A lot of the articles on this site have now moved to a new home in our new, vastly improved, website. Please click here to go to our Legal Careers Articles pages within the Ten-Percent site.
We publish 3 newsletters each month - Legal Recruitment News for law firms, Candidate News for Lawyers and Legal Support Staff and Legal Careers News for Law Students and Graduates entering the Profession. You can read these below. Visit our Legal Recruitment blog for the latest articles and Legal Recruitment News for our Monthly Newsletter to Law Firms and Lawyers.
Legal Recruitment News for Law Firms - Updated Monthly
Candidate News - Updated Monthly
Legal Careers News - Updated Monthly
03.11.10 November 2010 Legal Recruitment News for Employers - available to read online or download
05.10.10 October 2010 Legal Recruitment News for Employers - now in .pdf format and available to view online
09.10.10 October 2010 Legal Careers News for Candidates - available to view online
Interview Guide for Lawyers £11.99 | Interview Answers for Lawyers £14.99 | CV Guide for Lawyers £11.99
01.09.09 Legal Recruitment News - September 2009 edition now available online for Employers
19.05.09 Free Career Coaching for Jobseekers Allowance Recipients
01.05.09 Ten-Percent awarded a contract by the DWP to provide newly unemployed professionals with jobsearch advice
09.03.09 Dealing with Bullies in the Workplace - Employees Guide
04.03.09 Dealing with Bullies in the Workplace - Employers Guide
16.02.09 Outsourcing and the legal profession - a threat to legal jobs?
27.01.09 What questions are asked in an Investors in People assessment?
01.01.09 Activities & Interests Section on a CV - surely not that important?
31.12.08 Flexibility is the Key to Survival in a recession
31.12.08 We're Hiring - experienced recruitment consultants
31.12.08 Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment Vision and Purpose - About Us page updated
23.12.08 Conveyancing Jobs and reported redundancies
19.12.08 Quasi Legal Roles - improving legal work experience
07.12.08 Ten-Percent Managing Director on Lawyer 2 Lawyer Radio
Title: The Economy's Effect on UK Law Firms
Description: The failing economy is having an impact on law firms and not just in the U.S. Firms are cutting staff, scrapping bonuses and some law firms are even collapsing. Across the pond in the UK, law firms are facing similar troubles. Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi, welcome Ronnie Fox, Principal of the UK law firm Fox and Jonathan Fagan, Solicitor and Managing Director of Ten Percent Legal Recruitment, also in the UK, to talk about how the present economic crisis is affecting not only law firms here, but firms in the UK. They will discuss the obstacles that UK law firms face and what needs to be done to get through these hard times.
26.11.08 Investors in People - what's it all about?
06.11.08 Legal Careers Workshops give unfair advantage to Law Students
03.11.08 Credit Crunch Affecting 9 out of 10 Employers
03.11.08 November 2008 Newsletter for Employers
03.11.08 Press Release - Ten-Percent reports jobs down 66%
20.10.08 Work Life Balance, Lawyers and the Credit Crunch - 2nd part of the Sunday Times feature
20.10.08 Legal Profession work life balance article in the Sunday Times
24.09.08 Conveyancing Jobs in the current market
17.09.08 What do you do if you do not know the answer to an interview question?
15.09.08 If you had a million pounds, how would you spend it? Interview Question
11.09.08 Interview Techniques for Employers
09.09.08 Interview Question & Answer - overcoming a hurdle question
08.09.08 BVC Student/Graduate Applications
04.09.08 MoneySupermarket.com enter the Legal Market
03.09.08 Disabled Students and the Legal Profession
01.09.08 Job Offer Withdrawn - how to handle negotiations
26.08.08 Equal Opportunities and Recruitment Agencies
07.08.08 I want to be a lawyer, what are my chances?
04.08.08 Alternative Jobs for Conveyancers
17.07.08 Apprentice Style interviewing techniques
04.07.08 Conveyancing jobs in London?
03.07.08 Solicitor's salaries - them and us
27.06.08 Adding extra value to job applications
26.06.08 Conveyancing jobs in the North East rapidly disappearing
25.06.08 New Universities and the Legal Profession
21.06.08 Interview Question - are you ashamed of your degree?
19.06.08 Career Coaching for Lawyers, Law Students and Graduates
18.06.08 Interview Question - How many training contracts have you applied for?
16.06.08 ILEX Route into the profession - via the back door?
13.06.08 Interview Question - where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
12.06.08 Training Contract or ILEX Route - which is better?
11.06.08 LPC Graduates seeking a training contract - don't call us - read our advice!
10.06.08 Recruitment numbers are up for 1st quarter of 2008
09.06.08 Interview Question on climate change
06.06.08 Outsourcing Transcription Work
04.06.08 Recruitment and Opportunities in Northern Ireland
03.06.08 General Practitioners dilemna
28.05.08 June Newsletter for Candidates
27.05.08 Interview Question - how was your journey?
22.05.08 June Newsletter for Law Firms
20.05.08 External Investment in Law Firms - will anything change?
19.05.08 The Destruction of Legal Aid by the Legal Services Commission
16.05.08 Jobs for Australian Law Students in London - advice
15.05.08 Referral Fees - whats the point?
14.05.08 Sole Supplier Agreements - what is the point?
13.05.08 What fees to recruitment consultants charge?
10.05.08 How much should a company spend on marketing?
09.05.08 Crime Solicitors - salary survey and new vacancies
07.05.08 How to Interview well - a guide for employers
06.05.08 3rd class degree holders - advice from Ten-Percent Legal
02.05.08 Legal Recruitment - Market Report - May 2008
02.05.08 Job Offers in the current market
01.05.08 Law Society Advertising Campaign - support solicitors - waste of money?
30.04.08 Crime Solicitors back in demand
30.04.08 Strategy for finding a Training Contract or Legal Work Experience
29.04.08 Newly Qualified Solicitors offered head of department role
28.04.08 Legal Practice Course - professional course or just a rip off?
27.04.08 Difficult Interview Question
25.04.08 Multidisciplinary Partnerships - will they change anything?
24.04.08 I'm about to qualify as a solicitor and the job market is awful - help!
23.04.08 SDT Employees and difficulties finding work in the legal profession
23.04.08 Law Society Gazette - the negative campaign continues
14.04.08 Working Offshore
01.04.08 April Legal Job Market Report
31.03.08 Recruitment Director slams "irresponsible" Law Society Gazette
18.03.08 Surviving a Recession
12.03.08 Employers Newsletter - March 08
12.03.08 Candidate Newsletter - March 08
27.02.08 Legal Job Market is buoyant
20.02.08 A recession in the mind before one hits the pockets...
19.02.08 Legal Skills Shortfall in 3 years PQE + Candidates
13.02.08 Employers Spring Newsletter 2008
13.02.08 Candidates Spring Newsletter 2008
07.01.08 What to wear for interview
16.12.07 law firm Office Parties at Christmas - what to avoid doing
04.12.07 Avatars and Legal Recruitment - are they compatible?
03.12.07 Candidates Newsletter - Winter 2007
03.12.07 Employers Newsletter - Winter 2007
19.11.07 Legal Recruitment Market Report
26.10.07 Whether to give law a go with a 2.1 business degree and average A Levels
17.10.07 Employing a Solicitor or setting up a multi-disciplinary practice (MDP)
11.10.07 Locuming as an alternative career for solicitors
10.10.07 Lecturing as an alternative career - no thanks!
09.10.07 Skills Section on a CV - not recommended
26.09.07 Solicitors Firms Websites - some good, a lot terrible!
25.09.07 Future of the Legal Profession
21.09.07 How to become a HIPs inspector
20.09.07 Criteria for selecting Charities for donations
18.09.07 Candidates Newsletter - Autumn 2007
11.09.07 Employers Newsletter -Autumn 2007
10.09.07 Interview Question: Activities and Interests
05.09.07 What is a sole supplier arrangement for a recruitment agency?
04.09.07 "Hello, I'm an LPC graduate, can you help me find a training contract?"
