Reading Time: 2 minutesHourly Rates of Pay for Locum Solicitors and Legal Executives – March 4th 2015 update Locum hourly rate payment varies widely according to the demand, length of assignment, level of experience and advance notice available. Hourly rates go up during the summer (June-September). NB: These rates are intended as a guide only. Hourly rates can…
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: < 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: 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 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: 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: < 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: < 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: 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: 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: 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 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.…