Legal Job Market Report

Key points from 5th April to 10th May 2017 as follows:
* The demand for staff generally has stayed the same.
* Permanent recruitment has decreased slightly.
* Locum recruitment has increased and hourly rates have gone up slightly.
* Wills and Probate locum and permanent roles quieter but candidates remain in demand. Vacancies remain unfilled.
* Conveyancing remains busy – both locum and permanent.
* Commercial Property roles have picked up. Permanent vacancies remain unfilled.
* Litigation is quiet.
* Family law roles are steady.
* London market is still busier than it was in 2016.

To read the full article please visit https://www.ten-percent.co.uk/legal-job-market-report-may-10th-2017/

Conveyancing rates have crept up a bit over the last four weeks, as we enter the busy period, but they are still down generally. Locums looking for £35 an hour and above will find higher levels of competition still exist with experienced conveyancers still available for around £30-32 per hour. For some firms this is almost certainly going to be the maximum level paid and this needs to be borne in mind still…

April 2017 Locum Rates:
Residential Conveyancing Locum Solicitors – 1-5 years PQE, £25-30 per hour (no variation for central London).
Conveyancing Locum Solicitors & ILEX – 5-35 years PQE, handling all levels of conveyancing including managing a department – £28-£35 per hour, including central London.
Commercial Property Solicitors – 1-40 years PQE – £30-45 per hour.
Wills & Probate Solicitors and Legal Executives – 3-35 years PQE – £30-45 per hour – the minimum is usually £35.
Family Solicitors – 4-40 years PQE – £24-32 per hour. Occasionally this goes up to £35 per hour for short notice or a few days cover.
Civil Litigation Solicitors and ILEX– 1-35 years PQE. £25-35 per hour. These rates cover mainstream litigation – eg county court and small claims matters.
Commercial Litigation Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – £35-50 per hour. Occasionally this is higher.
Company Commercial Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – £35-70 per hour.
Employment Solicitors – 3+ years PQE – difficult to give a range this year due to the lack of work generally in this field.
Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence – 3+ years PQE – £18-£30 per hour. Work very sporadic.
In House Legal Department Rates: 0-3 years PQE – £22-32 per hour (wide range due to variables in legal department work), 3+ years PQE – £30-75 per hour (very wide range due to the nature of in house work).
Local authority rates: get a dartboard, put a blindfold on, throw three darts and add up the total. Quite how local authority rates are calculated is beyond me, but they are one of the wonders of the recruitment world…

NB all rates exclude agency fees (we charge 18%). The rates are for self-employed locums billing firms directly on a weekly basis.

We have over 11,000 lawyers registered with us. To request CVs for a specific vacancy please register your vacancy using the link at the top of this email or simply reply.

Etiquette Guide for Locums

Occasionally we get queries from law firms and locums as to what constitutes good practice by a locum when on assignment. Here are our answers to recent queries:

Should locums take phone calls during the day from their own clients?

No definitely not. Why would they? They are paid by the hour to do work for a company.

To read the full article please visit: https://www.ten-percent.co.uk/etiquette-for-locums/

CV Blooper of the Month

Minimum Wage and the Legal Profession

Over the last few months we have posted fairly junior job vacancies for a couple of our member law firms (ie firms who have signed up to TenPercentUnlimited – google for further info). One was for a receptionist at a salary of £13,000 and the other a paralegal for £14,000. We received a couple of responses, one of which is below (and quite fair I thought!):

“I [have] reported you for offering a low salary of £13000 which is under [the] minimum wage. A person who needs to pay rent, transport, food and try to save, will never be able to live a decent human life with that salary. Shame on you for offering slavery! You are disgusting.”

North, Scotland and Wales

VAC-17058 Head of Legal Collections – a company based in Bromley, Greater London and Kilmarnock, Ayrshire are looking for a permanent lawyer to join them at either location as Head of Legal Collections. The company are one of the largest consumer debt buyers in the USA and UK. You will need to have worked in or for the debt recovery industry, whether in private practice or in house, and have experience of managing a legal and collections team, along with strong knowledge of civil litigation procedures including Pre-Action Protocols, and good knowledge of rules and regulations relating to the Collections industry, particularly FCA regulations.
Salary levels £70-80k range, negotiable.

VAC-17100 General Practice Solicitor – a Conveyancing Solicitor, or Wills & Probate Solicitor (or someone able to do both) is sought by a small solicitors firm in Hay on Wye, Herefordshire. The firm are looking to replace a departing member of staff and are flexible as to whether you will actually need to undertake a mix of work or just one area. Hay on Wye is a beautiful area, with extensive opportunities for outdoor pursuits including kayaking, walking and climbing, to name a few. Famous for its bookstores rather than a multitude of solicitors firms, the practice naturally has strong links to the agricultural community. This is a very rural area and the post would suit someone looking to enjoy life in the countryside. Salary levels negotiable. The partners are quite senior in age and there are definite partnership prospects available. Permanent full time vacancy. There may be some options for part time work if wanted.