24.08.07 Bonus Schemes - an update/recent experience
15.08.07 What is PQE, and how important is it to law firms?
13.08.07 Advice to a Paralegal looking for a Training Contract
01.08.07 What is a locum Solicitor?
31.07.07 What does a Crime Solicitor do?
30.07.07 What does a Company Commercial Solicitor do?
18.07.07 What does a Wills & Probate Solicitor do?
11.07.07 What does a Family Solicitor do?
09.07.07 What does a Conveyancing Solicitor do? A new series of "What does a lawyer do"
04.07.07 Weather and Recruitment
29.06.07 Why didn't a candidate take us up on our offer?
08.06.07 - Open Plan Offices and Solicitors
23.05.07 Interview Question 12 (with answer) - would you describe yourself as ambitious?
21.05.07 De-instructing recruitment agencies
16.05.07 Challenge to companies to donate 10% profits to charity
15.05.07 Flexible working hours and the legal profession
14.05.07 How to become a legal recruitment consultant
11.05.07 Legal Interview Question 11 (with answer) - what contribution do you make to a team?
08.05.07 Legal Interview Question 10 (with answer) - If you did not have to work, what would you do?
02.05.07 Yikes, I'm Newly Qualified, and don't have a job!
24.04.07 Paralegal and graduate jobs in law - where are they and how do I find them?
21.04.07 Regional Variations in Legal Recruitment
17.04.07 Crime Solicitor Recruitment - end of an era?
12.04.07 Sales calls in the off peak season
11.04.07 How to get travel expenses paid for job interviews
05.04.07 Asking technical questions in a legal job interview
04.04.07 Help, I've been made redundant - what do I do?
03.04.07 Legal Interview Question 10 - What is your alternative career, should law not be the avenue for you?
29.03.07 Newly Qualified Solicitor in September 2007 - when should you start looking?
22.03.07 If I am looking for a training contract, how many firms should I be applying to for work?
21.03.07 Budget - no good for alcoholic, 4 by 4 driving, lawyers solicitors the high street!
20.03.07 Discussing flexible hours or matters related to child care in an interview
16.03.07 Attaching a time to a job offer - not always a good idea...
15.03.07 Making a job application after 25 years in the same post
14.03.07 Employing good receptionists in law firms - why should we?
13.03.07 Application Forms - Solicitors detest them!
12.03.07 What benefits should I ask for as well as a salary? The choice of benefits varies quite considerably, but you need to know why firms will like or dislike them.
07.03.07 - Is an interview the best way of assessing a candidate? Some would beg to differ!
22.02.07 New "Recommending a Solicitor Service" from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
21.02.07 The Rules of Legal Job Interviews
20.02.07 Legal Interview Question 9 (with answer) - Do you like to work in a team or on your own?
19.02.07 Legal Interview Question 8 (with answer) - Why do you want to leave your current firm? - There is no answer to this question that will result in a positive response - there has to be a negative unfortunately!
16.02.07 Legal Interview Question 7 (with answer) If you could take one celebrity to a desert island, who would it be and why?
15.02.07 How do I become a paralegal? We regularly get asked this as a careers query, and it is something not easily found on the web or other sources. This is really because there is no answer!
14.02.07 Why do some legal recruitment consultants charge higher rates for higher salaried staff?
12.02.07 Legal Jobs and London - are the streets paved with gold?
09.02.07 Why do Recruitment Consultants charge so much?
08.02.07 Can you be a Millionaire (or very rich) and work as a solicitor?
07.02.07 Legal Interview question 6 (with answer) What salary are you looking for?
06.02.07 Sticking or Twisting on salary for Job Offers - what do you do - negotiation with some firms is like a gunfight at OK Corral!
31.01.07 Legal Interview question 5 (with answer) How do you react if you find that someone you work with does not like you?
30.01.07 'The LPC is a waste of time'. Some would even say a money tree for universities.
28.01.07 Firms in some areas of the UK are crying out for lawyers in certain fields - where exactly are they?
25.01.07 legal interview question 4: "What are your weaknesses?"
23.01.07 legal interview question 3: "In your view, what are the major problems/opportunities facing the legal industry?" - suggested answer follows...
19.01.07 legal interview question: "Tell me about a time when you successfully handled a situation?"
16.01.07 - popular legal interview question: "why do you want to be a solicitor?"
15.01.07 "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".
11.01.07 "I've heard a lot of talk about career paths - what should I be doing about this, and is it a good idea to plan 5 years in advance when working in a law firm?"
10.01.07 "why waste time searching legal job boards when you can register with one agency to look at every option for you?" The opposite argument is of course that you might miss a whole load of posts arising!
09.01.07 "Describe a situation requiring skills of negotiation and verbal reasoning". Why is this question asked, and how come I can only remember the first two words whenever I get asked it?!
08.01.07 "business acumen" - what's it all about? This term comes up quite often in legal job interviews, whether for training contracts or qualified solicitor roles. But what exactly does it mean?
05.01.07 I want a training contract and you're going to help me - after all, you are a recruitment consultant...
04.01.07 All you do is send out a CV and make a telephone call to get paid a fortune - recruitment consultants are like estate agents! I like to think as a recruitment consultant that we work very hard..
03.01.07 - Legal Recruitment Consultants are crooks...you lie, cheat and generally behave abominably - the market is fairly well regulated these days, and most reputable consultants have qualified in recruitment practice...
02.01.07 is the Legal Job market cyclical? We notice whenever there is World Cup, a serious incident in world politics, Christmas Parties, Christmas shopping, New Years resolution season, NQ qualification season...
20.12.06 how to be a nice boss towards your solicitors, fellow partners, legal executives, paralegals, secretaries and office cleaners at Christmas. 1. dont throw things at them. 2. dont get drunk at the Christmas party - this always leads to consequences remembered for decades afterwards!
19.12.06 Christmas, Charity Giving and Legal Jobs. We have just entered the Christmas quiet period, when everyone has better things to do than look at the internet for legal recruitment consultants...
18.12.06 Firms complaining 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 purchase a former local authority house!
13.12.06 City lawyers wanting to do a "John Grisham" and get down on the street. Every year we get a load of lawyers from magic circle firms wanting to "do a John Grisham" as it is known in the trade....
