorkshire - Thirsk. Small-medium sized 2 office well established market town practice with offices in North Yorkshire looking for a solicitor with expertise (and ideally supervisory experience) in Private Client (wills, probate and trusts) and Property as well as excellent interpersonal and communication skills (will consider a specialist). An early partnership opportunity is available for the right candidate. This firm will consider equity partnership within 12 months for the right person.

VAC 14150 - West London firm - looking for wills & probate solicitor to join - junior level. This firm have a contract with us for direct applications, so if interested please let us know and we will forward a CV straight through to the senior partner concerned.

VAC 14141 - Peterborough - Legal 500 practice - potentially still on the look out for a senior wills & probate solicitor.

VAC 14139 - Mansfield, possibly Belper. Legal 500 practice. Legal executive or solicitor sought to join a team. Expansion post.

VAC 14136 - Chelmsford - Well established Chelmsford Firm have a vacancy for a senior Wills & Probate Solicitor. PQE must be 6 years upwards and STEP membership would be an advantage.

VAC 14131 - Dawlish - Wills & Probate Solicitor sought by company based in Dawlish, Devon. NQ or trainees are not suitable, but any other level of PQE considered. Role will involve developing a small team to meet planned expansion. Experience of Wills, Probate, Trusts and Court of Protection are essential.

VAC 14118 - Hertford - Wills & Probate, Tax & Trusts solicitor sought by Hertford firm, looking for an experienced solicitor to help run and develop the Trust, Wills & Probate department. Must have at least 3+ year PQE, the post will mainly be Trust and wills, with some Probate work.

VAC 14048 - Kings Lynn - Legal 500 practice - A firm based in East Anglia (North Norfolk) are looking for a wills & probate lawyer to join their busy team. The practice is medium sized, Legal 500, with a range of clients. Well established, this is an opportunity to join an existing team as it expands. The firm are wanting to look at all options, and will consider legal executives and solicitors at varying levels. They are in a position of being able to be quite flexible around the structure of their team. Salary levels are dependent on experience.

We also have firms indicating potential vacancies across the UK.

The next step if you are interested in any of these vacancies will be for us to identify the firm to you and get a CV through to the senior partner, together with any further details. Notice periods and salary levels are always helpful at this stage.

If you have any questions regarding this vacancy please feel free to email them through.

We now run a referral scheme giving you the opportunity to receive up to £400 in John Lewis vouchers, depending on the vacancy. If you know someone who is suitable and interested in this role and they successfully join the Firm we will give you £400 in John Lewis vouchers. Please ask them to contact us with your details and their CV to be considered for the role.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Jonathan Fagan
Consultant

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Police Station Rep - Kent

2011-01-18T23:00:00.001Z

Kent firm looking for an accredited police station rep to work at their Sidcup office. Pay per job.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Crime Paralegal Manchester - 14201

2011-01-18T22:56:00.001Z

Central Manchester firm are looking for a crime paralegal to work in their magistrates court department. Post is full time and permanent. Salary negotiable depending on experience.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

120 000 Solicitors in the UK? Thats a fact?

2011-01-17T16:45:00.003Z

There are 9 million bicycles in Bejjing - thats a fact, its a thing we cant deny....
Katie Mellua.

There are 120,000 solicitors in the UK... For years during career coaching, careers talks and general work I have used the figure of about 105,000 and never did I expect to see that the figure had risen to 120,000, particularly in recent years with the recession, many thousands of redundancies, the near collapse of legal recruitment (see the back of the gazette for the last few years to see the lack of business in 2008-2010).

Where on earth are all these solicitors working? Well, firstly bear in mind the following when looking at these figures:

1. This is the number of solicitors on the Roll. I am on the Roll, but not practising since 2003.
2. Solicitors on the roll include rather a large number of people in between jobs, lawyers who qualified as solicitors and then did not continue, and
3. Solicitors who have left the profession but like the status (I confess to being one of these!).

The Law Society Gazette article last week made it look as if this was a terrible problem but I am not sure it is. There remains a lack of solicitors with experience within a particular level, both salary and age/experience and it is this level that has always been the recruitment pool. Anyone else is either moving out of it or towards it, but not everyone gets there.

I think that newly qualified solicitors will continue to find it difficult to get a post and should try to stay with their existing firm wherever possible, but the 120,000 figure is definitely a red herring.

The Professional Indemnity Insurance debacle definitely isnt.... I could be wrong but wasnt this market opened up many years ago on the basis that it would offer solicitors more choice and drive down cost? Potential training contract interviewees should be reading very closely about this and also the MDPs...

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Interview Question and Answer - The End of the World

2011-01-14T14:27:00.002Z

Recently a client has passed this question through to us:

What do you think will bring about the end of the world?

Good question for a whole host of reasons:

1. It is a very good way of finding out strongly held religious or personal beliefs - eg you are person with strongly held environmental beliefs who thinks the human race is going to destroy the planet.

2. Good to see if you can think quickly on your feet.

3. Can weed out anyone overtly pessimistic who will be able to give a lot of detail to it rather than thinking positively.

4. Whether in fact you think the world is going to end or continue quite happily for many years to come.

It is a very Human Resources like question!

Probably the best line of approach would be to avoid the question altogether and perhaps come up with a response that you see no reason why the end of the world should happen as after all it has been here for many billions of years already...

Anyone else got any thoughts?

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment News January 2011

2011-01-05T14:54:00.002Z

January 2011 Employers Newsletter

Open publication - Free publishing

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Predictions for 2011 in the legal job market

2011-01-03T11:34:00.003Z

Happy New Year to all our readers! Here follow our 2011 Legal Recruitment and Legal Job Market Predictions:

1. The job market is going to heat up, with demand particularly strong for experienced career paralegals, support staff and legal cashiers. The reason for this is that a lot of firms are starting to realise that they do not necessarily need to recruit solicitors to undertake fairly straightforward transactional work and instead can get paralegals and unqualified executives for a lot less money.
2. As this happens, salary levels are going to stay low for solicitors. I do not see any improvement on salaries within the next 2-3 years.
3. The majority of experienced unemployed non-qualified fee earners will find work very quickly, and as this happens more firms will then grudgingly give up on looking around for cheaper options and move back into recruiting solicitors again.
4. We think that by the middle of 2011 legal recruitment will be at similar levels to 2007-2008 and a lot of firms will be struggling to recruit good quality candidates in most areas, apart from NQs in and around the South East and London.
5. The Legal Services Commission changes will continue to affect legal aid fields, but we still expect to see a very busy period in April and October when the duty solicitor rota deadlines come up.
6. On the commercial side it will remain fairly busy but only at 2-7 years PQE. Anything too junior and too senior is not going to attract very much interest.
7. Hotspots for 2011 will be:
London
Kent
Yorkshire
South Wales
East Midlands

Coldspots:
North West (especially Manchester)
South West
East Anglia

We will have a look back at these predictions in 2012 and see how close we were....

