Reading Time: 3 minutesJob Market Update – January 15th 2015 Comments on the current market from Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment: “January is a difficult month to give a job market update for. Basically, from the start of December, most new work drops off as everyone goes christmas shopping, attends parties and slows down. In my…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCOLP and COFA These two new abbreviations came into being some years ago and relate to compliance with Financial Conduct, Money Laundering laws and a raft of other regulations. At a lot of law firms this person will be the senior partner, no doubt overjoyed at yet another excursion away from fee earning to ensure…
Reading Time: 5 minutesTen-Percent Group Locum and Permanent Candidate Update January 7th 2015 ▪ South East, South West, East Anglia and Home Counties ▪ London ▪ Midlands and Wales ▪ North West, North East, Scotland and Yorkshire email jobs@tenpercentgroup.com or call 0207 127 4343. Happy New Year. It is that time again when locums start taking bookings for…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere are a good number of legal jobs on the web that have been listed by recruitment consultants that are not live. I can guarantee this. I reckon that for every 1 genuinely live vacancy with a finite deadline to be filled there will be 1 vacancy that is not. This means that 50% of…
Reading Time: 3 minutesJob Market Update – December 3rd 2014 December 2014 – Summary: * Permanent vacancies down * Locum assignments down * Conveyancing vacancies still busy, Commercial Property vacancies busy * Wills & Probate vacancies down * Crime vacancies make brief revival, Personal Injury vacancies disappearing * Employment Law vacancies – up * Commercial and Civil Litigation…
Reading Time: 4 minutesJob Market Update – November 4th November 2014 – Summary: * Permanent vacancies up * Locum assignments up * Conveyancing vacancies up, Commercial Property vacancies up * Wills & Probate vacancies up * Crime vacancies gone, Personal Injury vacancies disappearing * Employment Law vacancies – non-existent * Commercial and Civil Litigation vacancies – very few…
Reading Time: 3 minutesHow to cut a better deal with your current firm Working in a solicitors firm and getting paid the salary or package you feel you deserve are very often quite separate points. You probably accepted a salary offered when you first started with the firm some time ago and have seen little movement since. Indeed,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesHow to Retain Staff in a Busy Job Market With over 11,000 solicitors and lawyers on our books, Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment is usually well placed to see when a firm is doing the right things and when it isn’t. It costs a minimum of £4,000 each time a fee earner leaves a firm and joins…
Reading Time: 2 minutesJob Market Update – September 3rd Summer 2014 – Summary: * Permanent vacancies up * Locum assignments up * Conveyancing vacancies up, Commercial Property vacancies up * Crime vacancies gone, Personal Injury vacancies disappearing * Employment Law vacancies – non-existent * Commercial and Civil Litigation vacancies – few here and there * Family vacancies –…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThis week an LPC graduate applied for a Conveyancing Fee Earner role in Central London through us (Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment). Before every other LPC graduate sends us their CV I should add that this candidate has over 12 months residential conveyancing experience in a solicitors firm already, which is why she is an extremely suitable…
Reading Time: 3 minutesPhantom Jobs and Rogue Recruitment Agencies Very recently the Law Society Gazette published an article online about phantom recruitment agents and jobs. The complaint appeared to be that candidates were attending interviews and then not hearing anything back afterwards. Another complaint appeared to be that recruitment agents were not responding to job applications with feedback.…
Reading Time: 2 minutesLegal Job Market Update. May 2014 – summed up in a few sentences: * Permanent vacancies same * Locum vacancies up on April * Conveyancing up, Commercial Property up * Crime down, Personal Injury down * Litigation & Family up * Further increase in vacancies attracting no, poor quality or few applications. Commercial property becoming…
Reading Time: 2 minutesJob Market Update – May 8th April-May 2014 – summed up in a few sentences: * Permanent vacancies up * Locum vacancies up in April * Conveyancing up – severe shortage of NQ-5 year PQE solicitors * Commercial Property – severe shortage of all candidates * Continued increase in vacancies attracting only poor quality or…
Reading Time: 2 minutesJob Market Update – April 3rd April 2014 – summed up in a few sentences: * Permanent vacancies up * Locum vacancies up on March but still lower than an average month * Conveyancing up * Crime down * Litigation up * Further increase in vacancies attracting no, poor quality or few applications. * Market…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThis is our Top 5 list of Solicitors, Legal Executives and Paralegals Candidate 8PR1L 500LS – Solicitor, speaks 5 languages, wills & probate following worth £175k, 5 years PQE, 29 years old, prepared to relocate to work, looking for a salary of £20,000. Candidate 8PR1L 500LS2 – Paralegal with 12 months experience in conveyancing –…
