Legal Recruitment Blog

Philanthropy Really, Really Hurts We have just gone through the very painful process of transferring money from our company current account through to the Ten-Percent Foundation.  Every year since 2000 we have committed as a company to donate a percentage of our annual profits to charity. This includes any subsidiary companies and operations. So far, for 14 years, our board of directors has agreed to setting this at 10% (after all, how on earth could we carry on with our name which is Ten-Percent?). We have donated over £66,000 to the Ten-Percent Foundation, a small sum in the general scheme of things, but a lot of money for a company the size of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. This last year we have just transferred just over £13,000 from our current account into the Ten-Percent Foundation charity bank accounts, and I have to say that it really, really hurt. I know it shouldn’t cause pain, and as a company and a group of people together we ought to be delighte...

We appreciate entirely the difficulties law firms have when trying to take on new staff. How do you know a candidate is going to stop with your firm and not turn out to scare all your clients away or worst still set up on their own across the road and poach all your existing clients? The answer is that you don't know what a candidate is going to be like, but you can certainly undertake a few tests. Here are our recommendations: 1. When interviewing, try to make the candidate sweat. Not literally (you'll probably sweat as well if you turn up the heating!). Try to get them under pressure. Ask awkward questions and probe their answers. Someone who handles you politely and fairly comfortably is probably going to do the same in a work situation. A candidate who gets distressed or aggressive will almost certainly do the same with your clients when faced with confrontation. 2. Get the candidate to meet your staff on the day of interview day. You may think that yo...