Happy New Year! Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment.
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Recruitment News for Candidates December 2010

2010-12-03T10:11:00.002Z

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Careers News December 2010

2010-12-03T10:09:00.002Z

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment News December 2010

2010-12-03T10:04:00.001Z

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Salary Reviews for Crime and Duty Solicitors 1st December 2010

2010-12-01T10:04:00.002Z

We have had a number of placements and interviews prior to the deadline for the recent CDS12 submission which give us the following ranges for duty solicitors and crime solicitors. Salary levels for crime solicitors currently as follows:

England & Wales (excluding London)
Duty Solicitors : £30,000-£37,500. We had no firms this year indicate or offer above £37,500 outside London for a duty solicitor.
Duty Solicitors with Higher Rights: £32,500-£45,000.
Crime Solicitors without Duty Status: £23,000-£30,000. The top end of this scale is slightly distorted.
Police Station Reps: £17,500-£21,000.

London
Duty Solicitors : £35,000-£40,000. We did not get any firms this year indicate or offer above £40,000 in London for a duty solicitor.
Duty Solicitors with Higher Rights: £40,000-£57,500. We anticipate that the top end of this scale will come down as more solicitors get their higher rights over the next 2-3 years.
Crime Solicitors without Duty Status: £25,000-£30,000. Most of these were for crime solicitors with police station accreditation.
Police Station Reps: £17,500-£23,000.
White Collar Solicitors : £35,000-£75,000. Range varies widely according to the firm and the percentage of LSC funded VHCC work.

Duty Solicitor Consultants:
We have come across a range of deals this year for consultants that have included the following:
£1,000 signing on fees.
20% fee share on own cases introduced to a firm.
100% police station and court rota payments (fairly standard these days across London, but not in the regions).
£15-25 per hour for case preparation work and own client work.
Duty Solicitor slots exchanged for chance to undertake other fields of law.
70-80% on all work undertaken
100% of all work undertaken (this deal was with a firm about to lose their crime department if they didn't get a duty solicitor in time).

Recently registered Crime Solicitors currently looking for work:
Duty Solicitor looking in Yorkshire, Bristol and Bath. 5+ years PQE.
Crime Solicitor with police station accreditation. Able to assist with Employment Law as well. 3 years PQE. London.
Duty Solicitor with Higher Rights looking the West Midlands, South West and South Wales. 5+ years PQE.
Duty Solicitor looking in London. Looking to work for a medium sized practice. 3 years PQE. Salaried posts.
Crime Solicitor with police station accreditation and advocacy experience. London. 1.5 year PQE. £25k+.

Access our Candidate Database - no agency involvement
Contact as many of our crime candidates (or any candidate for any field of law) as you want to for a fixed annual fee. Over 8,000 candidates registered including solicitors, barristers, legal executives, fee earners, legal cashiers, practice managers and support staff. We already have a number of medium sized crime practices signed up for this service. For further details please visit http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/low-cost-legal-recruitment.html (special offer available until 17th December 2010).

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

14175 - Child Care Solicitor, Leeds, Yorkshire

2010-11-24T09:39:00.000Z

Leading West Yorkshire firm are looking for a child care solicitor with panel membership to work at their Leeds office. Ideally candidates will be able (and prepared) to take on family law cases as well as child care. Salary negotiable but will be competitive.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

14170 Family Law Solicitor North East, Middlesbrough

2010-11-16T20:34:00.000Z

North East firm are looking for a family law solicitor to work at their Middlesbrough office. Candidates should have experience of both publicly funded and private work. Caseload will include matrimonial, divorce, co-habitation and ancillary relief as well as children law and domestic violence. Salary negotiable depending on experience.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Duty Solicitor Loses Chance to Work

2010-11-12T08:48:00.003Z

One of our candidates who has been registered with us for years who regularly gets in touch has recently been in touch to tell us that due to no fault of his own he has been unable to work for the past 4 months because of problems with the Legal Services Commission and a firm he had agreed to lodge his duty slots with.

In May this candidate signed a CDS12 and submitted it to the Legal Services Commission for a specific firm in London. In June he discovered that the firm had had their contract terminated, reasons not known, and as a result the CDS12 was rejected.

He spoke to the Legal Services Commission who informed him that there was nothing they could do because the deadline had gone and that he would have to work for another firm as a duty solicitor. The candidate tried explaining to the Legal Services Commission that a duty solicitor without slots is not much use to anybody and the Legal Services Commission helpfully suggested that he could apply to go on the back-up list for duty work.

When the candidate asked for the reasons why the firm had had their contract terminated, he was informed that it was confidential information as the firm have appealed the Legal Service Commission’s decision.

Fortunately the candidate has a clause in his contract with the firm that says that if the slots were not awarded to him the firm would have to pay him a retainer, and there is currently litigation ongoing as of course the firm have denied liability and claimed frustration of contract.

A few interesting points arise out of this sorry tale in that firstly the way the contracts are organised means that although duty solicitors get slots on rotas according to the area they are based in and the firm they are with, they are totally dependant on the firm’s contract as for the next year at least, firms can only be on duty solicitor rotas in the areas they contracted for. Furthermore, a duty solicitor seems to own their own slots in one sense but are dependent on the financial stability of the firm they work for in order to work and do not have any freedom really to simply work their slots themselves or transfer them to another firm.

There must be an issue somewhere in all of this of restraint of trade as the Legal Services Commission have effectively tied duty solicitors to firms for six month periods and prevented them from moving?

Furthermore, it was interesting to note that whilst the Legal Services Commission were happy to extend deadlines to allow more applicants when it suited them, they were very rigid with this candidate as to apply their own rules of deadlines for refusing to let him put slots with another firm following the demise of the contract of the firm this candidate had signed with.

The Legal Services Commission and Legal Aid system appear to have descended into an almighty sorry mess and I wonder whether it is time just to put the whole thing out of its misery and try a public defender service that is not overrun by a couple of law practices who appear to be sweeping the crime market with the senior partners making rather a lot of money out of the Legal Services Commission’s inability to understand the workings of law firms.

One of the main problems crime solicitors have is that most of the firms appear to be operated by senior partners who have had to work harder and harder to make a good profit out of the dwindling payments, and this has almost always resulted in cutthroat operations with firms constantly competing against each other.

Years ago I can remember being sat in a meeting of crime solicitors in Nottingham who were discussing the new contract provisions coming in at the time and trying to work out who was going to make a stand and refuse to sign and who was going to sign. It was pretty obvious that the larger players in the city were going to sign come what may regardless of their protestations at the meeting, and that anyone who did not sign would simply lose their contracts and the larger firms would gain contracts.

Lawyers have a problem when trying to oppose any government decisions because most senior partners are businessmen and if they sense the chance to make money they will do. This means that there is no collective opposition at any time to anything as there is always somebody very happy to step into the breach and make significant sums of money at the expense of everyone else.

Perhaps this is why a public defender service may be the way forward, although obviously as a recruitment consultant it is the last thing on earth that I would want! Similarly the standard of service of the PDS was apparently pretty shoddy and rather expensive.

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Legal Recruitment News for Law Firms available online

2010-11-03T10:22:00.004Z

Hello - our latest version of the Legal Recruitment News is available online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/Legal-Recruitment-News-Nov-2010.pdf

You can also visit our www.legal-recruitment.co.uk website for further details of our online journal.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Family Law Locum - Blackpool

2010-10-21T14:10:00.000+01:00

Lancashire firm are looking for a family law solicitor to take on a publicly funded caseload at their Blackpool office. The role will start in November 2011 and should last around 2-3 months.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

14120 Personal Injury FILEX Guildford

2010-10-05T20:46:00.000+01:00

Filex or experienced paralegal sought by firm based between Guildford and Petersfield. Candidates should have a good working knowledge of all aspects of RTA claims including injury, hire and vehicle damage and have had responsibility for files up to and including litigation

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Solicitors from Hell - a genuine customer service, a scam or absolute bllks?