Reading Time: 2 minutesI have just taken the most bizarre telephone call I think I have ever received as a recruitment consultant. It went like this: Caller: Hello, is that Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment? Me: Yes it is. Caller: I’ve seen an advert for a vacancy online – its for a paralegal position in Derby. Me: Oh right. Do…
Reading Time: 4 minutesThis query comes up quite regularly with legal job applicants coming into the profession. So many times I have been asked by graduates and students why we have ignored their applications for specific vacancies that require say ‘2 months legal experience’. The conversation usually goes: Caller: “But I have 2 months legal work experience.” Me:…
Reading Time: 2 minutes10,000 Hours Theory – can it work? At the moment there is a journalist who is trying out the above theory – is it possible to put in 10,000 hours and turn into an expert? – article is on the BBC website – here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26384712. The journalist has given up the day job and taken…
Reading Time: 6 minutesShould I stay or should I go? Crime Job Market Report I hope this article assists crime solicitors and does not depress anyone too much. It is a reflection of the harsh reality of crime regardless of the latest government interference in funding. Each time we get close to new contract deadlines or the next…
Reading Time: 3 minutesLying on CVs This is probably more relevant for locums than permanent candidates, but when going through gaps on CVs we very often get asked why it is so important that we know what someone was doing in 1995 for 12 months. Well here is the reason. This is an extract from a CV for…
Reading Time: 3 minutesHow much money can you earn as a consultant, freelancer or locum solicitor? We regularly get contacted by solicitors wanting to know how much can be made from working as a freelancer (if in crime), a consultant (if family or litigation) or a locum (if non-contentious). These include sole practitioners, senior solicitors looking to enjoy…
Reading Time: 3 minutesJob Market Update – February 6th 2014 2014 has been a bit wobbly to date. I think recruitment agencies are probably a fairly good barometer of the economy, and so far I have to say that 2014 has started strongly, but not as much as it finished off at the end of 2013. This is…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWe sometimes get asked about International Baccalaureates and how they convert into A levels. We also spend some time every year advising clients and candidates on what BTEC HNCs equate to for A levels. Here is a handy table for converting them all into UCAS points. As an aside – whatever happened to all the…
Reading Time: 2 minutesLegal Recruitment Job Market Update – January 14th 2013 has been one of the strongest years for growth in the recruitment market for a long time. The KPMG and Recruitment & Employment Confederation Report on Jobs dated 9th January 2014 (monthly report) had the following highlights: 1. Strongest rise in permanent placements since March 2010…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Law Society have recently released an article based on a Freedom of Information request by Ed Austin. http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/5039197.article?utm_source=dispatch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GAZ161213. This indicates that every practising solicitor has contributed just under £100 to pay compensation to former Wolstenholmes clients who have suffered loss as a result of the firm’s dodgy dealings. Just after the recession kicked in…
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhy do Paralegals always seem so unreliable? One of the main reasons people come to see me as a career coach or contact our website is because they are law graduates and unable to get ahead – whether this is to secure a training contract or work generally in the legal profession. We very often…
Reading Time: 2 minutesElocution Lessons – a vital part of a move from the North to London? There has recently been a flurry of articles and comments in the media about the legal profession being traditional, conservative and middle class with a bias against anyone not conforming with the norm. This includes those with strong regional accents applying…
Reading Time: 3 minutesResidential Conveyancing jobs have been the number one area of law where Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment have successfully assisted law firms, solicitors, legal executives and licensed conveyancers for over 13 years. When we first set up Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, back in April 2000, over 50% of our vacancies were from solicitors firms looking to take on…
Reading Time: 3 minutesJob Market Update – December 3rd 2013 Our final Legal Recruitment Market update for 2013. It is has been a very mixed year. In January 2013 I wrote that December 2012 had been one of the quietest months we had seen in 12 years of trading, and this had followed a downward spiral in work…
Reading Time: 3 minutesJob Market Update – October 8th September has remained a busy recruitment month, with increasing numbers of locum assignments coming in, coupled with increasing numbers of permanent posts. For example, on one Friday morning in the last few weeks we took details of 7 permanent vacancies from law firms across the UK. Last Friday we…