12.12.06 Solicitors returning to work after having children - it is apparently the case that mothers returning to work after starting a family suffer the highest employment penalty of any group. (Equalities Review)...
11.12.06 Bargain Candidates - some 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....
08.12.06 Paralegal Rant - having run workshops last week at a University, I have to take this opportunity to have a rant about entrants to the legal profession. Some law students (on the LPC especially) seem to think..
07.12.06 Law firms, work/life balance and family friendly policies We notice quite often as legal recruitment consultants how poor some firms are at retaining staff....
08.06.07 Open Plan Offices and Solicitors
This article has moved - click here
23.05.07 Interview Question 12 (with answer) - Would you describe yourself as ambitious?
We regularly get emails from candidates saying "we wish you to cease acting for us immediately. Please remove all our details from your database, and confirm that this has been done". There is apparently an agency out there who have a standard precedent for sending out. Paranoia rules, and it almost seems at times that they are so worried the other agency is going to place the candidate they want the candidate to get rid of any potential competition! Not sure how you de-instruct an agent once a CV has been sent out. We have recently experienced a dispute with a firm where a candidate claimed she had done this, despite us never receiving anything from her. I suspect that where a CV has already gone out, it is somewhat immaterial what the candidate thinks, and the agency would be entitled to a fee if the candidate joined them, regardless of whether the candidate has attempted to de-instruct the agency or not. Can anyone enlighten me as to who this mysterious agency is? I think it may be one of the big boys...!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online for our recruitment services
16.05.07 Challenge to companies to donate 10% profits to charity
North Wales Director Issues Challenge to Companies to Donate 10% of their Profits to Charity
Ten-Percent, the online UK recruitment group, have donated 10% of their profits to charity, and MD & qualified solicitor Jonathan Fagan calls on larger companies to follow suit and do the same. "When you look through the financial reports from blue chip companies, often their charitable donations are less than ours, and we have an annual turnover of less than £1/2 million, a fraction of the amount a company like Tescos generates in an hour. If every company did this, we could achieve significant change in the world, and make companies look more socially and ethically responsible to their customers than they do now." The company is an online operation specialising in the recruitment of lawyers, with 5 consultants covering the whole of the UK and beyond. One of the dotcom survivors from 2000, it has been expanding ever since.
Challenge issued by North Wales Director for companies to donate 10% of profits to charity
www.ten-percent.co.uk, the online recruitment group based in North Wales, have donated 10% of their annual profits to charity for the past 7 years, and MD & qualified solicitor Jonathan Fagan calls on larger local and national companies to follow suit.
"When you look through the financial reports from blue chip companies, often their charitable donations are less than ours, and we have donated over £20,000 on an annual turnover of less than £1/2 million, a fraction of the amount a company such as Tesco generates in an hour's trading. If every company did this, we could achieve significant change in the world, and make companies look more socially and ethically responsible to their customers than they do now. Think of the difference we could make just here in North Wales".
The Ten-Percent Foundation was established in 2002, and the company donates 10% of profits to the charitable trust every year with grants being paid out to UK and African charities. To date the company has enjoyed paying for cows and livestock in East Africa through SendaCow.org, digging wells with Wateraid, supporting the schooling of children in Zambia through Cecilys Fund, funded a youth worker in Stoke on Trent and youth work in Merseyside, donated to solicitors support charity LawCare (helping alcoholic and suicidal lawyers), a Denbighshire childrens charity, sponsored a horse for Clwyd Riding for the Disabled, paid for various activities for the Parkinsons Society and the British Stroke Association, and hopes to continue to support activities for years to come.
"We believe that making money and generating profits does not need to be done to the detriment of anything else, and as a company we derive great pleasure from supporting those around us who need assistance. I call on other companies to follow suit, perhaps set up competitions or nomination panels amongst their employees, and get donating time, profits and effort to support community and international projects."
Fagan continued: "My company's motivation stems from the tithe laws of ancient times, where the clergy received 10% of anything in their village to pay for their upkeep, whether wine, women, song or honest hard grafting! I have always been interested in this take on life, and even if Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited continues to expand to generate significant profits, we will continue to donate at 10%." Living and working in Mold, North Wales, Fagan says he has found that the community around him is in need of similar funding to support community and environmental activities, and some of the money from the Foundation has been earmarked for this.
The company is an online operation specialising in the recruitment of lawyers, with 5 consultants covering the whole of the UK and beyond working over the internet out of offices in North Wales. One of the dotcom survivors from 2000, it has been expanding ever since. The company has a reputation online for absolute honesty to all users, and actually tells it like it is to just about everyone, from customers to candidates.
15.05.07 Flexible working hours and the legal profession
14.05.07 How to become a legal recruitment consultant
11.05.07 Legal Interview Question 11 (with answer) - what contribution do you make to a team?
08.05.07 Legal Interview Question 10 (with answer) - If you did not have to work, what would you do?
02.05.07 Yikes, I'm Newly Qualified, and don't have a job!
24.04.07 Paralegal and graduate jobs in law - where are they and how do I find them?
It is the time of year again when 1000's of law students start intensive revision for their examinations, and at the same time sit back and wonder where they are going to look for a job once qualified. It is also the time of year again when we get inundated with telephone calls from them asking "have you got any training contracts" or "where shall I look for a paralegal post", or just "um er have you got any jobs?"
There are now even more people looking for legal work, and even less jobs, partly as a result of the demise of criminal law and the opportunities there being tightly monitored by firms at present, and also because law is becoming more accessible at universities, and there appear to be more and more people from previous years still on the lookout.
First thing to do is to brush up your CV (quick ad here for our CV Services), secondly to sit back and realise that the CV is probably more important than most other pieces of paper you own, and thirdly to write a plan of action - what do you want to do - are you aiming for summer work first, a training contract second, or have you got plenty of experience already and just seeking a training contract? Which fields of law interest you, and do you know what salaries different areas of law attract? Finally dont bother calling agencies to start with (particularly us) as usually unable to assist unless you have specific prior experience in an area of law.
If you get really stuck you could try our legal careers coaching service - we have slots available in Oxford in May if you are interested.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
21.04.07 Regional Variations in Legal Recruitment
We 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 element of Dick Whittington when people move south - the streets of Croydon or Guildford are paved with gold aren't they? After all, the average house costs a million, and therefore someone has to be earning good money.
When people move north they think about flat caps, ferrets, terraced houses for £18,000 and serious deprivation. Got to be serious money to be made there - someone has to be dealing with the companies and the people working in all that industry?
We have advised firms on numerous occasions to give relocation packages when offering candidates coming a long way to find a new post. It is a good tax efficient way of getting someone an additional fee to start work, and also to ease the wage bill over time. Candidates like it, and it doesnt cost the earth to add £1-2k onto any offer for this.
It is also important to emphasise the billing within a firm, so that a candidate is aware that although there is potential to make good money, salary levels in the area are a direct result of the average fee earner generating X in income. A Sheffield firm will pay less than a Reading firm on the whole, basically due to variations in the cost of living etc.., but it will not be substantially less in any field other than corporate..