2010-09-30T15:39:00.005+01:00

http://www.solicitorsfromhell.com/ is a new consumer website that has attracted the attention of the Law Society Gazette and numerous solicitors firms who have had the pleasure of an entry on it. There appear to be over 500 law firms listed on it, and as far as I could see most of the complaints were not really complaints but fairly damaging comments...

I recently came across it when looking for a firm of solicitor's contact details and discovered the second entry in Google was this site. The review of the firm read as follows:

LEGAL LAW - London SW
London SW

Solicitor : Legal Eagle (details changed for obvious reasons!)

" Unfortunately we have only just heard about this site, had we had a chance to do a check on him prior it would have saved a great deal of upset and stress. My female cousin went to see this ‘solicitor’ with housing problems. At the initial consultation he was extremely friendly – actually overly so when his secretary went out of the room.

He asked many personal questions that were not actually relevant to the case in question and gave out information about what he had allegedly done to help other clients. He kept going on about her being a young vulnerable woman and stated that he was going to take several actions on her behalf as she was being harassed by the landlord.

However as my cousin felt uncomfortable seeing him alone she asked me to come to the next meeting. When he saw that she was accompanied by a male family member, he was abrupt and tried to give the impression that he had not really wanted to take her on as a client in the first instance. He stated that she did not need the help of a solicitor – however this had not stopped him from applying for and receiving the legal aid to progress her case.

He wrote a long letter of summery allegedly to explain ‘why’ she did not need his help - which was actually more like a personal tirade against his own client and told her to make a complaint if she felt she had the strength! It was then difficult to find another solicitor to transfer the LSF to; luckily the solicitor my cousin then found was extremely professional, helpful and progressed a speedy resolution on her behalf.

Only use this firm if you want to be disappointed and put under stress. Not to be trusted!! "

I am not quite sure what the complainant's complaint is having read it through a few times - is it that the solicitor was not only from hell but also a bit of a creep? Was the solicitor trying to defraud the LSC? Does this feedback assist anyone in deciding whether to hire this firm of solicitors or not?

The service obviously provides a genuine service when you get a firm like SMK Solicitors, who are now shut down due to a range of problems and have been intervened. A site with feedback detailing the potential fraud that a client experienced would be helpful for anyone else to know to avoid it.

However read the feedback on a law firm in the South West:

"I worked at X (thankfully not for long). A good example of the way the firm operates is when I was told to create as much conflict as possible in child contact cases in order to maximise costs. This firm definitely needs some intervention from the Law Society. The Senior Partners are a joke and would not survive in a modern law firm. It is true, they are fascist bullies. Oh, and where I work now, I am allowed to make myself a cup of coffee! "

This sort of entry could be put down to a former employee airing a grievance and trying to get one over on the firm. They have certainly done this. The firm in question obviously now have anyone thinking of instructing them and reading this that the staff do not like working there, the firm is bent, the partners not very nice. It could damage that firm's reputation forever. I certainly had no idea that the firm were thought of in this way, and we introduced one of the partners mentioned to the firm many years ago!

I understand that unless a law firm pays an "administration fee" of £200 then the entry remains on the site for eternity. This means that anyone searching for the law firm will inevitably come across comments like this one.

Think of the black hat marketing potential of this site. Any law firm in Swindon for example could post anonymous comments onto the site for their competitors and sit back and watch their instructions increase. Obviously this comment is intended as irony....(before we get sued!).

So in summary I am afraid we think that the site is b**ll**ks. There has been no effort to identify the posters, and this makes the site positively evil as it could unfairly irreparably damage someone's reputation who does not deserve it.

I hope the owner of the site sees some sense or gets tired of receiving writs in the post and takes it down or identifies each complainant. I think that without any control this site is simply destroying law firms very unfairly indeed.

Jonathan Fagan - Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - www.ten-percent.co.uk

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

CDS12 Crime Duty Solicitor Rota submission dates November 2010

2010-09-29T13:44:00.002+01:00

We are starting to take calls on a regular basis from firms not knowing what the current position is in relation to the duty solicitor rotas.

We have spoken to the Legal Services Commission today who have confirmed:

1. The next deadline for CDS12 submission is 8th November at 5pm. The LSC want CDS12s emailing through to them at dutysolqueries@legalservices.gsi.gov.uk
2. The LSC are apparently considering breaking the contract halfway, but in the meantime no firms are allowed to make applications for new geographic areas.

We are not entirely sure how true this will be, as the LSC seem very good at changing the goalposts every few minutes, but in terms of recruitment plans we thought this may assist.

It does mean as far as we can see that no firms will gain new slots outside their own geographic areas by setting up offices or taking on staff in other locations. The benefit in recruiting duty solicitors appears to be that the slots on each rota are awarded according to the number of duty solicitors a firm has at the time the rota is drawn up.

If you are considering recruiting before the next CDS 12 deadline it is probably worth registering the vacancy with us now if you have not been in touch with us already. We have over 300 duty solicitors registered, on a passive and active basis. We can also offer you the Ten-Percent Unlimited Service to cover your recruitment over the next 12 months for a one-off fee.

To register a vacancy simply reply to this email with a quick description - salary or percentage, full/part time, level of experience, whether you will consider taking a non-duty police station accredited solicitor and whether you have a cap on duty solicitor salaries - eg £38k. You can also visit our website at www.ten-percent.co.uk/er.html and fill out our online form or search our candidate database.

If you would like any further information regarding our services or would like to register a vacancy with us please get in touch.

www.crime-solicitor.co.uk - Specialist crime recruitment website from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Crime Solicitor East London 14104

2010-09-23T21:21:00.001+01:00

London firm looking for a crime solicitor to work at their E17 office. Duty status would be absolutely ideal, however, the firm are very happy to consider solicitors with police station accreditation.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Conveyancing and Wills & Probate in North Yorkshire

2010-09-22T13:43:00.002+01:00

Ever considered a move to North Yorkshire? We have a firm currently looking in one of the market towns within driving distance of York for a conveyancing & wills & probate solicitor with over 3 years experience (supervision level) - may consider less.

Well established firm based in beautiful area. Lifestyle change very possible if you can offer both private client and property law expertise.

Partnership prospects. VAC 14102.

Market currently still picking up, although we are experiencing mini waves of sudden vacancies followed by no vacancies!

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Five Ways to Welcome a New Employee to your Company

2010-09-15T14:59:00.000+01:00

When a new employee starts a job there is almost always some element of nervousness and hesitancy from both sides, the existing staff and the new member of staff. Here are five ways to make the first day considerably easier.

1. Organise a lunch out for all the staff (presuming this is a small firm obviously!) including the new employee. Make sure there is no alcohol served during this meal.

2. Make sure you have some work available for the new employee when they start. There is nothing worse than joining a new firm and finding that you are sat there twiddling your thumbs.

3. Give the new employee an induction into the workings of the firm but make sure this induction is not an excuse for your HR Manager to wander off for two days and not do any work. The induction should be as short as it needs to be.

4. Give the new employee their Contract of Employment and staff handbook etc. For a free Staff Handbook Download please visit http://www.businessbusstop.com and follow the link to “free resources”.

