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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
Open plan offices are the bane of our lives as recruiters. Some firms insist on them, as it is good for the boss - he sits in a nice large office at the end of the hall containing the workers, and has a significant amount of credibility. The workmen all huddle around desks set out at seemingly random intervals across the floor, with just about sufficient space to put a photo up and speak to someone on the phone without another person hearing 10 metres away.
Solicitors on the whole, I have found, absolutely detest them. It gets back to the whole picture of becoming a solicitor - you get status, spend 8 years of your life studying away to earn what a good secretary does in other firms, and then find you are expected to base yourself on the shop floor with other similarly suffering lawyers who get more and more depressed and cynical as they go on.
Alternatively, some people love them! They get to interact with others, ask questions of more senior staff without needing to knock on their doors, and deal much more quickly with problems.
I do think at times though firms seem to rush into designing these without consulting with the very people who will be working in them. Practice managers are not often the best people to ask - usually solicitors regard themselves as superior in mind and status to these individuals, and taking a HR director or Practice Manager's advice on the issue is not sufficient - it has to be the solicitors who make the decision. Time and again we get one of the main reasons for moving as being an open plan office...
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
23.05.07 Interview Question 12 (with answer) - Would you describe yourself as ambitious?
I have to confess I asked someone this once, and he said "oh no, I have never been ambitious - I just want to earn some money", which is an honest enough answer! In fact most employers would love this as in reality this is what they are looking for - a solicitor who is not going to recruit half their clients and set up over the road in a few years time. However as an interviewer I would not recommend this approach - although it is ideal, and I realise that this is very clear and helpful, at the same time it made me wonder about this person's approach to the work - afterall if you have no ambition, would you put as much effort into your work as someone with ambition to succeed?
Again, another question with an answer that clearly is v.obvious, but one that may not be as clear cut once you think about it from the employers perspective. I have to concede that an ambitious lawyer may be one to offer partnership to, and may also be interested in taking over your caseload at some stage in the future..
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
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
I often have conversations with senior partners of law firms who ask me for lawyers willing to work hard, be committed to their firm, and show entrepreneurial flair and determination, but no-one lightweight or wanting to work part time. Usually the requirement is for someone who wants to work full time and in the office from 9-5pm. This, in the partner's eyes, is someone who is committed and hard working.
I have to say that I often find that if I work flexible hours, which I often do, my work benefits as a result. If I want to go and have a game of golf one afternoon, but then work the evening to make up for it, this means I get to relax during the day, and get some exercise, and then in the evening condense 3-4 hours of office time into 2 1/2, and not have to deal with the telephone calls or other distractions.
I would estimate that for a lot of part time workers, they do the same, if not more hours than a full time worker, as when they are in the office, they usually have a lot more work to do. Full timers can afford to spend a morning Ocado shopping, or arranging car insurance quotes, but part timers have to be focussed for the whole time they are in the office in order to complete their work in a set time for that day.
So when a partner thinks that someone is hard working because they are in the office from 9-5, he or she is probably wrong. Someone who is hard working is someone generating fees, and this can be done in shorter time frames or on a different time scale than just the normal office hours. Offices on the continent open very early in the morning and close early in the afternoon to enable their workers to enjoy other things in life, such as exercise etc.. Not quite there yet 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 for our recruitment services
14.05.07 How to become a legal recruitment consultant
This article also applies to recruitment consultant jobs generally. Becoming a recruitment consultant is a little like joining the dark side in Star Wars - it often involves professionals giving up a well paid job with status to take on what is, in essence, a sales position, which very often is viewed by just about everyone to be a step down the ladder rather than up it.
What do you need to become a recruitment consultant? Qualification-wise - none, but I don't think anyone less than graduate level for legal recruitment will find it very easy, as it involves a high level of communication with solicitors and legal executives, and you need to be able to empathise with them, which can be very hard work indeed at times!
Skills wise? Patience (by the bucket load) - this is a career that offers good rewards if you are able to gloss over the bad times and remember only the good times. At present for example we are going through lean period, which is not so bad as we have been so busy in recent months. However unlike a professional post, you do look at work and sometimes wonder where you are going to get your next meal from! Ability to think outside the box - quite a few of our introductions are as a result of unusual introductions which have come solely from our insider knowledge of the legal profession and generating leads where others have not. Flexibility - need to be able to work on your own and with bucket loads of initiative - there is no structure to recruitment - you generate the work, you arrange how often you do this, and you need to keep tabs on everything yourself often.
How do you find work? Often the larger companies recruit former lawyers to the trade, and dangle shedloads of money in front of them to get them through the doors. You dont need any training as such, but it sure helps! The REC is the main recognised trade body, and their website is www.rec.uk.com - I did the Certificate of Recruitment Practice after being in the business for a number of years, and it would have been very helpful to have done it prior to joining the trade, with hindsight!
I have written this article due to the number of queries we are currently getting from crime solicitors (cant think why).
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
11.05.07 Legal Interview Question 11 (with answer) - what contribution do you make to a team?
A cursed question to anyone who has not worked with business speak before. Includes myself I must confess, as I don't understand such words, but realise when I play cricket that it isn't just me trying to bowl out the opposition or bat to a century each match. The same thing applies in law. The reality is that the concept of teamwork is somewhat different in a law firm - the majority of decisions are made at senior level, and although more junior staff are informed that they need to be 'team players', very often the people who make this sort of comment are not at all in any way! The concept of teamwork is usually - if you smile when you make me a cup of tea, you are clearly a team player, but if you glare at me and drop it in my lap and then smile, you clearly lack social skills.
The contribution you make to a team must be that you offer up your enthusiasm and skills, and that if you are qualified these are going to be extensive, and if you are unqualified, these are going to be limited until you have some experience under your belt.
