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April Legal Job Market Report 2008

Report dated 2nd April 2008 on the UK legal recruitment & job market from Ten Percent Legal Recruitment Consultants.
www.ten-percent.co.uk
next report due - 2nd May 2008
Prepared by Jonathan Fagan, Managing Director of ten-percent.co.uk limited; specialist legal recruitment consultants for solicitors and legal executives seeking legal jobs and law firms seeking staff in the UK. Click here to visit our online vacancy database
This report is based on our recruitment activities in the legal job market for the past month, and is updated on a regular basis. It is divided into commercial and high street areas. Before viewing this information, please click here to read our disclaimer. View our daily legal recruitment articles and blog

April 2008 Report
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment is made up of a number of different websites and you can register to improve your prospects via any of our sites. Our sites simply offer law jobs, and we are totally committed to legal recruitment - we operate www.ten-percent.co.uk, our main site, www.jonathanfagan.co.uk (property, wills, probate, litigation), www.conveyancing-jobs.co.uk, www.crime-solicitor.co.uk (crime - duty solicitors, police station accredited reps and NQ), www.eastmidlandslegal.co.uk, www.yorkshire-legal-recruitment.co.uk, www.hampshirelegal.co.uk, www.homecountieslegal.co.uk and www.chancerylane.co.uk (UK legal job board for general practice, corporate and commercial solicitor recruitment). All our sites are an integral part of our legal recruitment group. We also offer a locum service for assignments of more than 1 month at www.ten-percent.co.uk/locum.htm
We remain at the forefront of online recruitment, and currently feature fairly prominently on Google, Yahoo and MSN Search in the top 10 at most times. We retain our commitment to donate 10% of our annual net profits to charity.
Summary
This month has seen a very interesting lurch in recruitment. I have been receiving CVs from conveyancing solicitors being made redundant, particularly in larger firms and organisations that allegedly are capturing the conveyancing market at the expense of the high street firms, and is a really interesting indication of the way that smaller operators in the legal profession can survive, and probably like opticians certainly will do.
The legal job market is quite buoyant still, and despite a slow down around the early easter, we have found plenty of posts coming our way ever since and also good quality candidates..
General Outlook for Permanent and Temporary Recruitment
Good on all permanent fronts, not so good on temporary fronts, although this is fairly normal for us. Will pick up on the latter in a few weeks I suspect as moves start to take place.
Conveyancing is still holding its own, and there appears to be plenty going on all over the place, although the larger players seem to be shedding lawyers and support staff. This is basically what happened last time to recruitment when the market dropped - smaller firms tended to carry on as normal, and larger firms tended to downsize their departments.
It remains the same as always at NQ level - there are firms out there interviewing at present and the number of NQ solicitors is picking up as we approach the summer. More and more of our recruitment is now focused more on experience rather than qualification.
Commercial property remains busy, and there is a real lack of any good candidates in that field at times. There are now no signs of redundancy in commercial property work.