5. Be nice to the new employee as they are going to be a valuable and worthy member of your team. It has probably cost you considerable time and effort to get the person in and there is often complacency amongst employers once a new member of staff joins with almost an assumption that you no longer need to do anything for them.

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment (www.ten-percent.co.uk) and can be contacted at cv@ten-percent.co.uk

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Law Careers eBook Sept 2010 Offers

2010-09-08T11:40:00.002+01:00

Interview Guide for Lawyers & Law Students (SALE £11.99 - RRP £25 - save £13.01)
Interview Answers for Lawyers & Law Students (10% off - quote discount code S1083361) Complete Guide to Writing a Legal CV (SALE £11.99 - RRP £25 - save £13.01)
Legal CV Writing Template Pack (SALE £22.49 - RRP £29.99 - save £7.50)
(For more Legal Careers eBooks and Careers Services please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop)

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Property Solicitor Harrow 14080

2010-08-25T15:48:00.001+01:00

Harrow firm looking for NQ-2 year PQE property solicitor. Caseload commercial property with small amount of residential conveyancing. 25kp/a

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

13902 Conveyaning Solicitor Kent

2010-08-18T15:09:00.001+01:00

A well established Kent firm is looking for a conveyancing solicitor to work at their Tenterden office. Ideally candidates will have a minimum of 5 years PQE, be ready to become a partner within two years, live in or have links to Kent, be willing to accept a salary around the 35k level and (in an absolute ideal world) have a small following.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Licensed Conveyancing post in central London

2010-08-13T10:58:00.001+01:00

London firm looking for a licensed conveyancer for both residential and commercial property work - first one in for ages... Salary not clear, but not commission based which makes a change.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

Deadline for Children Panel member applications expires.

2010-08-13T10:50:00.002+01:00

Very pleased to say that the recent deadline for firms with speculative bids for various contracts with the LSC has now expired so we can stop fielding telephone calls for Children Panel members. We had one firm who were very persistent until we found them someone and harsh reality sunk in that the salary level would be about £45-50k... The firm suddenly went very quiet indeed on us. Not sure how much some partners think Children Panel members get paid but there we go....

Knowing our luck though this will probably be the same as last time - the LSC changed their deadline and we were back to square one fielding calls for impossible job vacancies for a few days...

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

Our Legal Career 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. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here. For our main shop please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop

14066 Duty Solicitor Enfield

2010-08-11T14:40:00.001+01:00

Enfield firm looking for a duty solicitor, with 3 years PQE and able to supervise.

Crime Solicitor Greater Manchester 14064

2010-08-09T15:04:00.000+01:00

Wigan firm of excellent reputation are looking for a duty solicitor to work at their central Wigan office. Post is full-time and permanenet and salary is negotiable depending on experience.

14061 Mental Health Lawyer

2010-08-06T13:01:00.001+01:00

North London firm are looking for a mental health lawyer with Mental Health Review Tribunal membership. Salary around 40k or willing to work on commission basis if preferred.

Are the Legal Services Commission a bunch of clowns?

2010-08-05T16:41:00.003+01:00

I am gradually forming the opinion that the LSC is run by a bunch of clowns. I cannot be more blunt or rude but we are getting telephone calls by the dozen from firms of solicitors who have stuck speculative tenders in for Mental Health and Family contracts without having the solicitors in place to run them and looking to recruit (obviously not having the money to pay the solicitors as well), but at the same time firms who have operated for many years with well established departments being refused (as I am writing this I have just taken 3 calls for MHRT lawyers).

We understand a firm in Colchester have been offered a contract covering Chelmsford but do not have a presence there, but firms in Chelmsford have been turned down. We have heard the same thing across England and Wales, time and again.

A team of performing monkeys and circus clowns could probably have produced a more coherent response than that undertaken by the LSC. Who on earth set the criteria for the recent contract awarding and why are they still in a job? Come to think of it why are most law firms bothering to deal with the LSC, and why is the Law Society such a wimpish organisation? GPs would not have allowed the current situation to happen.

Property Solicitor South West England

2010-08-04T16:29:00.000+01:00

Well respected firm with offices across the South West are looking for a property solicitor to work at their Chard office. Caseload is commercial property and residential conveyancing. Good career prospects for the right candidate.

How to Set Up a Fully Functioning Legal Advice Shop for less than £500

2010-08-03T09:44:00.000+01:00

Take a look at http://ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop
This site was built in less than 24 hours and is fully functioning for payment processing. We took our first order via the site within another 24 hours, and the software handles immediate downloads of our eBooks.

Total cost = £0 Actual installation knowledge required = understanding of ftp.

Setting up the shop = basic understanding of what ftp, html and php script all mean and how to apply them to a website.

Online payment system = 3% of each sale, plus a handling charge of 20p.

How did we do it?
1. We have our own hosting package using http://www.chesterwebmarketing.co.uk/

2. As part of the hosting package we have the ability to install by one-click a whole range of open source software that previously was outside the range of a small business due to the IT knowledge required.

3. One of these packages is Prestashop.

4. We downloaded the software onto our hosting package (it takes one SQL database and a bit of space).

5. We set up our software and linked it to our company Paypal account (we also use an online system called Worldpay.com but this is expensive, cumbersome and extremely fiddly to implement).

6. We imported and set up each product, including our downloadable information products.

Is it hard to set up?
It just takes a lot of time to set up your various products, but the power of Prestashop is immense. For example:
1. You can set up the software to provide free downloads to customers, but log each customer’s personal details. This means that you automatically create a database of potential clients.

2. You can provide a whole host of eBook style information sheets or downloads and these will sell themselves without any further involvement of you or your staff.

3. You can provide free downloads of information to attract customers to your website (we recommend making sure that these are something customers will want).

4. The shop can do regular mailshots to customers, email them on their birthday, send out automatic reminders if an order does not go completely through, provide regular annual sales - the options are endless.

Think about the power of this software... The hardest part of making it work for you is the marketing, but that’s another story....
Sources: Namesco - hosting provider

http://www.chesterwebmarketing.co.uk/ - hosting provider, installer and developer. http://ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop - example of the Prestashop in practice.

Residential Litigation Manager - VAC14050

2010-07-26T12:24:00.001+01:00

Basingstoke Firm (Legal 500) have a vacancy for a Housing Litigation Solicitor to join them and manage and develop the residential litigation team. The ideal applicant will have experience of landlord and tenant work and a strong track record of marketing and developing a department. A PQE of 5-10 years is a must. You must have a focus on client care and communication.

In house solicitor - North East England

2010-07-06T14:50:00.000+01:00

Washington based firm are looking for an in house solicitor. Caseload will be very broad including Commercial Litigation, family, residential & commercial property and employment. Salary will be negotiable depending on experience and working hours can be flexible.

14023 - Family Law Solicitor London

2010-07-01T16:08:00.000+01:00

Central London firm looking for family law solicitor. Applicants MUST have a following and minimum 5 years PQE. Excellent salary on offer!

14024 - Compnay Commercial Solicitor London

2010-07-01T16:06:00.000+01:00

Central London firm looking for company commercial solicitor. Applicants MUST have a following and minimum 5 years PQE. Excellent salary on offer!

14025 - Commercial Property Solicitor London

2010-07-01T16:05:00.000+01:00

Central London firm looking for commercial property solicitor. Applicants MUST have a following and minimum 5 years PQE. Excellent salary on offer!

