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…
Reading Time: 2 minutesRecently I have put together a couple of emails and letters for a client and these are included as free covering email and covering letter templates in this post below. The candidate in question is currently in house as a General In House Counsel. The covering email/letter is in a classic layout with the information…
Reading Time: 2 minutesJob Market Update – September 4th The legal job market has been mixed in August. We suspect that the lack of a continued rise in recruitment numbers relates to the following things: Partners’ Holidays. Everything always seems to stop at some firms until mid-September. Partners return to work after lying on the beach thinking about…
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhat University should I go to in order to study Law? This is a question we are often, or “What is the best university to study law at” or “which Universities do commercial law firms consider to be the best?” or “Are there any universities that law firms will not take applications from”. The answer…
Reading Time: 3 minutesUsing a Personal Statement on a CV One thing that is often apparent on CVs is that people seem to take the wrong approach to their personal statement on the CV. It seems to be the accepted norm that the personal statement is used to put down quite a bland description of what the individual…
Reading Time: 3 minutesI want to get out of law and am completely fed up, what can I do? This relates to a number of queries that have come into the Ten Legal Careers Centre over the last six months, although the level of enquiries of this nature has dropped (excluding crime solicitors). Redundancy or threat of redundancy…
Reading Time: 5 minutes10 Ways to Get Fired Not that this comes up very often, but it is harder to get fired from a job than you would imagine. That said, a recent experience with an employer in North Wales indicates that it is possible to be fired for wearing a pink shirt, getting pregnant (the same employer…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhat Role do Recruitment Agencies have in a post-recession world? Recruitment has always been at the more risky end of the service sector in relation to effects of recession. I can remember starting my consultancy Ten Percent Legal Recruitment back in April 2000 and speaking to an elderly lady who was working as a police…
Reading Time: 2 minutesA new MarkIt Report shows strongest growth in the Service Sector since 2006. The July 2013 report by MarkIt and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) shows that the UK service sector expanded at its quickest pace for over six-and-a-half years in July as new business continued to rise strongly amid evidence of…
Reading Time: 2 minutesThis is the advice I have recently given to a career coaching client looking to put together the perfect covering email or letter. It really depends on the circumstances in which you are using these, but generally you should be sending CVs as attachments and a covering email to go with the CV which should,…
Reading Time: 2 minutesConverting Australian degree grades into UK degree grades and vice versa. Converting UK degree classifications into Australian degrees and vice versa is not straightforward. Firstly Australian degrees are not split into 2.1 or upper second class degrees and 2.2 or lower second class degree levels. Australian students and graduates tend to be quite surprised when…
Reading Time: 5 minutesAreas of Law to Avoid unless you are a sado-masochist The title of this article speaks for itself. These are the areas of law to avoid getting work experience in, finding paralegal work or applying for training contracts in 2013. Crime LSC funded Immigration Personal injury LSC funded Family Law Social Welfare and Mental Health.…
Reading Time: 3 minutesLegal Job Market Report (part of the June 2013 Legal Recruitment News by Ten-Percent Legal – www.legal-recruitment.co.uk for the full online journal). The job market in April and May has been busy. Very busy indeed. It appears that the property market is back on the move again, or at least a good number of conveyancing…
Reading Time: 2 minutesJob Market Update – April 9th The job market in March has been a game of two halves. In the run up to Easter it was rather quiet, with little going on. The Easter break seemed to have an effect on concentrating the mind a little bit and as we have returned things have got…