I cannot see any other way to answer this - you don't want to be a social misfit and say you are a business oracle for other members of the team to consult, or a thinker who carefully considers all options. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know!
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
08.05.07 Legal Interview Question 10 (with answer) - If you did not have to work, what would you do?
This is quite an easy question to answer, as to a certain extent it has no hidden agenda, unlike a lot of questions, and does not leave you open to too much cross examination. One thing to be aware of is that if you come up with "I'd travel the world as I have a real interest in travelling and I hope to do this one day for an extended period" type of answer, you may get a very quick response from a partner asking you to clarify your commitment to a legal career. Similarly a response such as "I'd like to be a kissagram or pole dancer" may not go down too well. However something relatively jocular such as "I would buy an island and go and sit on it" would be OK, or "I would like to be a well known philanthropist" would be fine.
A question in summary that you can enjoy answering, and not have to think too much about it!
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
02.05.07 Yikes, I'm Newly Qualified, and don't have a job!
If you are reading this and are due to qualify in the next 9 months, register for our services by clicking here. As soon as you qualify, you are a valuable commodity to your firm. You may think that you have no skills, are worthless, and unable to justify a salary you would like. People will tell you that it is very hard to find work as a newly qualified solicitor, and you should wait at least 3 years before moving.
Do not worry! It is a common tactic towards the end of a training contract for employers to "put you down". This is to prevent you thinking about pastures new. They talk about loyalty, vague partnership promises, and usually discuss the high level of the firm's overdraft with you. They then charitably offer you a position with the firm paying a low salary, but in line with your experience, and tell you to think yourself lucky to have employment at all.
This is where Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment can assist you. Although firms do not often advertise specifically for newly qualified solicitors all the time, there is a large market out there. You offer firms a service at a lower price, and you are extremely marketable. Recruitment consultants can assist you by getting in touch with firms in the area they know, or by sending an outline of your skills to firms in the area in which you are looking.
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment allocate you a personal recruitment consultant, who liaises with you and the firms, puts forward your details to firms and arranges interviews, all without your present employer knowing you are looking elsewhere. We prepare your CV and tailor it according to the requirements of each post and firm you are applying to.
We do not chase candidates by telephoning, turning up at your home address (we know an agent in Manchester who did this) or bombarding you with messages. All correspondence is by email (unless you specifically request us to telephone or text as well - otherwise we only call in emergencies).
Available 12 hours a day by email (and telephone & text if requested - we appreciate you may not want to be called by a recruitment consultant at work), your consultant can also give you careers advice, and negotiate salary for you (something a lot of people dislike doing themselves).
Your present firm will not know you are looking until you hand in your notice, and you will move to a new firm that will appreciate your worth and give you respect as a solicitor, as opposed to remaining forever a trainee solicitor in disguise (a common complaint).
All of this is completely irrelevant of course if you enjoy working with your present firm, and if this is the case, stay there and good luck with your career - you are very fortunate to have a firm where you enjoy working and are appreciated! There is more to life than your next pay cheque and finding a practice where you enjoy both your caseload and the working with the other staff is strongly recommended.
However there are a lot of opportunities out there..... If you have any questions at this stage, you can email us at cv@tenpercent.co.uk or visit our confidential careers forum.
Timetable for Job hunting
The best time to start looking for work is about 6 months before qualifying. You may be a bit despondent that no posts appear in the Law Society Gazette for newly qualified solicitors, or at least very few do. This is fairly normal these days, as firms get a lot of candidates via recruitment consultants or through individual speculative applications.
From the second year of your training contract, we recommend finding out or getting an indication from your current firm as to whether an offer of a newly qualified solicitor post is going to be forthcoming, and in which field of law.
For a September qualifier, you need to start registering with your chosen recruitment agent from about the middle of March onwards. Contact the agent again each month to check to see whether any progress has taken place. The normal busy period is usually in May and June, but firms start collating CVs and interviewing from March with a view to a September start.
If you are a January qualifier the normal time to start looking is late September or October. The Christmas break is normally very quiet, and it is important to ensure that interviews are arranged before then.
At any other time of the year we recommend using the rule of thumb and looking 6 months before your training contract is due to expire.
Salary Levels & Negotiation
If you are planning to stay with your current firm, speak to assistant solicitors, secretaries or the office manager to try and gauge what the firm are likely to offer you. Most firms will be fairly standard, although some still try and get away with paying a lot less by referring to your lack of experience, whilst others pay very well to keep you. If you are at a very small practice, and are the only assistant solicitor, you need to speak to friends at other firms to see what the going rate is in the area.
Negotiating at newly qualified level really depends on the current state of the market. If you have offers from 3 other firms, or are aware of plenty of other firms who will want to speak to you, you can approach your current firm with confidence that you can pitch for a salary and if you don't get it, then move on.
However, if the market is very poor, and you have no other offers and are not aware of any firms recruiting at newly qualified level in your area, you are at the mercy of your current firm, and need to be careful as to how far you push your wage demands.
It is always a fine line between pushing for a higher salary and avoiding conflict at the negotiation stage. You need to be able to justify your requirements for a particular salary, and it is important to be prepared for the meeting. Having vital facts at hand such as salary levels in the area, your billing rates, your expected billing rates, wage comparisons with colleagues, your plans to get a mortgage at a particular level, your longer term plans etc.. will assist tremendously. You need to be able to explain why you think that £25k is a reasonable level when the firm are only offering you £21k.
Remember that how you speak to the firm depends on whether a) you have other offers, b) you are bothered about remaining with the firm and c) you are simply trying to get a good offer out of them to put to other firms when attending for interview.
How much should you be earning for the firm? The golden rule for solicitors firms is 3 times your salary in most areas of law, although for example in personal injury you would be expected to be bringing in 6-8 times your salary in some firms. Others expect 3.5 times or 4 times your wage. The "one third rule" is based on your salary being one third, the firm's costs and overheads being another third, and the firm's profit the final third.