Crime Solicitor Cumbria 14016

2010-06-24T10:56:00.000+01:00

Top Cumbria firm are looking for a crime solicitor to work at their Workington office. NQ - 3 years PQE will be considered. Duty status or police station accreditation if possible. Salary negotiable depending on experience and qualification levels.

Career Question Answered - Holding Job Offers

2010-06-15T15:40:00.001+01:00

Career Question – I have been offered a job in an insurance company but have been told by a law firm that they may have a job coming up in the next two weeks. How do I hurry the law firm up so that I can see if they are going to make an offer before I start the job in insurance? I am a solicitor who has struggled to find work for the past few months and need money urgently to pay my mortgage.

The answer to this is fairly simple. There is nothing to stop you taking the job with the insurance company, and then at a later stage if another post comes up handing in your notice and moving from one to the other. Whilst this is not exactly very helpful to anyone from the employer side, it does give you the option of taking a more suitable position without compromising your income and earning capability. In most jobs these days you have a contract that stipulates there is a probationary period of 3 months. During those 3 months your employer can give you one week’s notice to leave for pretty much any reason they like. A number of employers are fairly ruthless when using this clause and will not think twice before asking a member of staff to leave. Similarly, you have the same rights, which is usually to hand in your notice and leave having given one week to your employer. This does then give you the option to ensure that your income is in tact and at the same time to consider new options. This is a very difficult time for a lot of solicitors, particularly newly qualified as they struggle to find suitable work and secondly to get a reasonable salary. You can obtain a salary review from Ten-percent Legal Recruitment either by visiting our website or by sending us an e-mail to cv@tenpercent.co.uk stating your location, level of experience and current salary.

For further assistance in relation to CVs, interview practice, recruitment of lawyers and articles on the legal profession please visit http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/.

Legal Assistant - Conveyancing - Northampton - VAC14002

2010-06-09T14:30:00.000+01:00

Large Northampton Firm wish to recruit an experienced Legal Assistant to work within a conveyancing team. Previous conveyancing experience is essential, specifically plot sales.

Salary Review June 2010 Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

2010-06-07T14:43:00.001+01:00

From June 2010 onwards Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment are introducing a new service - the bi-monthly salary review. We will publish our salary guides for all levels of solicitor, both in the regions and London. If you would like an advance copy of the review please email us: cv@ten-percent.co.uk - our Reviews will be emailed out to all our clients next week.

In the meantime, if you email us at cv@ten-percent.co.uk with your details, we would be very happy to do a full salary review for you.

5 Killer Questions to ask at the end of interviews

2010-06-07T14:39:00.001+01:00

1. Why should I join your firm?
2. What is your business plan?
3. Have you got an exit strategy?
4. Do you have a marketing plan? Have you got plans to recruit a business development manager?
5. How do you see the use of IT and office technology changing within your firm in the next 3 years?

All of these questions display a certain air of nonchalance, and some are certainly not for the faint hearted. However a lot of employers like to see some thought along these lines as it does indicate a) confidence, b) a business mind, c) enthusiasm. It also indicates that you are able to think in the same way as they inevitably will. Another technique is to call the offices beforehand and ask to speak to the secretary of the person interviewing you. Ask them what hobbies the partner has and you can then drop these into the conversation during interview. A fairly risky strategy as the secretary may well tell the partner!

Jonathan Fagan is MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, www.ten-percent.co.uk. For further careers advice, please visit our website for details of the different services we offer.

Speed Legal Career Coaching, Wednesday 16th June, Central London

2010-06-07T14:36:00.002+01:00

On Wednesday 16th June 2010, Jonathan Fagan MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, Solicitor (non-practising) and Recruitment Consultant, will be at the St Pancras Novotel in London.

You can come and see him with any queries regarding your CV, your career, future plans, leaving the profession, changing fields of law, getting into the profession, forthcoming interviews etc.. The maximum time for a session on this day is 1 hour. The price is £3 per minute.
You will get copies of our CV Guide and Interview Guide, a free CV review and 20% off any of our careers services.

To register an interest and book a slot, please email us: cv@ten-percent.co.uk with the subject heading "16th June" and we will email you back with available slots. www.ten-percent.co.uk/career.htm for further details.

Conveyancer - West London

2010-05-26T09:24:00.001+01:00

Conveyancer with experience of case management systems in particular Visualfiles, wanted for a post in West London. email ten-percent for details

Help & Advice to an LPC student

2010-05-21T15:34:00.002+01:00

I read your article on www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com and was wondering if you could give me some advise on the following matter.

I achieved a 2:2 in Law 8 years ago, for about 6 months after my degree I went on to work in 2 law firms as a temporary office administrator. I learned a few things and was even more interested in pursuing a career in law, after the contract was finished and the fact that I couldn't get another job straight away I decided to go on and do other things and among this was opening my own limited company - facilities management company. The company is still in existence and have been in business for over 3 years now, but after learning that my degree will be stale after 7 years I then decided to go on and dothe LPC as I always knew I was going to continue and finish off to qualify as a solicitor at some stage in my life.

My main concern is what are my chances of securing a Training Contract especially after being out of college for so long, and the situation with the current economy? Although running my own company as a Managing Director gave me a lot of experience, guts, courage, confidence to stand out, build client relationship, advertise, market and present company's services to big companies out there, I went door to door and joined business networking organizations searching for business and introduce my company, I have few people working for me, until recently, due to the situation with the economy... I have often used some of the legal knowledge I achieved in college to my business which was always a pleasure.

ANSWER
The answer is fairly simple - it depends how much effort you are prepared to put in. Very few people walk straight into a legal career, and all the work and effort you talk about in your last paragraph is directly relevant to you starting a legal career. It really is often the case that you will have to sell yourself to law firms - whether face to face or over the telephone, and be prepared to offer them something for nothing to gain experience.

In my experience, those who persistently keep trying to get somewhere with their career eventually do, and those who make a half-hearted effort and then give up because it is too hard fall by the wayside.

There is a free leaflet on the www.ten-percent.co.uk site giving help and guidance to students and graduates looking for legal work experience. Visit the careers centre for details.

Jonathan Fagan, MD, www.ten-percent.co.uk

How to make effective use of Ten-Percent Unlimited

2010-05-10T20:01:00.000+01:00

www.tenpercent.co.uk/low-cost-legal-recruitment.html

In March 2010 Ten Percent Legal Recruitment introduced Ten-Percent Unlimited, a revolutionary concept giving law firms the chance to recruit directly using our database resources with a one-off fee for a 12 month period. We will allow you to contact as many candidates as you want to through our database, whether by letter, e-mail or telephone, and to recruit without any further charge.

To use the service effectively, you need to consider the following:

1. Recruitment is turned on its head. You are playing the part of the legal recruiter (ie us!), and hence you need to be very nice indeed to candidates.
2. Most of our candidates are always interested in hearing about positions, and lawyers tend to be flattered if they think they are being headhunted. This is the best way of approaching them.
3. Keep all communication as short and vague as possible - candidates tend to be put off by specifics when in fact a position can suit them perfectly. Promote and market your firm and opportunity initially as if the candidate was a potential client.
4. Make sure you keep an eye on the candidate database - we tend to update and overhaul it every week, as well as add new candidates in cycles of 7 days.
5. Request an updated CV before interviewing. Quite a number of our candidates post a CV with us at some stage but do not update for some years. Although all of them are registered as candidates and receive regular job updates as well as newsletters, not all of them are actively seeking work at any time. Passive candidates are highly sought after in recruitment circles, as those who are actively seeking work tend to be those who are least suited to positions.
6. If you have very specific vacancies with a particular specialism, it is worth considering reverting to our conventional recruitment service, as although it costs more, you also get our expertise in sourcing the ideal candidates.