Crime Work
Has started to get a bit better in London, and we are recruiting still across the UK for duty solicitors and accredited reps. Number of firms actively looking, although salaries not at the top end anymore. Duty solicitors on the whole are now being offered about £30,000-£38,000, and this is a change to the level by about £5,000. There are signs of recruitment again for crime, and firms are starting to move forwards as the impact of Carter starts to slow down..
Higher rights posts have not been as impressive as we thought, and not a major development area that was hoped for. Increase in the number of barristers looking for private practice work is a good sign that not all is well at the bar anyway.
www.crime-solicitor.co.uk, www.ten-percent.co.uk - both useful resources for further recruitment information.
High Street Fields
This year the key fields of law on the high street side so far remain wills & probate and commercial property. Commercial litigation and personal injury remain extremely difficult to source work for on the NQ front and in fact we still get many litigators contacting us about each litigation post coming up in London. Personal injury has picked up a little bit in recent months, with posts being registered occasionally in different areas.
Litigation posts as a whole appear to be coming back into fashion after a few years of nothing arising. We have continued to pick up these in the last month or so.
In terms of geographical areas, we remain very strong in Hampshire, the South Coast, Kent, East Anglia, Essex, the South West, East & West Midlands, North Wales, the North West including Manchester, Chester, Liverpool, Yorkshire and Cumbria.
Wills & Probate
Wills & Probate has been an interesting field. Large number of firms looking as they have seen the potential in dealing with IHT work and trusts, which is inevitable following recent house price boom. Quite a lot of vacancies have also come into us from other areas in this field, with increasing numbers in the North West. East Anglia and the Home Counties are doing well at present, together with the South Coast, and the East Midlands is resurgent. London posts remain few and far between. Try visiting www.jonathanfagan.co.uk if interested in receiving further details for private client posts. The South West has seen a massive request for CVs whenever we get a candidate in who may be of interest. Recently experienced such a surge - we arranged over 5 interviews in one day for a middle level wills & probate lawyer in the South West. The same is happening across the board - lots of private client solicitors at a good level will find a large number of firms interested if they look for posts in the regions.
Commercial Property
There remain posts in almost every town for commercial property solicitors from NQ upwards. Firms have almost taken the collective decision that this is going to be the next boom area, and it is time to increase the size of their departments. Commercial property solicitors are in demand for recruitment in every area, and it seems even smaller practices are trying to get in on the action. After the last mini property blip a few years ago, a similar occurrence happened in the legal job market - the commercial property sector boomed. Commercial property solicitors outside of London can contact us (NQ still awkward in some areas) and we would be confident of securing a number of interviews in most areas of the UK, with plenty of the medium to large regional practices looking to take on staff.
Family Law
Still posts there, but not that many - Carter has caught up ... - although outside of London anything above 3 years PQE and if possible panel applications in already is going to result in interviews although this is starting to change with family lawyers needing to move out of London to find work. This remains a poor area to be looking at NQ level though - if you are a panel member outside the North East (which historically has been very poor for family law recruitment), we would be reasonably confident of securing a good number of legal job interviews for you - the south west is a particular hotspot - Plymouth firms in particular.
Company Commercial and other Commercial fields
Corporate commercial solicitors are in demand across the UK, although the salary variations between different types of firms tends to also distinguish between the level of candidate.
Most areas have vacancies which have gone unfilled for a long time for senior and mid level company commercial solicitors not expecting London City firm salaries. Company commercial in the home counties quite popular as usual (3 years PQE upwards).
The Ten-Percent site attracts solicitors and legal executives from across the UK, who register both with us and our specialist sites for our legal recruitment services. Although we deal with most legal jobs, including a subsidiary site for permanent legal secretaries (www.tp-secretaries.co.uk) most of our posts are for solicitors and ILEX candidates.
Our sister sites www.crime-solicitor.co.uk, and www.jonathanfagan.co.uk are usually fairly busy (the latter dealing with conveyancing and private client recruitment). Particular hotspots are detailed below.
Contact for Work
Contact Ten-Percent and register for our jobfinder service . You can contact Jonathan Fagan directly on 0845 644 3923 or at jbfagan@tenpercent.co.uk if you would like to discuss career opportunities. You can also read his blog, Legal Recruitment.
We can provide you with regular updates of vacancies and firms across our entire family of websites. www.jonathanfagan.co.uk for 1-5 year PQEs in conveyancing, litigation or private client legal recruitment, or try our other regional sites www.yorkshire-legal-recruitment.co.uk or www.homecountieslegal.co.uk, www.eastmidlandslegal.co.uk
You can also view our selection site at www.lawyer-recruitment.co.uk
New legal job vacancies into us in the last few weeks are as follows: please click here for our full vacancy database
Recent Vacancies (in since our last report)
Any interest, please drop us an email to jobs@tenpercent.co.uk, quoting the ref. no and attaching a CV.
Reference
Job Title