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
17.04.07 Crime Solicitor Recruitment - end of an era?
One of our important strands of work when we first set up was crime, as a result of our specialist knowledge of the market, and our ability to speak the same language. However, what has happened in the last few months is quite astonishing from a recruiter's perspective. We have had duty solicitors call us in tears after firms have called them into advise that there is no future at the firm, others call up to say that their firms are not sure of their future, and wondering where their next mortgage payment is going to come from, duty solicitors informed that their salaries and package levels are going to be reduced as soon as the new measures come in or with immediate effect, firms making widespread redundancies of anyone earning over a certain level, and generally a state of despondency has arisen.
I have spoken to solicitors who have clearly been under the influence when calling and sounding slightly suicidal, and I have also spoken to a load of people calling our free careers advice lines wanting to enter the profession to practice in crime, and my advice has had to be that they cannot have chosen a worse time to do this. Others have called to see if there is any way out of crime and into other fields, and of course everyone else is looking at the same options - the CPS, the various government agencies undertaking prosecution work, local authorities etc..
It is amazing how fast this has come about - from one month of fairly buoyant crime recruitment, some firms expanding and others taking on more staff into nothing more than a quagmire of chaos in some areas. Of course all of the above is anecdotal, but with more and more crime solicitors registering every day, including some who detail the redundancies that are taking place at their firms at present, it is clearly not a very healthy time to be in this strand of the profession!
One glimmer of light has been the sudden emphasis on higher rights in job applications, as firms are currently starting to see that getting into the higher courts is one way they can increase their turnover, and I suspect barristers need to start looking over their shoulders...
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
12.04.07 Sales calls in the off peak season
I can usually tell when recruitment is going through a quiet period - we get sales calls from all and sundry. I have been in the trade for 7 years now, and prior to this practised as a solicitor, and you can almost guarantee that whenever the office goes quiet, someone phones up to sell something. In all that time I have never purchased any of their services, and even ones that sound interesting have never sent through their details in writing when requested. There was one occasion in practice when I was a solicitor, and I pretended to have a heart attack halfway through the conversation and then hung up. The salesman was so cross he called the senior partner and complained that I had shown a lack of professionalism on the telephone!
I usually allow sales calls about 10 seconds of my time, and then hang up. If you take the calls you are wasting billable hours, and each call takes you away from whatever you were concentrating on, and as a result this affects your work. I am not sure what the statistics are for cold calling, but they can't be that impressive. The major annoyance for me is the amount of times they use your name per sentence - nice technique for remembering your name, but extremely annoying to listen to.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
11.04.07 How to get travel expenses paid for job interviews
05.04.07 Asking technical questions in a legal job interview
04.04.07 Help, I've been made redundant - what do I do?
03.04.07 Legal Interview Question 10 - What is your alternative career, should law not be the avenue for you?
This is a loaded question really - on the one hand you can say - well, I don't expect to be anything but a solicitor, and I always get to be what I set out to be, and on the other hand you may feel this smacks of arrogance, and say that you would like to be an accountant, as you are pretty good with numbers. Hard to give a definite response to the question - you could try the humour route, and say you would like to play for Aston Villa or be a rock star, but interviews with lawyers tend to be pretty humourless experiences, and some partners have a very peculiar sense of humour! My best advice is to aim for something fairly vague - to try and avoid giving too much indication that you have thought much about it (ie you think you may fail to get work as a solicitor) and go for either something business related (eg set up a small business) or lighthearted - eg a legal secretary!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
29.03.07 Newly Qualified Solicitor - when should you start looking?
22.03.07 If I am looking for a training contract, how many firms should I be applying to for work?
21.03.07 Budget - no good for alcoholic, 4 by 4 driving, lawyers on the high street!
Budget day today, and we have just noticed what effect this will have on lawyers at smaller to medium firms. Firstly, getting to work will mean extra money paid out, especially if you drive a 4 by 4 (up to £300 extra I think!), and you will probably get angry client farmers telling you how unfair it is for them as well! Once you are there, you will be horrified to discover that if you are a limited company your tax will have gone up from 19% to 22% over the next few years, but that if you get up to 1.5 million in profit you will find your tax going down (makes great sense!). At lunchtime when you pop out to down your first bottle of wine, you will find the cost has gone up by 5-6p, and when you smoke your pack of Bensons this has also gone up. At least if you send your staff on a research and development project you can claim 175% of the cost of doing so. I would aim to build a carbon neutral house as quickly as possible, and whack a wind turbine on top of it. Ditch the 4 by 4 and get an electric car, and give up the booze (on a serious point here LawCare is a good place to look for advice - www.lawcare.org)
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
20.03.07 Discussing flexible hours or matters related to child care in an interview
16.03.07 Attaching a time limit to a job offer - not always a good idea...
15.03.07 Making a job application after 25 years in the same post
14.03.07 Employing good receptionists in law firms - why should we?
13.03.07 Application Forms - Solicitors detest them!
12.03.07 What benefits should I ask for as well as a salary? The choice of benefits varies quite considerably, but you need to know why firms will like or dislike them.
07.03.07 - Is an interview the best way of assessing a candidate?
22.02.07 New "Recommending a Solicitor Service" from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
We have set up a new service available across the UK to anyone who wants the services of a solicitor. Basically, a member of the general public can email us their query, together with their location, and we will recommend a firm of solicitors in the area. Time to put our expertise into practice in a different way! We know firms with good reputations, and those who need to improve, so perhaps are in a somewhat unique position to be able to recommend some as opposed to others, or to recommend our candidates or clients if any work comes our way. Visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/findasolicitor.html for details.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
21.02.07 The Rules of Legal Job Interviews
20.02.07 Legal Interview Question 9 (with answer) - Do you prefer to work in a team or on your own?
Difficult question again - devil and the deep blue sea! You could come down with the 'I am an innovator, and prefer to develop my ideas as an individual, as well as take responsibility for my caseload'; but you will then get a question thrown back about your inability to thrive in a team environment. On the flip side of the coin if you go for the team approach, you can then get questioned about your inability to come up with your own ideas, and need to hide behind others! Probably the best approach would be to say that you have no preference - you enjoy working on your own and taking responsibility for your actions, but that you also enjoy being part of a team and contributing to that with your ideas and skills.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
19.02.07 Legal Interview Question 8 (with answer) - Why do you want to leave your current firm? - There is no answer to this question that will result in a positive response - there has to be a negative unfortunately!
The aim with all job interviews is to ensure that everything that is said is positive. If you say something negative, this always gives the interviewer something to come back on. Unfortunately this question does not leave much scope for avoiding this - a response like "I have come as far as I feel the firm can take me" is about as wishy washy an answer you can give and avoid the negative effects of a lot of other responses. Saying something like "because my senior partner is the most irritating man I have ever met" will not go down well, nor will "I want to leave to avoid the harrassment of the secretaries". Very hard to avoid anything really, but think about it from the firm you are joining - the partners interviewing will immediately look into the future and imagine you going to another firm and complaining about them...!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
16.02.07 Legal Interview Question 7 (with answer) If you could take one celebrity to a desert island, who would it be and why?