For further details and to request a quote, please visit: www.tenpercent.co.uk/low-cost-legal-recruitment.html

Writing a Killer CV - Top 10 Tips

2010-05-10T19:56:00.000+01:00

Writing a legal CV is fairly easy providing you remember the following:

1. Put your name at the top of the page. (about 1% of all CVs omit this rather important information.
2. Include your date of birth if you feel it is an asset to you.
3. Include a profile underneath your personal and contact details. In this profile put your jobtitle (tailored to the post you are going for), the number of years experience you have, where you are looking for work, how much money you want and when you can start. Keep it very brief indeed.
4. Include your date of qualification if relevant and also date of admission. Dont forget the PSC if you are a solicitor.
5. For your work experience write as much as possible in bulletpointed format. This is by far the most important section on the CV. Facts and figures wherever possible.
6. Dont forget your job title in the work experience section. Again - tailor it where possible.
7. Put your computer skills on the CV. Case management systems always welcome.
8. Activities and interests - these get jobs and interviews.
9. Two references if you are not in work.
10. Use as many pages as you need to, and always send the CV by email unless specifically requested not to.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/cv.html

Locuming - quick guide to the basics

2010-05-10T19:55:00.000+01:00

Locuming requires you to almost certainly register as self-employed with the HMRC (a very easy procedure - see their website) and to be prepared for periods out of work (see above). It used to be very lucrative but not so much these days due to the market being so much tighter. You do not need to do anything in order to provide locum services, but it is probably worth making a decision whether you want to work through an umbrella company or go self-employed directly to firms. Some agencies offer employed locum work, but Ten-Percent does not deal on that basis. Do not turn any locum work down to start with if at all possible.

http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/locum.htm

Top Ten Tips for Booking a Locum Lawyer

2010-05-10T11:38:00.001+01:00

Locum Season starts - 10 tips for getting ease of mind - Register Locum Vacancies

We often get asked by firms who rarely use locums how exactly they go about using them, so below are our ten top tips for getting the most out of locums and effectively using them.

1. Give as much notice as you can to the locum agency, regardless of who you use. Good locums tend to get booked up a long time in advance...
2. Do not think that a locum will work on the same wage levels as a permanent member of staff. They won't. As a rule of thumb, most locums work 7-9 months out of 12 and cannot afford to negotiate too far down on daily rates. It used to be a very lucrative line of work, but not anymore as work has got harder to come by.
3. Do not use a locum to clear up a mess unless you have specifically told them beforehand that this is the assignment. We know of locums who have walked straight out of assignments like this on the first day for fear of the mess affecting their practising certificates.
4. Specify holiday dates and do not try to get locums to come in beforehand unless you are going to pay them for their time.
5. Always ask the locum to bring with them their proof of ID, practising certificate and two references on the first day.
6. Do not specify requirements for a locum that are too specific. Try to focus on what the locum is needed for - you cannot expect a locum to generate business - they will simply cover a caseload.
7. If the locum is there to cover maternity leave, keep in touch with the member of staff on maternity so that you can keep the locum updated on an end date, otherwise you may find the locum accepting another booking when you still need them.
8. Sort out the payment method before accepting the locum. Ten-Percent Legal for example does not employ locums - we introduce them and charge our fee via invoice. Lots of locums are self employed and either issue invoices or use umbrella companies.
9. Be nice to the locum - you may want to employ them permanently.
10. Make sure you spell out your chain of command for the locum. A complaint we have heard in the past is that a locum has joined a firm, the senior partner has gone on holiday, but not told his staff who is in charge whilst he is not there.

http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/locum.htm

Conveyancing and wills & probate solicitor - Kent

2010-05-07T14:23:00.001+01:00

Kent based firm looking for a senior conveyancing and wills & probate solicitor to work at their Deal office. The role would not initially come with a salary but with a split fee arrangement and potentially equity in the firm.

Commercial Property Locum Solicitor Cheshire

2010-04-22T11:07:00.001+01:00

Well respected Cheshire firm are looking for a commercial property solicitor with at least 2 years PQE to work at their Northwich office. The role is temporary but should be for at least 3 months.

13976 Crime solicitor Duty North West London

2010-04-15T19:30:00.002+01:00

New firm based in Wembley are looking for a duty solicitor. Salary negotiable depending on experience.

13975 Kent Sidcup Crime Solicitor Duty

2010-04-15T19:30:00.001+01:00

Kent firm looking for a crime solicitor with duty status to work at their Sidcup office.

13974 South East London Crime Solicitor Duty

2010-04-15T19:29:00.000+01:00

South East London firm looking for a crime solicitor with duty status to work at their Greenwich office. Salary competitive.

Starting out in the Legal Profession - Sundip's Journey

2010-04-12T15:53:00.002+01:00

Hello - Sundip has contacted us and asked if he can keep everyone who reads the Legal Recruitment Blog updated with his progress, as well as get support and advice as required.

His first post is below:

first thing i would like to say is thank you for setting up this blog, its fantastic and very informative. I would like to say, i have decided i will be undertaking the ilex route into the profession. The main reason is because I would like to gain hands on experience and also study at the same time. I have been a special constable for the police for 6 years now, and i feel its time for me to work on the "other side" as they call it, i am fully aware that criminal solicitors do not get paid as much compared to solicitors in other areas, So i am still in a decision as to what field i want to qualify in. But i think most likely it will be the criminal side as I already have advocacy practice being in the police. I would just like to add, what advice would you give me in order to succeed in this field. I would also like to keep you informed of my journey :-) Kind Regards Sunny

I've just ended a conversation with Sundip, and asked him to keep the blog updated with his progress - we will post regular updates.

Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - www.ten-percent.co.uk

Wills & Probate - Hertford ref:13968

2010-04-08T11:28:00.000+01:00

Small firm of IFAs (with a sister company who specialise in wills & probate and estate planning) are looking to expand. They require an experienced wills & probate solicitor to work at their Hertford office. The role is full-time and permanent and salary will be neogtiable depending on experience. May at a push consider part time candidates. 2 years PQE minimum required.

KPMG and REC Report on Jobs March 2010 - fastest rise in permanent placement for over 12 years

2010-04-07T10:27:00.004+01:00

Key points from March survey:
Strongest growth of permanent placements since October 1997.
Temporary/contract staff billings rose at sharpest rate for thirty-four months.
Growth of vacancies eased but remained marked.
Further rise in candidate availability.
Wages and salaries increased again.

This is one of the most positive reports on the recruitment industry for some time, although it has to be said that the strongest growth bit is a little bit of a red herring as the market has been stunted for so long it wouldnt be hard for it to expand rapidly!

The main findings for March are:

Permanent placements rose at fastest pace for over twelve years...
The number of permanent staff appointments made by UK recruitment consultancies increased again in March, with growth picking up to the strongest since October 1997. Higher placements were underpinned by a further expansion of permanent staff vacancies, albeit the slowest in three months.

