Legal Recruitment News, Articles & Careers Advice for the Legal Profession

 1. Legal Recruitment Market Report - updated 26/11/07

2. 5 recent reasons for Solicitors joining new firms

3. Free Candidate Placements

4. Free Guide to Recruitment and Retention of Staff

5. Online Legal Blog (www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com)  

6. Candidate Databases Online

7. 2007 Charitable Donations – LawCare and the Ten-Percent Foundation

 Welcome to our Winter Newsletter, sent out to firms who have subscribed online to our newsletter, requested candidates from us or used our permanent or locum services recently.

1. Market Report (full report - http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyreport.htm)

Registration of New Posts

There has been a slowdown in the number of posts registered by firms in recent weeks. Over 150 new solicitors registered in October & November (excluding QLTT, paralegals and other applicants), and over 150 vacancies. We have seen a rather large increase in the number of firms wanting wills & probate solicitors, conveyancing lawyers, locums and a slow rise in crime solicitor requests even. Standard for the time of year though - nothing extraordinary in terms of numbers.

General Outlook for Permanent and Temporary Recruitment

For permanent placements the fields of law are shifting, but there are posts there in all areas for all shapes and sizes of firms. Still no sign of the conveyancing job market crash that has been predicted with the HIPs and the Northern Rock collapse. LSC work slightly picked up thanks to announcement that an announcement will be made in January 2008. Plenty of firm closures and mergers though as a result of the LSCs complete and utter disregard for making rational decisions! The pre-Christmas run up is always quiet - and pretty much everyone decides to go Christmas shopping instead of staring at legal recruitment pages.

We wait with anticipation every year for all those solicitors who get to New Years Eve, drink a little bit more than they ought, and make a brave decision the following day to up sticks and move onto pastures new. 2007 has been a very busy year for most recruitment companies, as the market has expanded in most sectors, and contracted somewhat in the LSC funded work areas. For permanent placements the fields of law are shifting. Crime remains awful, although picking up slightly. Conveyancing is good - lots of work on both the temporary and permanent side coming in - although again London central not moving very fast. Other areas appear to have a bit of a shortage. Personal injury - not very good, although commercial and civil litigation have picked up slightly.

2.  Retaining Staff - why bother? (further articles can be found at http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/legal-recruitment.htm)

Our anecdotal evidence for staff remaining with firms or moving on is usually fairly simple, and not necessarily financially motivated. In a nutshell, if you have contented and motivated staff, they tend to stop with their firm for long periods of time, whereas if you don’t, they tend to move on. So what does this mean in practice? Our recent 10 placements have had the following reasons for upping sticks:

1.       No prospects of career advancement or possible partnership – this can be a real issue for someone 4-7 years PQE.

2.       Distance commuting to their place of work – it may be that this person only took their post as a stopgap..

3.       Opportunity to do a different angle on their legal field – you can’t really do anything about this!

4.       Salary levels increased rather dramatically on a move – existing firm should have been aware of this.

5.       Personality issues with one of the partners – basically the candidate didn’t like the way they were being treated.

Apart from the move to a different approach to the law (ie private practice to government), the others can be avoided. Firms should constantly be aware that the cost of recruiting a new solicitor whether through legal recruitment consultants or the LSG pages is at least £4,000 in time spent interviewing, training and the start up period… Certainly makes interesting reading. I am sure that often every employer takes their employees for granted, and this can have an effect on their attitude towards them over time. It is important to retain contacts with your staff on a personal level, and ensure you are aware of what their end game actually is..

3. Free Candidate Placements

 Although you can use our standard contingency recruitment service (ie we find you a candidate, you pay our flat rate), did you know we also offer a service guaranteeing discounted rates and free candidates if placing more than two in any 24 month period? Our retained consultancy service offers discounted advertising in the Gazette, discounted rates on our fees, and free candidates if we place more than 2 with you. Visit our website for further details.... http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/er.html (follow the links for 'Fixed fee sole supply and retained services').

 4. Free Guide to Recruiting, Interviewing and Retaining Staff

 A free guide is available to read or download simply by clicking here. Although some of the advice is fairly logical (ie do not throw things at your staff), there are plenty of tips and guides into considering things from the employee's perspective, and thinking about the way you both treat and behave in front of your staff.

 5. Online Legal Recruitment Blog - advice for interviewing, recruiting and retaining staff

 We regularly add articles to our online blog about legal recruitment techniques and guidance on interviews, candidates, recruitment processes, salary levels, increasing fees, marketing, advertising etc.. You can view the blog by clicking here.

 6. Candidate Databases Online

If you would like to see our full lists of candidates, simply click here to visit our online searchable candidate database. Alternatively, to register a vacancy and let us do the search, simply click here to fill out our online registration form.

 7. Charitable Donations

Having just had a copy of the Law Care News through the post for Autumn 2007, I thought it may be topical to mention this aspect of the Ten-Percent Foundation's ongoing support. The Foundation pays for one copy of the newsletter to be sent out every year with the associated printing, postage and stationery costs. The newsletter goes out to a wide spectrum of lawyers across the board - both users and supporters. There is an article this month about Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is basically a form of depression based on the gloomy weather and dark nights. For full details please visit the Law Care website at www.lawcare.org.uk. A very worthwhile charity - there are so many pressures on solicitors in practice and rarely any support available in firms. Further details of the work of the Ten-Percent Foundation can be found here