This question is the light-hearted one that is occasionally thrown into interviews by larger firms to see what you say. It used to be said that the majority of candidates wanted to take Margaret Thatcher or Nelson Mandela with them, and the explanations used to send the partners to sleep.
Apart from suggesting you want to take Paul Daniels with you so that you could say "Now Thats Magic" and make him disappear without anyone knowing, I would advise giving a humorous answer to this question. Not over the top - eg "Kylie Minogue - so I could get to know her more intimately", but something fairly light-hearted. Whatever you do, don't start to waffle on about human rights lawyers - you really wouldnt want to take Michael Mansfield with you would you? Really?
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
15.02.07 How do I become a paralegal? We regularly get asked this as a careers query, and it is something not easily found on the web or other sources. This is really because there is no answer!
There is, at present, no legal definition of the term "Paralegal" - as far as I know! Basically, anyone can call themselves a paralegal, and in fact the term encompasses such a wide range of fee earners within a firm it is next to impossible to give an answer to this.
The basic answer is that anyone who is a fee earner in a solicitors firm, and is not a qualified legal executive, solicitor or licensed conveyancer, is a paralegal. A fee earner is someone who generates income for a solicitors firm - ie they work on a case and bill for the time they spend. Anyone can do this - whether a secretary, a law student, a passer by who wanders into the office at random. Anyone - really!
So when we get asked "how do I become a paralegal", our response should really be "just call yourself one". However things are changing, and I am aware that there is now a national association of paralegals, who are pushing for the title to be reserved for those who have passed a specific qualification.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
14.02.07 Why do some legal recruitment consultants charge higher rates for higher salaried staff?
The quick answer would be "more money for increased effort", and the long answer would be as follows: when we set up in business as legal recruitment consultants we decided to charge flat fees for all our fee earner candidates. As we have been working, we have noticed that whenever we deal with a higher level fee earner - eg at partner level or senior associate, the work that we have to put in is significantly higher than for junior and mid level solicitors and fee earners. We also find that instead of us traditionally having a fairly high conversion rate from interview to offer to starting posts, at the more senior end this tends to be lower. As a result, a recruitment consultant can source a senior member of staff (which invariably costs more in advertising), spend a considerable amount of time dealing with firms, CVs, interviewing the candidate and arranging interviews, and get nothing for it at the end of the day.
We tend to take that on the chin, but firms with higher overheads than us will probably find this somewhat more awkward, and hence fees of 30% are not uncommon in the legal recruitment industry for a solicitor earning £35k or more. This can be even higher if the candidate has been headhunted.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
12.02.07 Legal Jobs and London - are the streets paved with gold?
We get a lot of solicitors registering with us for work in London, who come from provincial market towns or smaller sized cities, and one of the things they always expect to find is that the streets are paved with gold, and their salary is going to double. This can be particularly so in the high street firms, where people expect to find NQ residential conveyancing posts paying £40,000, or crime positions without police station accreditation at £30,000 pa. It is often quite shattering when they discover that there are a lot of solicitors and legal executives working for a lot less than that!
I have been in legal recruitment in London for over 7 years, and it has to be said that on the whole salaries are not far off the rest of the UK. The only difference tends to be at partnership level or senior associate. NQ's can pick up good money, but this is usually because they are working at a good firm with quality work, and the caseload pays accordingly. Certain areas of London pay better than others - eg; West London and Central London seem to offer reasonable salaries, whereas North and East London firms often tend to be lower unless they are struggling to recruit.
Central London firms pay extremely well if they are performing well themselves. South East London, South West London and Middlesex are generally a rule unto themselves - there are a lot of solicitors residing in these areas, but not that many posts in the South London areas. Middlesex really depends, but when it comes to salaries they can be some of the lowest in the UK.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
09.02.07 Why do Recruitment Consultants charge so much?
We get asked this time and again by some firms - why should we pay you £x,000 to find a candidate, when all you do is send us a CV through on spec. and make a couple of telephone calls?
I think a lot of people think this, and I have to confess being one myself initially when I set up this company. I couldn't work out why anyone would want to pay a consultant to do what appears a very easy job! However, most people do not know what goes on behind the scenes....
A few facts..
I am sat at my computer at 10.30pm at night typing this, as we are so busy at the moment, I cannot find the time to write during the day.
Our advertising budget per placement is around £1,000. That is the figure we will spend on advertising to secure one candidate for whom we identify a firm, send a CV, arrange an interview, and deal with offer negotiations. At the same time, around 30 candidates will have registered, we will have arranged 6-7 interviews, and this will be the end result.
We spend over £15,000 on online advertising every year. We also spend sums on Gazette advertising as well, although we are fortunate in that we get a lot of our custom from recommendations via clients/candidates.
The cost for a firm to replace a solicitor is calculated as being around £4,000 in advertising costs, time and admin dealing with the recruitment. There is of course no guarantee that an advert will gain any applicants.
When I started out in this trade, it took me 7 months to place a candidate and actually get paid. This is not unusual. A lot of people start up recruitment consultancies, but not many continue after the first few months of not generating any income - I see them quite often in the Law Society Gazette - one big ad, no work, lots of money owed to the Gazette! It is very hard work, and I have to confess to wanting to give in myself in those months of no work, money or prospects of income.
So we don't just send through a CV. We spend considerable time, money and effort attracting candidates and clients, handling queries from both, giving free careers advice, and dealing with the admin that firms do not need to do as a result. Furthermore we undercut almost everyone else in the marketplace because of our internet operation, and are usually at least 25% cheaper as a result.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
08.02.07 Can you be a Millionaire (or very rich) and work as a solicitor?
07.02.07 Legal Interview question 6 (with answer) What salary are you looking for?
Today we heard of a new approach to this question. A candidate went for an interview, and after the meeting I received a phone call from the private client partner to say that she had refused to discuss a package with them at the interview. The firm were most bemused by this, although they recognised that some people are not comfortable talking about income during an interview for a legal job.
I think it is a difficult question to answer. The usual response I give to anyone who asks for advice on this is to either give a range, or give your current salary, or ask them to tell you what they think the going rate is. In any event, it is important to remember that unless you are working for a firm that have set structures according to level of seniority in the firm, this is entirely negotiable within reason - it has to be acceptable to both sides. Too low and someone resents the offer if they join, too high, and the employer resents employing the solicitor!
Be prepared to negotiate, and don't be afraid to contact the recruitment consultant dealing - afterall that is what we are here for.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
31.01.07 Legal Interview question 5 (with answer) How do you react if you find that someone you work with does not like you?
This question is positively evil! There is very little you can say that will result in a positive outcome. If you say "well I always try to work through our differences and create a comfortable working environment", you have opened yourself to cross-examination to ask why someone would not like you, and if you say you never have, your answer is very short and doesnt give you the chance to explain things further. In reality, there will be very few fee earners who have not worked in a solicitors firm or a legal job, and discovered that someone else there does not like them. It is a fact of life that not everyone can like you, and vice versa! I used to work in an office where almost everyone was at war, from the senior partner down to the receptionist, and the whole firm would degenerate into a brawl if things got out of hand!