...while temp billings also increased at sharper rate
Growth of short-term staff appointments quickened to the strongest for thirty-four months in March. Billings were driven higher by the fastest increase in demand for temp staff since January 2008.

Candidate availability rose further
Recruitment consultants signalled another improvement in the availability of staff during March. The supply of both permanent and temporary/contract candidates increased at slightly faster rates compared with one month previously.

Increase in pay reported
Salaries awarded to successful candidates placed in permanent positions rose again in March. The rate of inflation was solid, despite easing slightly from February’s twenty-month high. Hourly rates of pay for staff in temporary/contract employment increased at a pace that, although modest, was the sharpest since June 2008.

Jonathan Fagan
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment Consultants

Family Law Panel Member - Derby

2010-04-07T00:18:00.001+01:00

Well respected Derbyshire firm are looking for a senior family law solicitor to work at their Central Derby office. Candidates should have panel membership and experience of domestic violence work. Permanent or locum applicants will be considered. Salary will be competitive.

Wills & Probate Private Client Solicitor - Exeter

2010-04-06T23:46:00.001+01:00

Experienced Wills and Probate Solicitor sought by Exeter Firm. Ideal PQE is 3 years for this senior role which will involve department development and staff management. The ideal applicant will have a good technical knowledge and experience of Wills, lifetime and post-death tax planning for high-net worth individuals, LPAS and elderly client issues and the administration of estates especially in relation to higher net worth clients who own business and/or agricultural property. Ideally you will also have knowledge and experience of trusts and their formation and administration. FULL SPEC available on request.

Do you have a following without realising it?

2010-04-06T20:21:00.001+01:00

Do followings actually exist? Difficult question... Yes, on some planets followings do exist. On others, including Earth, 9 times out of 10 they do not exist.

A 'following' is an interesting concept. For example, we often get called up by firms requesting a conveyancing solicitor with a following for a particular position. Think about it - how exactly does a conveyancing solicitor get a following? Most people tend to only move houses a maximum of once every five years, if that. Developers tend to go with a firm rather than a particular solicitor, and estate agents now want money to refer customers through to solicitors assuming they do not have their own call centre paralegal run conveyancing operation going on.

Another one is for a family solicitor to have a following - again - most people tend to only get divorced once or twice in a lifetime, so how on earth does a family solicitor pick up a following?

Commercial litigation, debt recovery, crime and company commercial solicitors can pick one up, but usually restrictive covenants potentially inhibit the solicitor's opportunity to take their clients from one firm to the next. If you do not think you have a following, have a careful think through who your clients are and whether any would come with you.

To a certain extent you can ignore restrictive covenants. The easiest way of getting round them is to simply make sure you have spoken to all your clients before you leave to advise them that you are leaving, and to give them the name of your new firm in case they have any queries. You may be pleasantly surprised how many indicate that they want to follow you to the new practice. There is nothing to stop them doing this as far as I am aware - you have not touted for business, and neither have you done anything to encourage them to go with you.

Do you have family members or friends who occasionally send you business or refer on contacts to you? This is part of your following...

If you have a following, also consider why you are joining a new firm and not setting up on your own or pressing for partnership. After all, if you have sufficient fee generation from a number of clients, why not keep most of this yourself rather than give it to someone else?

Jonathan Fagan is MD of http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/ - Legal Recruitment Consultants in the UK - you can contact him via the website or email jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk

Duty Solicitor - Watford & Wembley

2010-04-06T13:28:00.002+01:00

Start up firm with branches in Wembley and Watford requires duty solicitors for commencement in july for both offices. Remuneration: market rate salary or percentage basis. Suitable for full time or freelance duty solicitors. Flexible remuneration and flexible working practices/hours available.

Legal Job Market Picks Up Rapidly - April 2010

2010-04-05T21:33:00.002+01:00

This article is also available on the Ten-Percent site at www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyreport.htm

March 2010 has been a very good month for Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and we are now not only optimistic of the market picking up, but also are aware that legal recruitment is back up and running at high speed. We have watched as vacancies are suddenly grinding to a halt in some areas, particularly for duty solicitors and family panel members, as there is a lack of fresh talent coming onto the market.

In March we had 37 vacancies posted for a whole range of different areas including Conveyancing, Commercial Property, Wills & Probate, Crime (lots), Family (lots), Industrial Disease, Personal Injury, Agricultural Property, Housing, Child Care and Civil Litigation. Commercial still seems to be running at a fairly slow speed.

We could go down the route of other agencies and post the generic mailing lists with commercial posts in that some of the bigger firms send out to 100 recruiters and hope for the best, but generally we try to avoid these as inevitably they result in no quality responses from our candidates. The market has turned, although there is still no sign of a major pick up in non-contentious work despite vacancies starting to materialise.

The conveyancing and wills posts we have picked up have been for replacement partners or long term cover and tend to be from old clients who trust our skill & experience in assisting them rather than from new start ups or clients. The new tax year will almost inevitably kick start the next round of recruitment, and we expect to be very busy now for the next 12 weeks until July 2010 when everything will slow down again.

The new Ten-Percent Unlimited Service has taken off in the last 4 weeks, and we are already assisting firms with expansion plans at very low cost to use our Candidate Database and recruit directly without agency involvement. Recent vacancies in - Duty Solicitor - Preston, Personal Injury Solicitor - Bradford, Family Solicitor - Twickenham, Crime Duty Solicitor/Caseworkers - West London (Ten-Percent Unlimited), Civil Litigation - Plymouth, Senior Conveyancing Solicitor - North London, PSL - Bristol, Business Development Manager (Conveyancing) - London, Agricultural Property - Southampton.

Personal Injury Advocate

2010-03-31T13:43:00.001+01:00

Personal injury advocates wanted by dynamic Manchester firm to work in London, South East and South West England regions. Salary 35K

Family Law solicitor Ashford Kent

2010-03-26T20:54:00.001Z

Dynamic firm in Ashford, Kent, looking for family solicitor with LSC supervisor status or panel membership. Competitive salary.

Family solicitor with Supervisor status or panel membership in Ashford Kent

2010-03-26T20:51:00.002Z

Dynamic firm in Ashford, Kent, looking for family law solicitor with LSC supervisor status or with panel membership and 3 years PQE. Salary competitive.

Crime solicitor with Duty status in Ashford Kent

2010-03-26T20:51:00.000Z

Dynamic firm in Ashford, Kent, looking for crime solicitor with duty status. 40k + out of hours.

London SE1 Crime Solicitor with Duty status

2010-03-26T20:47:00.001Z

SE1 firm looking for a crime solicitor with duty status. Are looking to take on either a full time permanent solicitor on salary of around 35k + 50% out of hours or a freelance solicitor on an as yet unspecified percentage.

Family Law Solicitor

2010-03-25T13:41:00.001Z

Leading Lancashire firm are looking for an experienced family law solicitor to work at their Burnley office. Panel membership essential.

Interview Resources for Lawyers on the Internet

2010-03-02T10:25:00.003Z

One of the key searches for the Ten Percent Legal Recruitment site is for interview questions and strategies for lawyers and legal and interviews. This article covers the various resources available on the Ten Percent sites and also external sites.

Interview Questions

The main location for interview questions on the Ten Percent Site is the Top 100 Interview Questions for Lawyers which can be found here. This page contains 100 questions used by law firms up and down the country and also refers to sources for suggested answers in places. We know that these questions are used by law firms because they telephone us to ask permission from time to time to print them off. We have also been advised by candidates going for interviews that the questions have been on the table in front of them.