If you are attending for an interview at a firm other than your own, you will probably be asked towards the end of the interview what salary you require.
We get asked all the time by newly qualified solicitors as to how this needs to be approached. We recommend asking the firm what they have in mind initially, and then pitch accordingly. We do not recommend jumping straight in, which is the advice of some other recruitment consultants, especially if you like the sound of the firm. You can either overpitch or underpitch yourself, and this can have the unwanted effect of the firm deciding not to proceed further.
If you have to give a range without an indication from the firm, we suggest giving one with scope, ie; it allows the firm negotiation. Of course, if you have offers at a certain level, and do not want to take any post that goes below this, then the pitch is quite easy.
An example would be "I am looking for something in the range of £23-£27.5k".
£23k would be your absolute minimum for the perfect job and firm, and £27.5k would be the figure you would really like but are unlikely to get. If the firm are interested they will probably pitch somewhere around the £25k mark. In order to answer this question you do need to have some idea of the levels of salary paid in your fields of law and geographical area.
Contact us for further advice on this area by emailing cv@tenpercent.co.uk
Qualifying with Training Contract Firm
Staying with your current firm is understandable. Firstly better the devil you know, secondly this was the firm that gave you the offer of a training contract, and thirdly you may actually be quite happy with them! Our experience is that some candidates are quite happy with their current firm, and enjoy working in the location, with no complaints about the office and equipment, and that the people they are working with are very friendly. Some even stay and become partners in the much longer term.
Others are not sure and look around to see what options are out there.
Others hate their current firm and spend the whole time trying to get out even during their training contract.
It must be said that in business there is no such thing loyalty on the whole, and anyone who tries to pull the "loyalty card" on you should be reminded that they are taking the benefit of your labour to profit from you. Whilst there is a moral issue that the firm you are with took a chance with you by offering a training contract, it is often better to consider the issue from the viewpoint of your own career. If it is going to be beneficial to you in the longer term to remain with the firm - offers of partnership or career progression that you believe are genuine, and the salary levels offered are good, then it is probably best to remain where you are.
Long Term Career Plans
Long term career plans are important to consider when you approach qualification, and in fact there is some merit in sitting down and writing out your goals. What do you want to get out of your career in law, where do you want to go, and in 5 years time, 10 years time and 20 years time where do you want to be? Is the field of law you are planning to specialise in the one you wish to stay in, or is it simply being done because this is what you ended up doing during your training contract?
Do you want to work for yourself, set up in business, or remain an employee? Do you plan to have children and raise a family, do you want to work part time in the longer term, do you want to look outside of law as well, are you aiming to be very rich, comfortable or is money not a factor for you?
It is very hard to consider these things at any time in your career, because often your choices are limited by certain factors, like LPC debts, or limited options due to geographical issues.
However it is important enough to spend some time thinking about. Decisions you make now will affect your career 20 years down the line. If you are thinking of relocating, it can be done at qualification, but similarly it can be done 1-5 years into your career without too much difficulty.
One of the questions we get asked every year is how easy it is to change fields of law, normally we get high street trainees wanting to become corporate lawyers, and corporate lawyers wanting to become high street solicitors. Neither think through the practicalities of such a change - the corporate lawyers think that everyone on the high street earns 50k, the high street trainees think the city firms will be interested in recruiting them for their conveyancing experience!
Our normal advice on this is to find a firm that offers a field of law you are capable of doing but also the one you wish to transfer into. You can then make moves once in a firm if possible. It is very difficult to change fields at qualification without any experience in the field you wish to change into.
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?
We are slowly starting to see the writing on the wall for the criminal solicitor firms and jobs that we have been dealing with for many years. 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
Firstly, be aware that a lot of employers want to do the decent thing when it comes to interviews, and are open to requests. They are highly unlikely to offer to pay travel expenses unless you ask! This boils down to the same issue arising throughout my legal job advice notes below - you have to prepared to be proactive in interviews, and not expect everything to be handed to you on a platter. Usually as recruitment consultants we recommend asking at the end of the interview whether the firm have a policy on travel expenses for interviewees, and see what the response is. You will get an idea as to how the partners will be to work with as well as possibly getting your expenses reimbursed. If the interviewers get shirty with you and ask why you want your travel costs paying, it is clearly a firm you may not want to be spending your hours working at! If they reasonably explain that the firm has no policy but that they do not normally pay expenses, again it is a reflection as to how they will be to deal with on a daily basis, and the same applies if they agree to pay the expenses. The standard practice re interview costs is for the candidate to bear them, and it is increasingly rare for a firm to pay them. However if you dont ask, you dont get!
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
05.04.07 Asking technical questions in a legal job interview
As recruitment consultants, we are not sure that this is good practice. Firstly, at an interview a candidate is nervous and slightly wary, secondly partners of law firms are notorious for asking questions that no-one on the interview panel knows or understands, and thirdly the questions tend to be so long that the interviewee has forgotten what the start of the question was before you get to the end! We think the better option is to have a file of work ready, hand it to the interviewee, and ask them what they would do in a particular scenario. You can then keep adding extra tasks or problems as you go on. You can also ask the interviewee to explain particular matters arising from the file, and assess their abilities to interact with clients, handle files, deal with their caseload, and how they deal with a stressful situation.
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
04.04.07 Help, I've been made redundant - what do I do?
In the current LSC climate, this is starting to happen quite regularly in London particularly, amongst groups of solicitors not used to redundancies! Duty solicitors are being hit quite badly, as firms seek to offload them and reduce their costs. Suddenly people are being handed P45's and told to find another post, and this is something of a shock, especially when you have a mortgage to pay..