My advice on this one is to go with the "I have never worked with anyone who did not like me, I always get on well with everyone from all walks of life." Although this makes you sound like Mother Theresa, it prevents any interviewer from cross examining you on negative points, which of course is something you very much want to avoid... You could always try saying "I send some heavies round to give them a beating" or "I call crimestoppers and grass them up for running a smuggling ring".
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
30.01.07 'The LPC is a waste of time'. Some would even say a money tree for universities.
I suspect this may be a fairly contentious view, so playing devils advocate, what exactly does the LPC do? Speaking from personal experience, I did my LPC by distance learning whilst studying for a training contract via the part time route. I have to say that being in practice I had a fairly good view of law in a practical setting, which a good number of my contemporaries also had. The LPC to us was simply a burning hoop to jump through in order to qualify. It almost seemed at times that the University were trying to get us through to qualify - allowing books into the examination, giving out specimen questions that were remarkably similar to the actual examination.
There is one university that combines the two courses (LLB and LPC) and this seems a good idea. However, the stark reality of the current solicitor profession is that there are two tiers to it - those solicitors in city legal jobs and commercial practices earning £50,000 to £60,000 at newly qualified level, and those at high street level lucky to be hitting £28,000-£30,000. If you are earning c£15k as a trainee solicitor for 2 years, followed by a few years on the above salary, paying off a £10,000 loan having completed the LPC is a considerable amount of money, and one that law graduates need to consider carefully before entering the profession. It is nice to be able to call yourself a solicitor, and to gain admission to the roll, but at the end of the day, I would rather find a sales post and earn more money for less hours than to end up thousands in debt, and with very few career prospects.
On the other side of the coin, the LPC weeds out those few who really are not very well suited to being a solicitor, and gives a balanced outlook of the role of a solicitor. I have to confess that I did use my LPC manuals when a trainee to get advice from, and so it probably has some use, apart from stinging every aspiring lawyer for thousands!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
28.01.07 Firms in some areas of the UK are crying out for lawyers in certain fields - where exactly are they?
When it comes to relocating in the UK, it sometimes helps to have an idea as to where there are solicitors firms in need of lawyers for particular fields of law. Some legal job vacancies tend to be fairly easy to predict, whereas others are a bit more erratic.
Starting in the South West, there is almost always a shortage of general practice solicitors able to deal with conveyancing and something else. Family solicitors are usually in short supply down there, particularly the further west you go. On the south coast, it again tends to be commercial property solicitors that firms salivate at the sight of, as well as residential property and wills & probate. The latter tends to be quite popular in Sussex, around Eastbourne and further inland.
In the Wiltshire and Swindon areas, just about every field of law suffers from a shortage, and usually there is a firm somewhere looking at a particular field at one time.
London is just a hot bed of recruitment for everyone bar immigration solicitors, family solicitors and litigation solicitors. These seem to have been problematic fields since time immemorial, particularly since I have been in recruitment, which is now 7 years. Newly qualifieds seem to struggle as well, although if you move out of central london there are usually posts somewhere.
Middlesex seems to have a perpetual shortage of experienced property lawyers, and Essex just seems to struggle with everything bar family solicitors. Surrey always has firms looking at the more corporate side, and Kent firms usually pay fairly poorly in comparison with other areas, so recruitment seems to stay busy.
East Anglia - everything bar family and litigation is always going, and the same for the area around Milton Keynes and Bedford. The Midlands is so erratic I wouldnt like to comment, and the same applies for the East Midlands, although crime is always good around Nottingham. Yorkshire is always busy in non-contentious work and commercial fields, particularly Hull and Sheffield.
Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire usually fairly quiet, as lots of candidates in the areas. Cumbria is good for everything high street wise, particularly solicitors who multi-task. North and South Wales are difficult to predict, and the same for the North East, although we have noticed over the years that firms in Teesside and Tyneside do not like family solicitors much!
If thinking of relocating, get in touch with us for a chat, or alternatively have a read through our relocation reports. Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
25.01.07 legal interview question 4 "What are your weaknesses?"
This is a question that bamboozles a lot of lawyers, whether interviewing at trainee or senior partner stage. What on earth do you say? Two responses below:
'I can be a bit lazy at times, and I have been known to turn up to work late occasionally when I have overslept'. This would probably followed by 'why should we employ you then - what benefits would we get out of you joining our firm?'
'My team say that sometimes I work a bit too hard, and perhaps I need to take more time away from my work.' Whilst you have given a negative question a negative response, this has not opened up the floodgates to allow a partner in to cross examine you on how irresponsible/lazy/useless you are going to be when you join their firm.
It is the old interview saying again that during this time you love everybody, and everybody loves you. Life is positive, and there are no negatives! Repeat this mantra again and again before legal job interviews, and you will shine!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
23.01.07 legal interview question 3: "In your view, what are the major problems/opportunities facing the legal industry?"
Tough question for anyone who does not read the Law Society Gazette and The Lawyer regularly! This does not cost a lot of money to do, more time. The Law Society Gazette can be read online by clicking here and the The Lawyer can be read by visiting www.thelawyer.com. If you read these and keep abreast of the issues arising both in terms of opportunities and also difficulties, you should be nicely prepared for this question.
Make sure you know what current issues there are affecting law firms. Your job as a solicitor or trainee solicitor may well depend on it. For example, any lawyer not knowing about the Carter reforms in 2007 will be at a serious disadvantage if working in a high street setting dealing with LSC funded work. Try to concentrate on opportunities as well rather than problems. For example, both journals run articles on overseas and regional markets, outlining where there are opportunities to make money for firms. Try to take these in. You can also see where posts are currently advertised in the backs, as these will give you an idea as to where the legal market is buoyant as well as the legal job market.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
19.01.07 popular legal interview question: "Tell me about a time when you successfully handled a situation?"
This is a question that regularly throws candidates attending legal job interviews - yikes, what on earth do I say to that?! - usually our advice is to think of something before you go for the job interview for this question, and make sure it has no negative overtones. I once attended a Legal 500 firm in Leeds for an interview (they have now merged into something larger if that gives the game away!), and got asked two questions similar to this. I managed to incorporate two deaths from accidents into the answers, which I am not sure went down too well! I think it is a good idea to think of something related to time spent in a law firm if possible, and describe a situation that is going to keep the interviewers attention. I have heard people use the "when I taught TEFL in Japan I needed to organise the classroom and teach to the right age etc..." or "when I went BUNACamping in the USA I had to organise my bunkhouse". Thrilling - I am usually not listening by about the third word! If you had a situation such as the time you were working for a practice, and a client asked what you thought of a barrister as he hated him and wanted to sack him and the firm unless you sorted it out there and then, I would listen to every word you said. This is legally related, interesting, and catches every lawyers' ears!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
16.01.07 - popular legal interview question: "why do you want to be a solicitor at this firm?"
