Legal Recruitment Blog

Law Firms in the Stone Age I recently coached a solicitor who was dealing with the most unbearable conditions at work, but with a familiar story to me as I have coached may others in similar circumstances. This particular candidate works in a law firm where they have: 1) No staff perks at all. 2) No days out, meals out or any staff events. 3) No staff induction when you join the firm. 4) No words of encouragement at any time from any other member of staff during this person’s time at the firm (well over 5 years). 5) No social events at all amongst any staff whether organised by the firm or by the staff. 6) A process whereby if someone requests annual leave one of the partners grills that person to determine whether they are going for a job interview or whether they have something else planned. 7) If a complaint about someone’s behaviour is made then the person who has made the complaint is usually dismissed within 2 to 3 weeks. 8) A reasonable salary is paid in line with ...

'LLB graduates and in fact A-Level students are ripped off regularly by education providers'.  This may sound like a fairly controversial statement, which of course it is, but here are the arguments for suggesting that students are regularly ripped off by providers. Students without sufficient grades to ever qualify are allowed, if not encouraged, to take degrees that will not enable them to progress.   When students have graduated they are encouraged to take courses at Masters level and post graduate diploma but would never increase (or decrease) their career prospects. Students are encouraged to take the BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course) when they have absolutely no hope in hell of ever getting pupillage at the Bar which at best is elitist and at worst is nepotistic.   Instead of encouraging A-Level students to go and do courses that could lead into relatively secure jobs in engineering or science or indeed IT, teachers encourage them to do classics and...

County Courts – A Danger to Society? This is probably a fairly inflammatory title to have for an article but I feel very strongly about this issue and the danger that county courts offer to a society in general if they continue to be run in their current state and decline further. You may have read in my blog in recent years of our company’s frustrations at dealing with the county courts. We have seen sheer incompetence, intransigence, arcane and antiquated procedures and staff who are either so demoralised they don’t care or simply can’t be bothered in any event. Our most recent run-in with the county courts has been in a case where a law firm owed us an amount less than £5,000 which put us well and truly within the Small Claims Track, which is where we are quite happy to be. Unfortunately the law firm we were suing had worked out that the courts are so incompetent that they could simply counter-claim against us for £50,000, not pay their issuing fee, fail to pay their allo...

The Solicitors’ Regulation Authority have recommended the removal of the training contract minimum salary, something that appears to have been broadly welcomed by a large number of organisations which include a significant number of vested interests, such as LPC providers.  Is this a good thing? I don’t think so.  Probably a very controversial opinion, but I don’t think the legal profession as a whole can be trusted not to exploit potential trainee solicitors and take advantage of large numbers of desperate students and graduates who believe they need a training contract at all costs. Furthermore, what on earth is the point of permitting law firms to effectively take on large numbers of low paid workers who can then be permitted to carry on and qualify as solicitors? Where does this leave the status of a newly qualified solicitor? Already in debt to the tune of around £25,000, NQ salaries in non-commercial practices are almost certain to plummet. There are a good number...

One of the biggest areas to get hit in the recession across the UK was the property industry. This naturally included residential property, commercial property, new construction and all the related jobs in the legal profession which inevitably involved conveyancing solicitors and executives. I must have spent about 10% of my time as a legal recruitment consultant over the past 3 years talking to desperate conveyancing lawyers who have either had to fine alternative work or take drastic pay cuts in order to stay either in their posts or move to a new one. At times I have felt a little bit like a counsellor as opposed to a recruitment consultant because so many of these people have found themselves in desperate situations. If you rewind the clock back about 7-10 years conveyancers were the kings of the high street. If we got a conveyancing candidate in we would immediately market them to as many different firms as possible because so many firms were keen to take on extra staff and there...

I have just received an email from a graduate requesting advice who has been invited to attend an interview for a job as a paralegal with a firm of solicitors. The graduate has been informed that she has got to pay them £9,000 to be considered for this role. This gets her 6 months of paralegal training, a funded LPC and possible training contract. In fact it seems the firm offer access to up to 40 training contracts, although it is not clear exactly how this works. As far as I understand it, this activity is not only against employment regulations, but is also a criminal offence. It is a little too similar, in my opinion, to recruitment agencies charging candidates for their recruitment services. I have come across firms in Yorkshire charging up to £30,000 for a training contract, but I have never heard of one blatantly advertising the charges up front before an interview. Is this the new level to which the profession has stooped? Jonathan Fagan , MD, Ten-Pe...

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