The first thing to do is not panic and jump at the first job that comes along. In crime, this is easier said than done, as duty solicitors are not finding any jobs, let alone the first one that comes along! You need to take stock of the situation, and sit back and have a think about where you want to be in a few years time - with another firm, retired, another field of law, a different occupation? Have you been looking to have a break in recent years and never got round to it? Wanting to travel?
See the occasion as an opportunity rather than a calamity, and don't read too much into the term "redundancy". It happens all the time in some areas of law - conveyancing and personal injury have had their moments..
Finally, register with a good legal recruitment agency (like www.ten-percent.co.uk of course!) and we will be delighted to discuss your options with you.
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
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 in September 2007 - when should you start looking?
This is a question we are getting asked every day at present by NQs calling. Our usual advice is to register with up to 3 agencies around now or at least in the next month (we would prefer you just to register with ourselves of course - or at least giving one agent a couple of weeks before contacting others), and not to panic until August if you havent got a post lined up (you then need to start some serious searching!). This relates specifically to solicitors on the high street and in the regions - we know a lot of the agencies produce wonderful glossy pamphlets telling you all about the salary you should be expecting, but the vast majority do this based on their experiences with the larger practices, not the smaller varieties we deal with, and most of the bumpf I have read tends to be irrelevant.
Firstly speak to your own firm and find out what they have to offer - loyalty, a bit of PQE and familiarity are all positive attributes during your career. Understandably quite a few NQ solicitors want to move immediately having found the training contract experience a complete nightmare...
Secondly, have a careful think about what you want at PQE level - are you really looking for a post in conveyancing, or is your ambition to get into another field - be careful you dont make the wrong decision - it is very hard after 12 months etc.. to move out of your area and into another one.
Thirdly, send your CV through to us - we can see whether there is anything ongoing at present, and also keep you updated with legal jobs coming in. Legal recruitment is a bit of an art in itself - often we get hints and knowledge from insiders telling us where posts may be cropping up. Your details get added to our databases (anonymity assured) for firms to search as well.
Finally, don't jump at the first offer coming your way - think carefully about all options. It doesn't pay to take anything that comes in, although if the post feels absolutely right, the money and location are good and you would be mad to turn it down, then you may well do!
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
22.03.07 If I am looking for a training contract, how many firms should I be applying to for work?
Potential trainee solicitors often worry that they are either applying for too many training contracts or too few. It is one area that people seek assurance on. This is how we deal with it: firstly we ask what degree classification the person has - if you have a 2.1 or 1st and went to a good university (I could write another article on the latter!) with good A levels, a consistent academic background and a bit of work experience in a legal setting, you will probably find you do not need to apply much further than the big London firms and regional practices who advertise everywhere and anywhere, and you obtain interviews fairly rapidly for a good guess. So the answer here would be probably a first wave of about 10, followed by more if required.
If you got a 2.2, or have an inconsistent background, perhaps as a mature student, and dont really fit into the standard requirements of the larger practices or commercial firms, you will probably have to widen the net - if you set on trying for the Magic Circle and commercial firms, you may have to do over 50 just to get one interview if that. If you are open minded about where you should be looking, you will also make a load of applications to high street firms. It is not unusual for someone with a 2.2 or 3rd to perhaps make over 100 applications, and if they are looking in the wrong place to then wonder why no interviews have been forthcoming.
You have to be aware of who you are, where you are looking to end up, and what you have that a firm will be wanting. If you do not have sufficient skills or background to offer, chances are some or all of your applications will be a complete waste of time. Careers advisers are good to discuss things with (if they are geared up to it and know their "stuff").
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
21.03.07 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
When interviewing for a job, it is important to see things at all times from the employee's perspective - they will almost certainly be trying to guess what you are wanting, thinking and going to say to them and will want to get certain things confirmed about your firm before they commit themselves. This is particularly so when interviewing candidates who want or may want flexible hours or part time arrangements.
The legal profession is notorious for its attitude towards anyone who dares to want to work less than a 40 hour week - and particularly so against women with kids. Some firms almost shy away from the whole idea instead of thinking about the benefits to them of having staff on flexible hours, particularly in small market towns where the Ten-Percent candidate database is not particularly bursting at the seams.
I have heard recently of an interview where a partner of the firm indicated to a female candidate who would possibly have had children that flexible hours would not be possible, when in fact his firm offered flexible and part time roles fairly regularly. He was not thinking of this from the candidate's perspective at all - and in fact was going against what was standard policy at his firm!
My wife once interviewed for a GP post in Shropshire, and the partner there took great pleasure in telling her what long hours they all worked and what money they made as a result. This put her right off - he should have guessed what she may have been thinking - children possibly on the way soon and hence my wife would not want to be in that type of environment - she would be looking for something where she could work less hours and not be so bothered about the money.
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
16.03.07 Attaching a time limit to a job offer - not always a good idea...
Recently I have had dealings with a firm who are very well known and established, and have a good reputation in the market place. However the firm have made an offer to one of our candidates, and pushed slightly too hard, such that the candidate rejected the offer. I should start by saying that I understand entirely why firms would want to put a deadline on an offer and also push a candidate to get a decision one way or the other, and all recruitment consultants have dealt with those candidates who claim to be thinking about it but in reality are not bothered or using the offer to ramp up their salary at their current firm. However, as soon as a firm sticks a time limit on an offer I can almost always see the writing on the wall - either the candidate will reject them immediately on the basis that they wouldn't want to work for a pushy employer, or the relationship between the candidate and the firm will be shortlived - the candidate will always remember that they were pushed by the firm, and can bear a grudge! A better way to deal with the situation is to set a deadline from the outset, and then after that date indicate that there are other candidates out there who you need to interview. This is less confrontational, and can be the gentle nudge needed to push the candidate into making a positive decision. After working in recruitment for a number of years you do start to get a sense of deja vu!