Location
Description
13374
Employment Solicitor
West London
Recently qualified employment solicitor sought by central London firm to assist in department.
13372
Debt Recovery Litigation
Nottingham
A medium sized firm based in Nottingham have a vacancy for a litigator This is a new post to be created which would very much depend on the successful candidate. It would probably mainly be commercial debt recovery and some company law.
13371
Wills & Probate Solicitor
Brighton
Hove firm looking for a Wills and Probate solicitor with some experience
13370
Conveyancing Solicitor
East London
East London Firm have a vacancy for a Conveyancing Solicitor with sound experience of both Commercial and Residential work to join them.
13369
Personal Injury Solicitor
Chester
Chester firm are looking for a personal injury lawyer with dual qualification in UK and Irish law. Very competetive salary on offer.
13368
Litigation Solicitor
Tunbridge Wells
Rapidly expanding, forward thinking firm, with offices in Sussex and London, looking for experienced litigation solicitors for their East Sussex office
13367
Conveyancing Solicitor
Tunbridge Wells
Rapidly expanding, forward thinking firm with offices in Sussex and London, looking for experienced conveyancing olicitors for their East Sussex office
13366
Wills & Probate Solicitor
Tunbridge Wells
Rapidly expanding, forward thinking firm with offices in Sussex and London, looking for experienced Wills & Probate Solicitors for their East Sussex office
13365
Litigation Solicitor
South East London
Rapidly expanding, forward thinking firm, with offices in Sussex and London, looking for experienced litigation solicitors for their South East London office
13364
Conveyancing Solicitor
South East London
Rapidly expanding, forward thinking firm, with offices in Sussex and London, looking for experienced conveyancing solicitors for their South East London office
13363
Wills & Probate Solicitors
South East London
Rapidly expanding, forward thinking firm with offices in Sussex and London, looking for experienced Wills & Probate Solicitors for their South East London office
13362
Conveyancing Fee Earner
East London
A Firm in East London have a vacancy for a Conveyancing Fee Earner to work on all aspects of a Residential Conveyancing Caseload. Must be at least LPC qualified, have 2 years experience and able to work independently on a large volume caseload.
13361
Solicitor

Chester
North Wales Firm looking for a NQ or recently qualified Solicitor to work on a mixed caseload of Private Client and Conveyancing work.
13359
Conveyancer
Nottingham
a well established firm based in Nottinghamshire have a vacancy for a conveyancer to run a small branch office with 2 or 3 members of staff
13358
Crime Solicitor
Ilford
Duty Solicitor sought by an established Essex Firm.
13357
Immigration Solicitor
East London
A new immigration vacancy has arisen with a firm in Walthamstow. A 5 solicitor, 2 partner practice looking to expand as well as move into new offices in Ilford in the next few months, one of their immigration lawyers has just retired. They seek someone Level 2 accredited to replace them. The work is 80% LSC, and 20% privately funded.
13356
Wills & Probate Solicitor
Tunbridge Wells
Tunbridge Wells firm are looking to recruit a senior member to join their well established Private Client team. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who wishes to progress their career and the firm are seeking candidates with partnership potential. Based in their Tunbridge Wells office, you will enjoy all the support and infrastructure of a large, well established firm, and have the opportunity to work with 'Leaders in their field'.
13355
Crime Solicitor
Hereford
Crime solicitor with police station accreditation
13353
Wills and Probate Solicitor
Colchester
A Firm of smaller size in central Colchester have a current vacancy for a Solicitor to join them and work on a Wills and Probate Caseload. They will consider applicants looking to work on a mixed caseload including Litigation and Conveyancing.
13352
Personal Injury Fee Earner
Ilford
Personal Injury fee earner sought by Ilford firm.
13350
Senior Family Lawyer
Cambridge
Senior Family Solicitor or Legal Executive with panel membership sought by Cambridgeshire firm.
13349
Wills and Probate Solicitor
Norwich
Leading Firm in Kings Lynn seek a Wills and Probate Solicitor, at Partner level. High value probate work and tax planning part of the diverse caseload. Excellent long-term prospects.
13348
Wills & Probate Solicitor
Oxford
Wills & Probate solicitor sought by Abingdon firm - all levels considered. Larger sized multi office practice.
13347
Commercial Property Solicitor
Central Bristol Firm have a vacancy for a Senior Commercial Property Solicitor with 4-6 years PQE to work on a wide ranging and interesting caseload. Marketing experience desirable.
13346
Family Child Care Solicitor
Oxford
Vacancy for a senior solicitor to deal with a care proceedings caseload (public children law).
13345
Family Solicitor
Oxford
Vacancy for a recently qualified family solicitor to deal with private law family matters including divorce, ancillary relief, contact orders, residence orders

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice detailed article.

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