Legal Recruitment Blog

Why didn't a candidate take us up on our offer? I was thinking today about firms offering candidates posts, and then not taking the opportunity post offer (if rejected or even if accepted) for blunt feedback on the performance of their firm and staff during and after interviewing. It is a golden opportunity to see how your staff are performing - eg; whether your receptionist gives a good impression of your company, if the offices are a bit drab, or whether you need to paint the outside of your front door and remove the litter. Also how you came across in interview - did you sell yourselves well, what were the sticking points, and how could you address these in future? After all, the person you have interviewed is somewhat uniquely placed to comment - they will be qualified lawyers, and used to the environment, and able to give a qualified and professional opinion that it may be worth listening seriously to. Similarly if they asked for part time flexible hours, and you have ref...

How long can you leave an offer of a legal job hanging on for? Here's the scenario - you have one definite offer from a firm, and a couple of interviews elsewhere in the next few weeks. The first firm want an answer quickly - they are a bit edgy about the whole thing, and have pushed you to say yes or no. How long can you leave it before you have to give them a positive answer one way or the other? The answer is not simple, but usually we advise honesty in part - ie you tell the firm you have a couple of interviews elsewhere, and you are waiting for the outcome of these before making a decision. Always convey your decision to both parties - including the one you have decided not to accept, so that everyone knows where they stand. What you don't want to be doing is letting the agency hang on waiting for you to come back to them before giving any further information. We find some candidates think that if they ignore all messages left for them - whether telephone, email or i...

18.06.07 Another Legal Recruitment Agency opens and closes - not as easy work as some think! We noticed, whilst surfing the net to find a good web developer, that another company who attempted to branch out into legal recruitment has opened in the last few years and closed its doors again (to legal recruitment work). Altior, a South Wales company known to 1000's of lawyers (including myself) for its good quality training (I did my Professional Skills Course with them many years ago), opened a recruitment division a few years ago for South Wales, and heavily promoted it in the Gazette and online. There always seems to be money in recruitment for anyone not involved in the practice, and it is a bit of a shock when you go for 4-5 months without introducing any lawyers when you first start up (not saying that Altior did this - we certainly did many years ago!). It looks as if things havent worked out there, as the division has now closed. Many years ago, I was advised by a Financial Ad...

Open Plan Offices and Solicitors Open plan offices are the bane of our lives as recruiters. Some firms insist on them, as it is good for the boss - he sits in a nice large office at the end of the hall containing the workers, and has a significant amount of credibility. The workers all huddle around desks set out at seemingly random intervals across the floor, with just about sufficient space to put a photo up and speak to someone on the phone without another person hearing 10 metres away. Solicitors on the whole, I have found, absolutely detest them. It gets back to the whole picture of becoming a solicitor - you get status, spend 8 years of your life studying away to earn what a good secretary does in other firms, and then find you are expected to base yourself on the shop floor with other similarly suffering lawyers who get more and more depressed and cynical as they go on. Alternatively, some people love them! They get to interact with others, ask questions of more senior st...

Interview Question 12 (with answer) - Would you describe yourself as ambitious? I have to confess I asked someone this once, and he said "oh no, I have never been ambitious - I just want to earn some money", which is an honest enough answer! In fact most employers would love this as in reality this is what they are looking for - a solicitor who is not going to recruit half their clients and set up over the road in a few years time. However as an interviewer I would not recommend this approach - although it is ideal, and I realise that this is very clear and helpful, at the same time it made me wonder about this person's approach to the work - afterall if you have no ambition, would you put as much effort into your work as someone with ambition to succeed? Again, another question with an answer that clearly is v.obvious, but one that may not be as clear cut once you think about it from the employers perspective. I have to concede that an ambitious lawyer may be one to ...

16.05.07 Challenge to companies to donate 10% profits to charity North Wales Director Issues Challenge to Companies to Donate 10% of their Profits to Charity Ten-Percent, the online UK recruitment group, have donated 10% of their profits to charity, and MD & qualified solicitor Jonathan Fagan calls on larger companies to follow suit and do the same. "When you look through the financial reports from blue chip companies, often their charitable donations are less than ours, and we have an annual turnover of less than £1/2 million, a fraction of the amount a company like Tescos generates in an hour. If every company did this, we could achieve significant change in the world, and make companies look more socially and ethically responsible to their customers than they do now." The company is an online operation specialising in the recruitment of lawyers, with 5 consultants covering the whole of the UK and beyond. One of the dotcom survivors from 2000, it has been expanding ever...

Legal Interview Question 11 (with answer) - what contribution do you make to a team? A cursed question to anyone who has not worked with business speak before. Includes myself I must confess, as I don't understand such words, but realise when I play cricket that it isn't just me trying to bowl out the opposition or bat to a century each match. The same thing applies in law. The reality is that the concept of teamwork is somewhat different in a law firm - the majority of decisions are made at senior level, and although more junior staff are informed that they need to be 'team players', very often the people who make this sort of comment are not at all in any way! The concept of teamwork is usually - if you smile when you make me a cup of tea, you are clearly a team player, but if you glare at me and drop it in my lap and then smile, you clearly lack social skills. The contribution you make to a team must be that you offer up your enthusiasm and skills, and that if you ar...