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
15.03.07 Making a job application after 25 years in the same post
We often get very senior solicitors and executives registering with us, and needing to make an application for work after many years in the same post and wondering what on earth they need to do. Very often they send a CV through which is for about 1/2 page, and just says name, address, name of current firm, title and references to be supplied on request. It goes back to my comments below about solicitors requiring respect and status for all their hard graft, and why should they have to produce a long winded CV to explain who and what they are? Unfortunately, this often counts against them, unless the firm they are applying to knows them. There have been cases where we have sent such CVs through and had nothing from firms, followed by a full CV after much cajoling and suddenly interviews are being arranged. Anyone who finds themselves in this position when searching for legal jobs after being a solicitor for so many years can either use a service like our careers centre, where you pay us to prepare a CV (which of course still requires significant input from you) or alternatively sit down and write a covering letter and CV to send out. It almost always pays for itself in the long run, as not only does it explain who you are, it also helps to focus your mind on making sure you present yourself well to a firm. In a nutshell, what recruiters are looking at for such senior roles is firstly your geographical locations to date, your experience and outline of cases and involvement, the value of your following if any, your billing levels and your marketing and fee generating ability. If you bear this in mind when preparing your CV you shouldn't go too wrong!
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
14.03.07 Employing good receptionists in law firms - why should we?
One of the easiest ways to spot a firm who are good to work for and who have a good working environment is to phone the receptionist and ask to speak to someone. Some receptionists consider this a real nuisance, and I have even heard sighs and tuts as if you shouldn't really be calling to speak to anyone at that particular time. I have also phoned one very well known practice, and been told before even identifying myself as an 'orrible recruitment consultant (rather than a solicitor or client) to call back in 10 minutes as they were busy followed by a click as they hung up on me!
It doesnt take much to teach good telephony manners, but not only must you do this, but also be aware of the need to ensure that the receptionist is happy. If you have an unhappy receptionist - perhaps you are paying them £11,000 per year and this is causing them immense personal difficulties on the financial side, or perhaps you are horrible to them when they put calls through to them, the office they sit in is freezing or the chair too uncomfortable - they are going to pass this onto your clients. If your clients speak to someone who is frankly rude and obnoxious, chances are they may not want to use your services again.
I called 4 firms for conveyancing quotes some time ago to see what their service was like. Out of the 4, 3 had receptionists that would probably have answered the local chipshop telephone more efficiently and politely. The other explained that she did the conveyancing herself as the partner didnt have time and gave me an immediate quote that was probably about half as much as it ought to have been! Think - a lot of solicitors are getting onto the marketing side of things, but smaller high street practices still havent grasped some of the essentials.
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
13.03.07 Application Forms - Solicitors detest them!
It has become the industry standard that once you are past the training level of the profession, the way to apply for the vast majority of posts, apart from local authority ones, is via a CV. In fact, most firms who have tried to use application forms for posts have met hostility from candidates, whether they realise it or not, because so many have filled out those long waffly forms you see for training contracts that have taken hours of work for no effect at all! Why should I, as a fully qualified solicitor, bother filling out a form? My work is obvious and my worth to the firm clear. A lot of the HR people at the larger firms do not realise the professional status solicitors place on their work, and why they are prepared to do the job. Solicitors study and train for over 6 years to get to where they are, and if on the high street they can be earning less than a supermarket shelf stacker. They have to have some self-worth there, and this is with the status of solicitor. I know - I am one, and when I qualified, I didnt care that I was earning less than a lorry driver - I was a solicitor, and no-one can ever take this away from me (unless I rob a bank etc..!). Solicitors like to command respect, and this is one of the ways they do it. I have had a candidate walk out prior to an interview because a firm wanted to get her to fill in an application form before seeing them, and she felt that she did not want to work as an office cleaner!
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
12.03.07 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.
When that time of the year comes up when you actually get to discuss your salary and package rather than just thinking about it, it is important to have all the facts to hand. You can find an article about annual reviews on our website at www.ten-percent.co.uk/careers_centre_lawyers.htm, but in particular what should you do about benefits in addition to salary? Firstly you need to understand their relevance. Firms like benefits because often they include some tax reduction benefit to the firm - usually the Customs & Excise website has details of this - www.hmrc.gov.uk . It is often the case that some benefits receive a different treatment when it comes to National Insurance payments. We have come across benefits including annual gym membership, life insurance, critical illness cover, death in service cover, health insurance, golf club membership, parking permits to cover a city centre car park, access to a discretionary trust to receive specific bonuses, extra annual leave, flexible working including a computer at home and broadband costs covered, additional annual leave swapped for evening and weekend cover, pension contributions (access to a stakeholder pension isnt really a benefit despite some firms best efforts to persuade otherwise!) with a range being from about 2% up to a 12% contribution, car loans, relocation packages, leaseback car arrangements, clothes allowance, and others I cannot think of at present!
It is worth bearing in mind that these will often cost the employer less than a payrise, and can be quite beneficial to you to have in place of salary. After all, salary tends to disappear, whereas pension contributions are a little safer...
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
07.03.07 - Is an interview the best way of assessing a candidate?
In a recent article in the Recruiter Magazine, Stephen Davis argues that a better approach would be as follows: (1) give full specifics of your post prior to interview - this can sometimes be very frustrating in legal recruitment - firms give very vague requirements and are surprised when candidates get annoyed at travelling a long way to find the post to be inappropriate!, (2) each candidate asked to supply a CV and personal statement, complete an online personality test, complete an online numeracy and verbal test, provide evidence of professional qualifications (not really relevant for solicitors) and a written response to a specific legal/business issue. This sounds like a good idea - apart from the online tests, which most lawyers would be horrified by! (3) information assessed by external recruiter and (4) preferred candidate chosen to go forward - meeting colleagues to be working with, (5) task set for the solicitor to undertake to prove their mettle and (6) meeting to negotiate terms of employment.
