Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Annual Baby Boom Phenomenon and Locum Cover Every year we see a surge in maternity leave cover and requests for locums. This is known as the ‘Baby Boom’ time slot. For 6 weeks in March and April we go through a time when partners and HR managers call us to enquire about cover. It…
Reading Time: 5 minutesChecking Candidates As a legal recruitment agency in some aspects our life is very easy when it comes to checking candidates before submitting them for vacancies. Firstly, the Law Society maintain an online directory of all solicitors with current practising certificates. This means that a solicitor can instantly be identified and confirmed to be holding…
Reading Time: 4 minutesNew Year Resolutions for Lawyers? Every year we get a number of calls and emails from lawyers relating either to a change in practice or job, expansion or contraction, or new year resolutions – both employers and candidates. These are the top 5 queries since December 29th 2014: “I am a partner of a small…
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: 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 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: 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: 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 minutesWe are all bad at this. I have to confess to having not really trained some of my colleagues in the various packages that Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment sells. For example we offer unlimited recruitment to law firms with a turnover of less than £1 million, but I am not convinced that our consultants regularly push…
Reading Time: 4 minutesGood afternoon and welcome to the first newsletter from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment for members of our new (not so new now!) £60 legal recruitment service. It has been a very busy end to the year and we now have a large number of firms signed up to use our £60 legal recruitment service. This newsletter…
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of our senior candidates has been in touch this morning to point out a slight issue that keeps coming up in adverts both on our site and job boards. “I have been looking at family vacancies on the web and noticed that some vacancies refer to Family Panel Members or Resolution Accredited Specialists. I…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe decision to give references is sometimes quite complicated. Firms have requested references before second interviews, including requests to speak to current employers (!) and colleagues. Alternatively some firms ask for references prior to first interview. Others have waited until a solicitor has commenced work and two weeks later asked for a reference. Two incidents…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWork/Life Balance seems to become a particularly important issue once solicitors get to about 3 years PQE, and realise that there is life beyond work, and other issues such as rearing a family, paying a mortgage and buying a house come into play. The legal profession as a whole suffers from a poor attitude towards the…
Reading Time: 2 minutesSome firms seem very pleased at times when a candidate accepts an offer that is considerably below the market rate but we think this is a false economy. I can think of two firms in recent times who have been aware of a candidate’s limited geographical search area, or perhaps their requirement for supervision for…
Reading Time: 2 minutesIt is apparently the case that mothers returning to work after starting a family suffer the highest employment penalty of any group (Equalities Review). Mothers with children under 11 are 37% less likely to be offered a job than equivalent males. Single mums suffer even worse figures – rising to above 40%. Firms should not…
Reading Time: 2 minutesFirms who regularly complain that there is a lack of quality out there and no candidates applying for their jobs, are often the same firms who offer rates of pay so low a solicitor cannot get a mortgage above £60k! I regularly read about the shortage in good quality staff, and also get called by…
Reading Time: 2 minutes1. Don’t throw things at your staff. Particularly the Law Society Conveyancing Handbook – it hurts! 2. Don’t get drunk at the Christmas party – this always leads to consequences remembered for decades afterwards. Whether this involves rambling incoherently about how useless one of your staff is, or some minor act of vandalism, your colleagues…
Reading Time: 2 minutes“I want to move because my current office is affecting my health – damp on the walls, mould on the ceiling, and freezing cold. No pay rise for anyone at the firm in 5 years.” Another firm yet to wake up to the realities of modern day living – being nice to your legal staff…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn a recent article a senior recruiter argued that a better approach to recruitment would be as follows: (1) give full specifics of your post prior to interview – this can sometimes be very frustrating in legal recruitment – firms give very vague requirements and are surprised when candidates get annoyed at travelling a long…
Reading Time: 2 minutesIt has become the industry standard that once you are past the training level of the profession, the way to apply for the vast majority of posts, apart from local authority ones, is via a CV. In fact, most firms who have tried to use application forms for posts have met hostility from candidates, whether…
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of the easiest ways to spot a firm who are ‘good’ to work for and who have a happy working environment is to phone the receptionist and ask to speak to someone. Some receptionists consider this a real nuisance, and I have even heard sighs and tuts as if you shouldn’t really be calling…
Reading Time: 2 minutesRecently we have had dealings with a firm who are very well known and established, and have a good reputation in the market place. However the firm have made an offer to one of our candidates and pushed slightly too hard, such that the candidate rejected the offer. I should start by saying that I understand…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen interviewing a potential employee for a job, it is important to see things at all times from the employee’s perspective – they will almost certainly be trying to guess what you are wanting, thinking and going to say to them and will want to get certain things confirmed about your firm before they commit themselves. This…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAs recruitment consultants, we are not sure that this is good practice. In fact I would recommend avoiding confronting candidates head on with technical questions. Firstly, at an interview a candidate is nervous and slightly wary, secondly partners of law firms are notorious for asking questions that no-one on the interview panel knows or understands,…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe often get enquiries from solicitors wanting to relocate, and when this happens, invariably when going from the south to the north the salary range is impossibly high to source posts, and when going from the north to the south the salary range asked for is impossibly high to source posts! Why? There is an…
Reading Time: 2 minutesI often have conversations with senior partners of law firms who ask me to find them lawyers who are willing to work hard, be committed to their firm, and show entrepreneurial flair and determination. However they do not want anyone lightweight or…. wanting to work part time. Usually the requirement is for someone who wants…
Reading Time: 2 minutesOpen plan offices are the bane of our lives as recruiters. Some firms insist on them, as it is good for the boss – he sits in a nice large office at the end of the hall containing the workers, and has a significant amount of credibility. The workmen all huddle around desks set out…
Reading Time: 2 minutesBonus schemes are either loathed or hated in equal proportion by solicitors. I recently read an article about recruitment consultant’s salaries, which was talking about the average bonus given to consultants and the way it was done. It was surprising to find that in what is considered a sales orientated environment, most consultants were getting…