Well, why do you? Usually I hear answers like - "since I have been at primary school I have always felt that the diversity and scope for career development suited my own skills set and ambitions..." etc.. etc.. I don't think I have ever listened to a word that anyone has said on the subject apart from one candidate who asked "well why did you want to be a solicitor - I suspect I want to be for the same reasons - good career, social status and reasonable standard of living". Fair enough! There is no right or wrong answer to this question. If you are asked it at the start of the interview, it is usually because the senior partner has not looked at your CV and wants you to waffle whilst he finds it, or it is to loosen you up for more interesting questions. Try not to waffle, keep your answer short and sweet, and try to say something you think the person interviewing you may be interested to hear. Diversity, career development, transferable skills etc.. are for HR managers and professionals, and best avoided with solicitors firms. Legal job interviews can be quite different in focus - solicitors want someone they get on with, who has a sense of humour, and who realises the key to private practice is to make money; not a monotonous robot able to waffle in the local authority language (or the "I've spoken to my careers adviser at law school") of a select few.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
15.01.07 "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"
11.01.07 "I've heard a lot of talk about career paths - what should I be doing about this, and is it a good idea to plan 5 years in advance when working in a law firm?"
10.01.07 "why waste time searching legal job boards when you can register with one agency to look at every option for you?" The opposite argument is of course that you might miss a whole load of posts arising!
We used to subscribe to a legal job board, who of course must remain nameless, but we found that almost totally all the candidates who registered with us, registered with every other agent out there as well, and firms were getting CVs from all angles pitching up at them. We simply found that spending time sifting through CVs from unsuitable candidates and responding, as well as posting vacancies constantly on the sites was taking too much of our time, so we gave up.
In the same way, we argue that you do not actually need to search the boards if you find a good legal recruitment consultant to act for you. We would like to think of ourselves in this category, and in fact would also argue that you can save significant time and effort just registering with one agency to start the ball rolling and give them an open shot at finding you work, assuming you are a marketable candidate of course!
So sit back, register today, play some our online games, and see what your recruitment consultant can do for you with little effort on your part! Of course, some of the contents of this article are slightly biased... Jonathan Fagan, Legal Recruitment Consultant for Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - the no.1 online legal recruitment agency - register today and put your feet up!
09.01.07 "Describe a situation requiring skills of negotiation and verbal reasoning". Why is this question asked, and how come I can only remember the first two words whenever I get asked it?!
This question is asked to basically put you on the spot and see if you can remember sentences that last for longer than 3 words. I have asked this question so many times, and by the end of the answer (if indeed one is forthcoming) I have started to do the shopping for that evening or wondered why anyone would want to be a lawyer when they have to think up ridiculous answers to ridiculous questions! I have also answered it lots of times when looking many years ago for a training contract or paralegal work.
There is no right and wrong answer to it, or no interview guru advice I can give. The advice has to be to jump through the hoop and give your somewhat boring and tedious answer without making the listener go to sleep too much.
Usually we recommend thinking of a situation involving a commercial or business environment rather than "When I was in the scouts we had to redesign a woffle for our scarves and I had to tell Obi Ben Knobi to stop interrupting me". Think of something you have done during your work experience (you have got some of this haven't you - see our guide for getting some or a training contract here) and use this as the basis for the answer. Think of a couple of examples before attending the interview. Always remember to remain positive with your answer and avoid office politics answers. Remember to view our top 100 interview questions for further advice and practice (go to our careers centre and follow the links).
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
08.01.07 "business acumen" - what's it all about?
05.01.07 I want a training contract and you're going to help me - after all, you are a recruitment consultant...
This is often an approach taken by law students or graduates hunting around for work experience or training contracts who seem to think that if they utilise their cross examination skills well, a lowly recruitment consultant will eventually cave in and admit that they can actually identify a training contract for them and book an interview there and then. The call usually goes:
"Hi - I'm a graduate not quite qualified with an LLB - I want a training contract."
"Right - and what do you think we can do to help".
"Well, you are recruitment consultants arent you?"
"Yes, but we specialise in solicitors."
"Well, I am almost a solicitor - I have an LLB - why can't you get me a training contract?"
"Because we only assist qualified solicitors - have you visited our careers page for our free guide on obtaining a training contract?"
"No - I'm not looking for careers advice - I am looking for work - I am doing the LPC next year..?"
This tends to carry on for a while before they get exasperated and hang up! As a rule of thumb, we and any other consultants cannot find training contracts. Some years ago I think I assisted one person get a contract, but that was in particularly exceptional circumstances with someone who had been in the industry for many years so was recruited on the basis of that rather than their qualifications.
Finding a training contract or paralegal post is up to you as an individual - get your CV honed up, get experience and get applying - see our guide for assistance...
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
04.01.07 All you do is send out a CV and make a telephone call to get paid a fortune - recruitment consultants are like estate agents!
I like to think that as a legal recruitment consultant I work very hard for our clients and candidates. What a lot of people do not understand is the amount of work we have to put in to attract solicitors, lawyers and legal executives to our sites and services. The average cost of recruiting a solicitor without an agency is about £3,600 including advertising and time spent interviewing and selecting. That is assuming you can find a solicitor - a good number of legal jobs are left vacant for a considerable amount of time - it can be up to a couple of years or more.
I thought it might be worth setting out what we do. Firstly our site is optimised each month to push us up the search engine ratings - we are usually in the top 5 on Google, MSN and Yahoo, although MSN has recently changed its search patterns, and most of the larger agencies have dropped rather dramatically. Increased competition from the legal job boards has also pushed the agencies down a little bit.
Secondly, we advertise on all the major search engines, spending £1000's each year on ensuring our ad is on most search pages for the relevant keywords. This covers us for most of the main searches that you would do to find us. We also advertise occasionally in the Law Society Gazette.
Thirdly, we write articles, provide services and run the consultancy side of the business to attract passing trade and keep our current candidates interested in us.
We also have to maintain a good knowledge of the legal market, and attend trade fairs when necessary to speak directly to clients and candidates (Law 2006 was one such event we attended). We also sponsor various events and awards from time to time.
Some of our recruitment is very straightforward - we send out a CV to a firm advertising with us, they interview and offer a post with very little involvement from us. The key here is that we have had to attract the firm and the candidate to us, and this is where the cost issues come in - we have introduced two parties together that may otherwise have never met. Some of our recruitment is extremely complicated, and involves a considerable amount of work liasing with the firm and candidate (usually when we have a good candidate for whom we secure a number of interviews for), and subsequently spend a lot of time advising the firms and candidate on salary levels, terms and conditions for the contract, start dates, etc... There is a statistic in the recruitment world that says that only a certain number of interviews will progress to offer stage, although this does tend to be high in law. As a result, because we are in a commission based industry, we can spend considerable amounts of time dealing with a certain candidate, only to find that when we get to offer stage, they decide not to proceed, and we have to write the time off - not wasted, but not generating any income for the company.
On the whole I think a lot of consultants work long hours to secure offers and posts for their candidates, and it is usually not just a case of whacking out a CV and making a telephone call.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
03.01.07 - are Legal Recruitment Consultants crooks?
"After all you lie, cheat and generally behave abominably without making much effort to help anyone find a job!"