This is a very thorough way of undertaking recruitment, and I can see the merits. I am not sure a lot of firms would want to spend so much time on it, and also if there is only one candidate for a post and lots of firms after them, I am not sure a candidate would be overjoyed at the process! However, I cannot emphasise enough that if a firm provide good info to agents, the quality of candidates supplied can be much better (although the quantity can diminish).
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
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
The main aim and focus during interview must be:
EVERYBODY LIKES ME, I LIKE EVERYBODY, I AM WILLING TO DO ALMOST ANYTHING (WITHIN REASON), I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH ANYTHING OR ANYBODY
1. Do not reveal your political leanings if at all possible during interview. Sit on the fence.
2. Likewise for religious views.
3. If asked questions about your negative points, turn it to your advantage and give positive responses – eg: you work too hard sometimes, you take on too much work, sometimes you are over enthusiastic, this sort of positive criticism sounds much more effective than “I can be patronising at times”, “I am sometimes defensive”. This is not assisting your case.
4. Do not ask clever questions in response to the interviewer’s questioning of you. She is there to offer you a career break, and you must be nice to her at all costs.
5. Ask for a glass of water at the start of the interview, and when stuck on a question, take a sip whilst you are thinking about it.
6. Do not be afraid to sit and think about a response. Do not take too long.
7. Practice potential questions before going into interview. Check out our website for details.
8. Think about problems you have overcome prior to interview. A sporty or activity problem, a legal setting problem, a team setting problem and an academic setting problem will probably give you enough to be thinking about.
9. Shake everybody’s hand in the room, no matter how embarrassing it is for them or you. Failure to do so is considered rude.
10. Smile or look interested at all times.
11. Try and think about what the interviewer is looking for – a competent lawyer, someone they can work with who has similar interests, someone who is going to be an asset to the firm.
12. Think carefully about questions at the end of the interview – social events are a good topic as it shows a balance in your life or work and play.
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
20.02.07 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?
What a strange question you might say!
Well, I have recently been reading a load of books on investment, personal wealth management and similar titles, and have discovered that there are a lot of different strategies for creating your own financial stability. All the advice appears to point to either having a job or business on the side, or to conduct investment at quite a considerable rate. Most of the books refer as well to the need to be satisfied in your own job. I know a crime solicitor in Nottingham who loves his job so much he will actually take a police station or court case from you at no charge and enjoy doing it. Knowing the firm he works for, I suspect the salary he receives is pretty low as well!
However here are a couple of pointers from the books I have read:
1. Obtain assets - this is the only way to have a comfortable existence - whether this is a business, a house, a pension or an investment, you have to do this first.
2. Secondly, ensure that you have money to spare on purchasing assets, and always think of the worst case scenario - what would happen if the asset backfired on you?
3. Thirdly, aim to pay off your mortgage asap (buy a house first) and use any mortgage as an investment product (I personally do not agree with this approach - I would rather keep my house out of any investment decisions I make).
4. Do things you enjoy - if you are on a fixed salary, say £35k, you will need to create business opportunities outside of work, and to do this you have to look to your own interests and skills. As a side issue, Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment was started in this way - I developed an interest in the internet and recruitment having been through the process myself some years ago!
5. Don't be afraid to do something similar to others, but you have to have a handle to make your enterprise stand out.
6. Be prepared to be thrifty, not spend all your income, and work very, very hard.
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
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
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!
I was reminded this week about what fun it can be with firms and candidates when it comes to job offers being made by firms. Some firms make good, competitive offers, which any sensible candidate would accept, and other firms make low, slave wage level offers, which only someone quite desperate to either work or be at that firm would accept. Sometimes, firms offer money which candidates come back on and reject, despite it being a massive increase for them (I had a newly qualified commercial property solicitor turn down an increase of £15,000 once on a £25k salary, on the basis that they thought they were worth more...!). I have also had a firm make an offer which could only be described with the word "derisory" and the candidate accepted it, despite our strong advice to avoid - that candidate is still at the firm, desperately trying to get the partners to increase the salary to something closer to the market rate.
How do you go about negotiating? Firstly work out your bottom line, secondly factor in how much you like or dislike the firm, consider the perks and benefits - locality, annual leave etc.. and thirdly make an assessment as to whether you think the firm will go with you or against you on the request. Will it be held against you? Only once you have thought things through will you be able to decide to stick or twist!
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
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"
Another firm yet to wake up to the realities of modern day living - being nice to your legal staff and giving them heating of some sort!
This entry was included over the weekend in a candidate's registration form for legal jobs on our website. His salary was not particularly brilliant, and probably would not even result in being able to purchase 1 bedroomed flat in most areas of the UK, and I suspect the firm have a very high staff turnover rate.
We find some firms seem to consider that when they rent premises they do not need to do any work on the surroundings that may make things too comfortable for their staff. Perhaps it is the worry that lawyers go to sleep when it gets too warm, or may not be so productive. It doesnt take much to get a can of paint, a new carpet, some decent blinds and some new desks from somewhere like IKEA to really smarten up an office. One of the main things that scares me as a client at law firms is when I walk in and find them looking like a bomb site.
Heating doesn't need to cost the earth - portable floor heaters from Argos for £12.00 or similar will keep any freezing feet warm in listed buildings without double glazing, and if you are sat for long periods of time it is quite easy to get frostbite!
A private area is always beneficial to all staff - even if it is to discharge various functions that other staff are probably best not being in the room for (vegetarian lawyers particularly thought of at this point!).
All in all, think about your working environment, and how comfortable you find it, and then consider your employees, and what you would make of theirs.
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
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?"