Other sources on the internet include http://www.wikijobs.co.uk/ and http://www.interview-skills.co.uk/. We strongly recommend the latter website because it contains over 200 questions in a competency based interview scenario, a technique most commonly used in local authority interviews. All of these questions are wonderful, but they are no good at all if you do not do anything with them and this is the key point with searching for interview questions. You should do more than just look at them, you need to practice out loud answering them and get someone to listen to your responses. For further advice on interview techniques please see below.

Interview Practice

There are lots of resources on the internet offering interview practice both generally and also in specialist areas. The Ten Percent Service is a face to face or telephone session which can usually be arranged at fairly short notice and involves a session with the managing director of Ten Percent interviewing you and providing feedback on your performance with suggested improvements.

We hold our interview practice sessions in Chester, London, Milton Keynes, Lancaster and Carlisle, and telephone interviews from all over the world (we have had clients in New Zealand, Australia, USA and China).

The feedback from these sessions has always been very good, although one of the questions we are often asked by people looking to purchase the service is what our success rate is.

The answer to this is that we do not have a success rate because it does not necessarily follow that as a result of our interview session someone has got a job. We do get e-mails from time to time from people thanking us for the service and saying that they found a job pretty quickly after practising their interview technique with us, but there are no figures available for this.

Interview Answers

All the interview answers we suggest or we discuss can be found at http://www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com/. Over the years we have been quite prolific in collating together suggested answers or discussions of answers for specific legal job interviews and you can get these by looking at the key words down the right hand side of the page. Most of the interview answers start with interview answers, but feel free to browse through and see what you can find.

Discussions of Interview Technique

Firstly Ten Percent Legal Recruitment sell a book called The Complete Interview Guide for Lawyers. This is available online or you can telephone our offices to order a copy. This is our comprehensive guide to interview technique and strategy and is suitable for lawyers as well as law students and graduates.

There are also numerous discussions available on the http://www.lawyer-recruitment.co.uk/ website, the http://www.legal-recruitment.co.uk/ website, the http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/ website (careers centre) and also on these pages.

We hope in future to collate all the information we have gathered over the years and put it in one place on the Ten Percent site together with a forum for interview discussion, but this involves having plenty of time and we are not quite there yet!

You can also visit our discussion forum at www.ten-percent.co.uk/discussion.htm for further interview questions and styles, as people have discussed these in the past.

Ten Percent Legal Recruitment (http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/) is a Legal Recruitment consultancy based in London and North Wales, covering the whole of the UK with particular specialism in small to medium sized practices. We have over 7,000 solicitors registered and looking for work and 5 consultants at any one time handling the vacancies we receive from the broad mix of customers we service between high street practices, commercial firms, niche practices and larger Legal 500 and Magic Circle firms. Law firms can post vacancies free of charge and also pay for unlimited access to recruit over 12 months if preferred. For further details please visit http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/.

"Tell me how you would market our firm if you joined us". Killer interview question or opportunity?

2010-02-28T21:27:00.004Z

"Tell me how you would market our firm if you joined us". No.1 Interview Question for the Recession?

Horrible interview questions do not come much worse... I have recently asked this question in a range of interviews for a fairly heavy sales & marketing role and been astonished at the complete lack of ideas that most of the candidates had. It is true that perhaps some people would be wary to give any information for fear of the firm using it without employing them, but so many people do not seem able to grasp the need for sales & marketing at the forefront of most of the job vacancies and interviews currently taking place in the legal profession.

We advise candidates to do the following:

1. Have an idea in your mind of possible opportunities and potential techniques for sourcing work. If you have a look through the back articles in the Legal Recruitment online magazine, it will give you some ideas. 2. Offer to produce a mini-business plan if the firm is interested in you joining them. In that you can identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and this will give you some ideas for suggesting sources of work. 3. Have quick but fairly vague examples backed up with evidence ready, particularly if you have been involved in marketing before. Examples include BNI breakfasts, networking events, speaking to all the local estate agents, joining the local Chamber of Commerce, advertising in small parish magazines, preparing press releases and coming up with legal articles for local newspapers or specialist trade magazines. 4. Be able to give figures for any past performance and any planned future performance. It really demonstrates a business mind if you are able to show actual evidence of your ability to generate work. 5. Be your own salesperson - think about what an employer is looking for at present, and to use business speak - "add value".

From the employers side:

1. Do not expect too much. We also advise candidates not to give too much away.
2. Be aware that candidates coming to see you for legal jobs usually expect there to actually be a job, and not to create their own.
3. If you have a "create your own" legal job, make sure you spell this out before the candidate books time off or spends time travelling to see you.
4. If you are planning to offer a very low basic salary plus bonus scheme, spell this out to any applicants as well.
5. Have an idea in your head as to the time you want the candidate to spend marketing, and how much time you want them to spend lawyering. There is a balance....
6. If you want a Business Development Manager, recruit one (register the vacancy with us). Don't recruit a lawyer - on the whole, lawyers are lawyers, not salesmen, and the two invariably do not mix. Business Development Managers will spend the whole time sourcing work for you, and are usually happy to take payment on the basis of actual work developed. You do not necessarily need one from the legal profession, as ideally you want someone fresh and without preconceived ideas..

Jonathan Fagan is MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. This article first appeared in the Legal Recruitment News, an online journal - http://www.legal-recruitment.co.uk/. You can visit the Ten-Percent Careers Centre (http://www.ten-percent.co.uk)/ to read more articles or alternatively scroll down the list on the right hand side of this page.

Unlimited Recruitment

2010-02-02T10:37:00.002Z

Ten Percent Legal Recruitment has been at the forefront of online recruitment since 2000, introducing the UK’s first agency candidate database for law firms to look through and see which candidates we have on the books and to request CVs for them.

We have decided for 2010 to introduce a new way of working which probably suits small to medium firms who may be looking to recruit more than once within a 12 month period. For a one of fee we will allow you to contact (via us) as many candidates as you want to through our database, whether by letter, e-mail or telephone, and to recruit without any further charge.

The service will not give you direct access to our candidates and it preserves the candidate’s anonymity until they give consent for you to know who they are. Once authorised, you get to see a CV for each candidate as well as a brief description outlining their skills and experience. You can also communicate with the candidate without them knowing who you are and vice versa.

For further details please visit www.tenpercent.co.uk/er.html.

Legal Recruitment

Recruitment Agencies Failing at Fastest Rate since 2007.

Legal Recruitment Agencies and PDF Files - avoid the latter!

More Family LSC Supervisor Info (yawn)

Family LSC Contracts Awarded - Family Vacancies increase

Alternative Business Structures - no sign of any ABS Legal Recruitment yet

Duty Solicitors - Are the Streets of London Really Paved With Gold?

Solicitors’ Brands and Franchises - OTT?

Fascinating Tales and Common Queries from Law Firms Enquiring about the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment £60 a Month Recruitment Service

Training Contract Application Help - new product from the Ten-Percent Legal Careers Shop

Save 20% on your Firm's Professional Indemnity Insurance Renewal

Law Graduate sought for Advocacy Experience

Transferring a Training Contract

Careers - Changing Fields of Law to get more Advocacy Experience

North West Legal Recruitment Market a Cold Spot in 2011

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