I think some firms are convinced that consultants are there simply to cream off money that would otherwise have gone into the partners pockets. I have heard it said that we effectively swindle firms into handing over huge swathes of cash for no work or actual knowledge about the candidate or the firm we are dealing with.
Well, most consultants these days are trained and qualified. Whilst I have to accept that this does not mean that the market has avoided its fair share of cowboy operators, it does mean that a good number of consultants have obtained MREC or FREC status from the REC - Recruitment & Employment Confederation (www.rec.uk.com ) and have agreed to adhere to policies of best practice and ethical standards. I have not seen or heard of many consultants in recent years acting in ways that you would think them to be lacking in morals or ethics! I myself have sat the Certificate of Recruitment Practice exam, and found it interesting to say the least as to what the industry considers best practice. Very useful indeed, and we picked up pointers that have assisted us assist candidates and clients alike.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
02.01.07 is the Legal Job market cyclical?
20.12.06 how to be a nice boss towards your solicitors, fellow partners, legal executives, paralegals, secretaries and office cleaners at Christmas
19.12.06 Christmas, Charity Giving and Legal Jobs.
We have just entered the Christmas quiet period, when everyone has better things to do than look at the internet for legal recruitment consultants and legal jobs, so everything quietens down until the New Year when the New Years Resolutions have kicked in and firms start to find their staff are on their way off to new pastures! As a result, if you are looking for legal jobs now, chances are you will find that not a lot happens until the New Year. If you have been thinking about a move, but not sure when to make it, a good time is the New Year - partners have had a chance to think about future progression, and where to expand or replace, and everyone tends to be in a relatively generous mood, which leads me onto my next point for this article - why do we give the Ten-Percent Foundation 10% of our profit to charity?
Well, when we set up the company, we wanted to link into the charitable giving angle as a means for promoting the company to lawyers and law firms. We thought it would be quite a good selling point at the time, and that a lot of lawyers would use the service specifically because of this. However, when we found out from market research that it was actually the quality of our service that solicitors liked, and not the charitable donation, it was very tempting to ditch the whole thing and keep the money ourselves! Unfortunately the managing director (me) has an inbred sense of needing to look after others and support those with a lot less than ourselves, and we have retained the commitment, and set up a charitable trust to receive the money. It is now in our articles of association so we have an obligation every year to donate a percentage of our profits to charity.
We enjoy giving money to some charitable causes, and hate giving it to others! I have found that there are two types of charities out there - those that want you to give money to them and make the experience easy and a pleasure, and those that actually make it hard and difficult. We are quite awkward customers I must confess, as I like to give money to specific projects, so traditionally have supported small charities with specific aims like Sendacow or the Clwyd Riding for the Disabled etc.. and it has been quite gratifying receiving our first Christmas card from a horse! Feel free to get in touch and suggest projects - we are always happy to look at them.
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
18.12.06 Firms complaining 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 purchase a former local authority house!
13.12.06 City lawyers wanting to do a "John Grisham" and get down on the street.
Every year we get a load of lawyers from magic circle firms wanting to "do a John Grisham" as it is known in the trade, and get down with the boys on the street. The phone call usually goes like this:
"hello - this is a general query really and I am not sure if you can help me." "I work for Linklaters/Clifford Chance/Allen & Overy/some US firm/etc.. and I want to change my career direction - I feel it is important to do something I will enjoy, and I have decided to do crime work. Can you tell me about jobs X Y and Z?"
At this stage many years ago I used to get quite excited. Afterall, this is a high calibre candidate looking for work, and someone with considerable talent. However, as I have become more hardened to the job, I now ask two questions.
1. Have you heard of the Legal Services Commission and Carter?
2. What do you consider a reasonable salary to live off?
Sometimes they have heard of the first issue, and say yes they realise it is going to be hard to get in, and that Carter is going to cause a bit of a rumpus. However almost every one of them will give a salary level that is way beyond the dreams of most crime solicitors - I think the average they expect to get whilst learning the ropes is around the £45k mark, rising to £60-70k plus out of hours once they are fully up to speed, say in about 3 months...
It is at this point that I revel in giving a harsh reality check and explain that the only lawyers who get this kind of money as a basic in crime are the partners (some of them anyway), and then ask if they have any crime experience. This is usually indicated as being negligble, but that they have done advocacy and enjoyed it. As a former crime solicitor myself, experienced in being yelled at and abused by district judges, magistrates, police officers, prison officers, clients, ushers, a boss and anyone else who wanted to have a pop, I usually suggest they go and sit for the morning at the local magistrates court and experience the humdrum ordinary world of the crime solicitor and the tediousness of applying to adjourn a case or deal with a pre-trial review.
Most do not want to listen, and have got it into their heads that their career move is to find something more exciting than corporate finance. What they do not think about is the house they are going to live in when they can only get a £100k mortgage, and what it is going to be like sat at a police station at 3am followed by a full day trial the following day.
Some do make the switch, and then the next telephone call will be "Hello, I am looking to get into corporate finance - I'm a crime solicitor but I'm not sure it is for me - can you help me find a job?"
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
12.12.06 Solicitors returning to work after having children
11.12.06 Bargain Candidates
08.12.06 Paralegal Rant
Having run CV and careers workshops last week at a UK University, I have to take this opportunity to have a rant about entrants to the legal profession. Some law students (on the LPC especially) seem to think that legal work is going to come naturally to them, and they need to make no effort at all to find work.
I ran workshops to review CVs for students and then give guidance on how to improve the CV's and explain where the CV fitted into the scheme of things. Having reviewed all the CVs, I could easily see who was going to get a training contract and proceed, and who was going to struggle.
Starting the review, I looked through the CV as if I was a recruiter with 200 on the desk. I spent about 10 seconds going through. Usually this entailed a look at the name, the degree classification, and the work experience and background of the applicant.
What surprised the group I think was the fact that work experience was so important. There were candidates there with 2.2 degrees and 3rds who I looked twice at. What was fascinating was that the majority of candidates with lower academic qualifications had no legal experience. Some of the candidates with lower degrees had really gone about rectifying this aspect of their CV by obtaining lots of legal experience, and indeed a good number stood out above those with 2.1s and 1st class degrees.
Some of the students were quite surprised at the notion of work experience being important, and seemed to think the solution to progressing in their legal careers was simply to finish the LPC and then await an employer contacting them.
It certainly goes to show that those who want to make it in law will do so, whether by walking into a training contract post, or spending 4 years slowly inching towards it through other work experience. If I was spending over £10,000 on the LPC year, I would certainly make sure I knew what the end result was, ie what a solicitor did in practice, as afterall, it is not that interesting really!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and register with us! www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
07.12.06 - Work Life Balance
The content of the careers centre is intended as guidance only. It has been written by Jonathan Fagan LLM MREC Cert RP, the managing director of Ten-Percent and its' family of legal recruitment websites. Jonathan Fagan is a non-practising solicitor, author of the Complete Guide to Writing a Legal CV and the Guide to Interviews for Lawyers. He has recruited for law firms across the UK and overseas in all shapes and sizes. If you have any questions that we have not covered above, please contact us by calling 0845 644 3923, or emailing us at careercentre@tenpercent.co.uk