It is very hard to know what a legal career is all about when you start out in law. Firstly you achieve great things when you graduate from University with a law degree. 3-4 years of hard graft, and what do you get out of it? Another 3 years of hard graft! 1 year on the LPC followed by two years of training contract, which can involve working for peanuts and being asked to do jobs such as clean the solicitors' cars, or go and fetch the secretaries' lunch! Finally, after 6-7 years of slaving away results in you qualifying as a solicitor, and you wake up the following morning pleased with yourself. But what then - great you are a newly qualified solicitor? But where do you need to aim to from there?
Well it all depends on what your ambitions are. Sit down with a pen, and work out where you want to be in 5 years time. Do you want to have children, a steady income, a big house and a small mortgage, a partnership in a firm, or out of law and in another field? Do you want to be rich, mega rich, or just comfortable?
You then need to work out what you need to do in order to achieve these goals - do you need to stay in conveyancing working for a bucket shop so you establish a steady career and income, or do you need to start planning your own firm for once you have gained those three years of experience to be able to set up your own practice? If you want a big house and lots of money, it is important to plan earlier rather than later as to how you wish to achieve this - if you remain an assistant solicitor on £30k for too many years you would probably need to rob a bank in order to do this, which we do not recommend!
The answer to the question re career paths is yes - you should be planning out your career path - with aims and goals, and set out to achieve these. If you do not do this, you may find yourself stuck in a rut in future years, or going completely away from where you wanted to be.
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
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?
This term comes up quite often in legal job interviews, whether for training contracts or qualified solicitor roles. But what exactly does it mean? In reality, not a lot!
The usual question is along the lines of "can you give an example of when you have had to demonstrate business acumen in a legal, commercial setting or otherwise". You then start to waffle about your student days and when you saved the hang gliding club 30p by introducing more efficient advertising on the student boards!
What the law firms are looking for (we think) are demonstrations where you have understand the reality of the legal profession. The law is all about money - law firms are there to make money, and to gain business acumen you simply have to understand this fact - it is not a dirty word, nor is it some sort of immoral side to the business. The reality is that law firms, partners, solicitors and assistant solicitors together with any other fee earners are exactly that - fee earners. When they work on a case, they are generating income. Have a read of John Grisham "The Firm" to understand this further - it will help you answer the question I think. If you have never had any involvement in running a business before, it is probably worth thinking about it now - setting up a business is one of the best ways to gain an understanding as to what it is all about!
Don't forget to visit our interview pages for the top 100 interview questions for lawyers, solicitors, training contracts and vacation placements at law firms.
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
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?
We notice whenever there is World Cup, a serious incident in world politics, Christmas Parties, Christmas shopping, New Years resolution season, NQ qualification season and so forth. The answer therefore is yes! The year always starts fairly slowly - over the Xmas break some solicitors have a think about their current legal job, and have a trawl of the legal recruitment consultancies. We get registrations from all over the UK. After the New Year, and when everyone has that depressing moment when they have to go back to work, we get the New Years resolutions registering - wanting a change, or just seeing what the grass is like on the other side of the fence. This carries on for a few weeks into February, when the market picks up to its maximum peak, before quietening down for the half term. Following this, the market is busy again until Easter and the end of the tax year in April. The first two weeks of April are always very quiet, as the firms are collecting everything together for the year end, but this does not last long. May, June and July are always our busiest three months of the year, before the summer holidays start to kick in for August. The market again goes quiet, before September and October start in earnest, and the third recruitment season of the year comes into play, before sliding off again as Christmas shopping season starts.
Each season comes with different types of candidates, and at certain times of the year we can almost guess how many applications a candidate has made before they have registered with us, as it is often linked to the season and the cyclical nature of the recruitment market! The worst time for us is the World Cup - it seems to finish off interviews and job offers as everyone has something more interesting to do...
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
20.12.06 how to be a nice boss towards your solicitors, fellow partners, legal executives, paralegals, secretaries and office cleaners at Christmas
1. Don't throw things at your staff. Particularly the Law Society Conveyancing Handbook - it hurts!
2. Don't get drunk at the Christmas party - this always leads to consequences remembered for decades afterwards. Whether this involves rambling incoherently about how useless one of your staff is, or some minor act of vandalism, your colleagues will remember you for it the following day even if you forget.
3. Give out Christmas cards - sign them neatly and legibly, so that your colleagues know who are you when they put it up at home. Do not scrawl your usual signature straight across the greeting.
4. Firing staff on Christmas Eve could lead to your car windows being put in, and your car tyres let down. Your workforce would probably symphathise...
5. Having a Christmas party is always a good thing, even if they are usually tedious affairs for some. It gives you a chance to talk to your colleagues outside of work, and have chats about other things than clients (although they inevitably lead back to work eventually!).
6. Buying your staff presents is always nice, and should be encouraged. However presents such as law textbooks, a DIY Willpack or a p45 already filled out are probably not appropriate...
7. Offering to close the office early on Christmas Eve (it is a Sunday after all!) is a nice gesture, and will probably result in more work being done in the morning before closure than if you keep it open all day!
8. Consider offering to do some cleaning in the office or more manual work (perhaps photocopying?) on Christmas Eve as a sign of goodwill to all men and women. It will give some of your staff a chance to talk to you for a change.
9. Offer large pay rises, and invite yourself round to a member of staff's house to Christmas Day armed with a goose and a box of chocolates! They would be overjoyed to see you.
10. Complain all the way up to Christmas about how you have to close down over the Christmas period and the extortionate cost of the Christmas meal (which you leave early in any event), keep the office open until 5.30pm on Christmas Eve and make all the staff stay until then, fire a secretary on Christmas Eve just for entertainment and pass a rumour around the office that redundancies are on the cards for all fee earners. Bah humbug!
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
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!
