Legal Recruitment Blog

26.09.07 Solicitors Firms Websites - some good, a lot terrible! We have decided to offer a new service to law firms who register vacancies with us. This will be free, and the only catch to it will be that we must be allowed to publish an article on our site about our findings. We will analyse a firm's website free of charge. Firstly, we will give the firm a breakdown of how popular their site is, what their ranking is for searches in Google, and how visible the website is (eg - have they linked with www.solicitors-online.com ?). Secondly, we will check the site for inconsistencies, spelling mistakes or grammatical errors popular with web designers. Thirdly, we will rate the site on how efficient it is at what it is supposed to be doing - ie selling the firm, providing an online service, and setting the firm apart from others of a similar nature. Fourthly we will give a forthright view on what improvements could be made - whether the site accurately reflects the firm, and does the ...

25.09.07 Ruminations on the future of law and the legal profession  An interesting report was produced by the Lord Chancellor's Department in 2006 that stated 'much legal work has the potential…to be systematised and automated and later to be packaged as online services or products and made widely available on the World Wide Web without the need for interaction between client and lawyer’ It is clear that the drafting of a wide range of standard contracts and agreements will fall within this, and that these traditional services will be replaced by online services. There is an enormous hole that is quite apparent in the legal market that has been called the 'latent legal market', referring to the innumerable situations in people's domestic and working lives when they need legal help. With the LSC gradually destroying the remnants of the legal aid system, more and more people are dependent on insurance products and the like to sort out their legal disputes. The interne...

21.09.07 How to become a HIPs inspector (perhaps there are crime solicitors who may want to make a bit more money?!) Alternative careers for solicitors in years to come, or perhaps solicitors need to have a think about becoming both a home inspector and a solicitor - certainly looks easy money! Cost is slightly prohibitive - I have seen courses costing about 7,500 plus VAT, which compare well with the LPC! The work As a home inspector you would produce reports on certain types of houses offered for sale on the open market in England and Wales. You would look at the age, condition and energy efficiency of people's homes and produce a Home Condition Report (HCR) and an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). Your key duties would be to:  examine the inside and outside of a property give each part of the building a condition rating based on a set scale give reasons for each rating recommend further investigation of defects that could be serious give the property an A to G rating for e...

20.09.07 Ten-Percent Foundation Criteria for selecting Charities for donations Since April 2000, Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment have been donating 10% of annual net profits to charitable causes. This started with the princely sum of £500, to the last tax year of 2006-2007 resulting in about £8,750. To date we have donated £30,000, but what on earth led us to donate money, and where do we donate to? All the money we donate goes to the Ten-Percent Foundation, a charitable trust, that took copious amounts of effort to set up by me, a solicitor not used to dealing with administration of this kind! The charitable trust has a number of aims that hopefully encompass supporting third world projects, the alleviation of poverty in the UK, and promotion of society within our local communities. When we started out, we got a lot of calls from professional fund raisers, who frankly annoyed me intensely, although I understand why they are there. It frustrated me that I could be donating money to a goo...

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment http://www.ten-percent.co.uk Candidate Update Autumn 2007 1. Legal Recruitment Market Report - updated 13/09/07 2. Age Discrimination 3. Open Plan Offices - loathed or loved? 4. Flexible Working Hours and the legal profession 5. Newly Qualified - what do I do? 6. Online legal recruitment blog 7. Vacancy Database online - new and improved 8. Let us do the work! - head hunting with a difference 9. 2007 Charitable Donations 10. Let us recommend you - our findasolicitor service Welcome to our Autumn newsletter, sent out to candidates who are registered with us on our database. If you do not wish to remain on the database to receive new vacancies, please email us the word 'remove' and your full name to cv@tenpercent.co.uk . If you wish to remain on the database, but not receive these updates (sent quarterly), please email 'no updates' with your name to cv@tenpercent.co.uk 1. Market Report (full report - http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyrepo...

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment http://www.ten-percent.co.uk Employer's Update Autumn 2007 1. Legal Recruitment Market Report - updated 10/09/07 2. Age Discrimination 3. Free Candidate Placements 4. Free Guide to Recruitment and Retention of Staff 5. 2007 Charitable Donations Welcome to our Autumn newsletter, sent out to firms who have requested candidates from us or used our services in the previous 12 months or so. 1. Market Report (full report - http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyreport.htm) 2007 has been a very busy year for most recruitment companies, as the market has expanded in most sectors, and contracted somewhat in the LSC funded work areas. For permanent placements the fields of law are shifting. Crime remains awful, although picking up slightly. Conveyancing is good - lots of work on both the temporary and permanent side coming in - although again London central not moving very fast. Other areas appear to have a bit of a shortage. Personal injury - not very good, alth...

Interview Question - activities and interests. A common question in an interview is to ask the interviewee what interests and activities they have outside of work. It is an interesting question, as it tends to throw a lot of people who have spent many years studying followed by many years working. However I have noticed something during my time as a recruitment consultant, which is that those who make it in the profession tend to have something they do out of hours which is interesting or sporting. It is rare to find a lawyer who just does law, reads the paper, and watches football. There is almost always something else there, whether it is playing rugby for a local team, working as a volunteer for a local charity - you name it they do it. My advice to anyone joining the profession is to look for something you do that will make you stand out of the crowd - what about taking up a new sport or hobby, and getting so into it you are able to talk about it passionately? It doesnt have to be ...

05.09.07 What is a sole supplier arrangement for a recruitment agency? A sole supplier arrangement is one where a recruitment agency handles all the aspects of recruitment for a specific vacancy or length of time. Firms can benefit from being able to hand over the entire recruitment process from start to finish, with the exception of the interview itself. We offer this service, and usually also offer discounted advertising in the Law Society Gazette as well. Where you see this in adverts (usually a sole supplier will put "please note that this ad is being handled on an exclusive basis by Blogs and Blogs and all third party applications will be forwarded through to them") it means that a recruitment agent is handling the post as a supplier. I once handled a Bermudan job on a sole supplier arrangement, and fielded in the region of 200 telephone calls in a week. I had over 40 applications to put forward from about 75 CVs received. Lots of applicants - can't think why! The wo...

04.09.07 "Hello, I'm an LPC graduate, can you help me find a training contract?" The very quick answer to this query is usually no, followed by a very pregnant pause. The person telephoning almost sounds surprised! I am more surprised that someone has been on our website, found our details, and managed to miss just about every warning we have on the pages that we simply cannot assist potential trainee solicitors and LPC graduates as there is no market out there for them.. My next piece of advice is pretty much the same - you will find that virtually every other agency will say the same thing, and you will probably be wasting your time calling round. The best thing to do is to look on our website and follow the career centre links, clicking the law student option, and download our free guide to finding a training contract and work experience. This contains a sure fire way of getting work experience, a foot in the door, or even an elusive training contract! There is a lot o...