I regularly read about the shortage in good quality staff, and also get called by some firms about this, asking why we are unable to find a conveyancing solicitor for them or a licensed conveyancer. Some firms, who shall remain nameless, give us specifications so tight we are not sure that there are any solicitors able to join their firm, let alone some of our 3500 lawyers! An example of this would be a call we had last year that went "hello, we are X firm of solicitors, looking for a 3 year PQE conveyancing solicitor able to do residential conveyancing, commercial property, licensing, company commercial law and civil litigation, looking for a salary of up to £28k pa and able to start immediately. We are not paying your full fee as we do not think it is worth it, and we cannot go any higher on the salary. Send CVs through immediately within the next 48 hours as the closing date is Friday."
As you may expect, if this senior partner was then seen in the legal press bemoaning the lack of solicitors, a cynic may wonder if it is more to do with her requirements than the perceived lack of quality of the candidates. Uranus may be a better planet to do a search for this particular candidate!
I find that in most areas, firms with a good reputation for quality of work and life, and treatment of staff in general, are the ones that do not have a problem recruiting. Those that are smaller, and perhaps have no reputation at all find that if they offer reasonable salaries they attract candidates who will stay and grow the firm, and those firms that fail to understand the direct correlation between paying solicitors a wage that enables them to live comfortably by their standards, and treat them as qualified professionals, tend to be the ones who constantly need to look around for staff to replace existing lawyers departing.
I have however heard another side to this - there are some firms that actively encourage fairly rapid turnover of staff to keep the costs of employment down. Take on a solicitor, flog them mercilessly until they are doing lots of extra hours each week, and then encourage them to jettison asap before they become despondent and the amount of output drops.
Not sure if this works, but doesnt sound too pleasant a way to earn a living!
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
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
It is apparently the case that mothers returning to work after starting a family suffer the highest employment penalty of any group. (Equalities Review). Mothers with children under 11 are 37% less likely to be offered a job than equivalent males. Single mums suffer even worse figures - with it rising to above 40%. Firms should not ask questions about childcare or how you will deal with work and children, although we know that some do. It is very hard for mothers to get back to work at times - not only do they have to make childcare arrangements, collect and drop children from nursery etc.. but also research shows that they are still expected to do the housework! Some mothers also report lacking confidence to go back to work or do their job again after caring for their baby at home.
If you are a mother thinking about returning to work or about to go off on maternity leave, have a think about discussing the situation with your current employer before going or returning. Sometimes we find candidates automatically assume that the firm will not be favourable to them having flexible hours, reducing hours or having a longer maternity break. This is not always the case, and if indeed your worse fears are confirmed, you can always go off and find another post in the meantime!
If you are a firm reading this, think about the maternity from the mother's angle - she is going to worry that she is out of touch whilst off work, cannot return, worried about leaving her child at nursery or with family, and also about the money (income drops quite dramatically during maternity leave). If you value your employees prepare to be flexible in the short term, as you may find that longer term the solicitor or lawyer remains with you and is loyal to your firm (provided you are being nice on other fronts such as salary levels and career progression if wanted!).
Possible links for mothers are Learndirect free telephone coaching service - 0800 100900, www.setwomenresource.org.uk - work experience placements for women wanting to try new careers, www.motheratwork.co.uk is a website looking at the balance between work and family life, and www.mumpreneurs.co.uk for information about setting up your own business (as long as it is not a legal recruitment agency!).
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
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. I can think of two firms in recent times who have been aware of a candidate's limited geographical search area, or perhaps their requirement for supervision for various reasons, and have seized upon the option of offering a significantly lower salary than they ought reasonably to have done. Salaries that would possibly enable the person to afford Housing Association rent, and then perhaps to live a little bit if they took a second job in a fast food joint! When speaking to the partners, they have been really pleased with this, and we have actually been thanked for finding such a good candidate! This is a very short sighted policy, and we usually let the firm know this.
Firstly, the candidate is going to start looking almost immediately for an alternative post, secondly they are not exactly going to be very motivated to do a lot of work, and finally they may start to develop an interest in using up as much sick leave and annual leave as they can in a short period of time. They may also start to show signs of stress etc.. as they worry about their finances. There can be a whole host of reasons for accepting a low salary, and this can include the need to be near a spouse, or if there are difficulties with the Law Society imposing supervisory conditions etc..
If you are thinking of offering a low salary, we usually recommend thinking about incentives to go with it - eg; giving the lawyer the chance to receive bonus payments based on performance, or offering perks to go with the base salary.
If you think you have a bargain, think again! It probably wont be long before you are back on the market again...
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
08.12.06 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
It becomes particularly acute once the candidate gets to about 3 years PQE, and realise that there is life beyond work, and other issues such as rearing a family, paying a mortgage and buying a house come into play. The legal profession as a whole suffers from a poor attitude towards the work life balance, as it results in a lot of despondent lawyers wondering what on earth is going on. I think it may be to do with the traditional approach to law that still survives in a lot of towns. This leads me onto another rant that is a particular bug bear, but one not relevant to this article about the quality of the frontage and state of offices of law firms, but that is for another day!
What should lawyers be doing and how many hours is healthy?
Firms need to be aware that solicitors are human beings, not robots. If you have a solicitor doing 60 hours per week at your offices, chances are he or she is doing it a) because you are not paying them enough to cover a mortgage application etc.. b) they have serious family or home issues c) they really enjoy their work and cannot bear to go home or d) they do not have a very good balance in their lives of work and play etc..
Have a look round and see what your lawyers are doing. If they are working the long hours because of a), it is likely that they will also be looking for a new post. If b) you need to keep a close eye on them, as this can affect their work, if c) not much you can do and good news for the firm if not the lawyer! and d) the solicitor needs to adjust this balance to make sure that their life does not suddenly disappear in front of them at the office.
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
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