VAC-17093 Personal Injury Litigator – medium sized North West firm are looking for a Personal Injury litigator to work at their St Helens office. The successful candidate will be dealing with a mixed caseload of clinical negligence, industrial disease and general non portal personal injury work. The post is full-time, permanent and salary will be neogtiable depending on experience.

VAC-17064 Commercial Property Lawyer – small, high street practice based in Gainsborough, South Yorkshire have an opening for a commercial property lawyer on a permanent basis. The caseload will mainly consist of light commercial property mattes, small business buying and selling plus some agricultural land etc. Applications are invited from candidates looking for either full or part time work. Salary: market rates and dependent on experience.

VAC-17063 Family Lawyer – small, high street practice based in Gainsborough near Doncaster are looking to recruit a family solicitor or legal executive on a permanent basis. Applications are welcomed from candidates looking for full or part time roles. The caseload will mostly consist of private family matrimonial and ancillary relief, TOLATA matters etc with some private child care law but no care work or legal aid work. Salary: market rates and dependent on experience.

South and Midlands

VAC-17107 Wills & probate Solicitor – medium sized, specialist wills & probate firm are looking for an NQ-3 years’ PQE private client solicitor. Their head office is in Market Drayton but because most of what they do is through an online case management system there would be an opportunity for the right candidate to work from home but initial training would need to be done at the head office and there would be regular monitoring. The firm are happy to consider full-time or part-time applicants or locum to perm.

VAC-17104 Residential Conveyancer – specialist property law firm are looking for a conveyancer to manage a residential caseload at their Sawbridgeworth office. The firm are happy to consider solicitors, legal executives or licensed conveyancers who have a minimum of 3 years’ PQE and are able to manage a high volume caseload of conveyancing files from inception to completion. The post will be full-time, permanent and salary will be negotiable depending on experience.

VAC-17098 Costs Draftsperson – a new vacancy has arisen with a larger size crime solicitors firm in London – looking for a costs draftsperson with criminal legal aid billing experience. The firm may consider someone working from home or from their offices. Permanent salaried role, although possible that they will consider a self-employed arrangement.

VAC-17095 Admin Assistant – a law firm based in Bromley, Kent are looking for an administrator to join their established Recovery Department The firm are looking for reliable and enthusiastic applicants with previous experience of working in a similar area such as the insurance industry and Uninsured Loss/Recovery Departments. The role will involve setting up new cases, answering phones, drafting letters, filing, liaising with instructing insurer, liaising with third party insurer, communicating with the policyholder/client, keeping up to date on daily tasks and dairy entries, collating evidence and chasing payments. This is a full-time, permanent role starting ASAP. Starting salary: up to £20K per annum depending on experience.

VAC-17085 Private Client Solicitor – a medium sized, multi-office law practices with offices along the Sussex Coast have openings to join their well established private client department. The firm are looking for one Senior wills & probate solicitor to replace a member of staff who is retiring. In addition the firm are looking to recruit 2 further private client solicitors to expand their team. All roles are full time, permanent positions involving general wills & probate and LPA work. Vacancies will be at their offices in Bexhill, Eastbourne or Rye. Highly competitive salaries on offer depending on experience.

VAC-17084 Crime Lawyer – a well established Cambridgeshire firm are looking for a crime lawyer to work out of their Central Peterborough office. The firm are happy to consider applications from either criminal law solicitors with Duty Status and Higher Rights of Audience or criminal law barristers. The post will be full-time, permament and salary will be negotiable depending on experience.

VAC-17082 Property Litigation Executive – medium sized Hertfordshire firm are looking for a property litigation lawyer to work at their Elstree office. The successful candidate will be assisting with a broad ranging caseload of property disputes. The post will be full-time, permanent and salary will be negotiable depending on experience.

VAC-17079 Residential Conveyancer – medium-large firm based in SW London – Battersea area – are looking for a conveyancer to work at their office situated a 2 minute walk away from Clapham Junction Station. The firm are happy to consider solicitors or legal executives with a minimum of 3 years PQE in residential conveyancing.

VAC-17075 Legal Cashier – high street solicitors practice based in Bromley, Kent have an opening for a full time, permanent legal cashier. The firm are looking for candidates with knowledge of Solicitors Accounts Rules and good prior legal cashier experience to take on a role involving: daily posting of debits/credits/bill posting and costs transfers, cheque production, ability to deal with bank reconciliations and Client & Office payments and dealing/checking account queries. Salary: up to £28K per annum depending on experience.

VAC-17073 Residential Conveyancer – niche specialist property law firm looking for a conveyancer to manage a residential caseload at their Ascot office. The firm are happy to consider qualified solicitors, licensed conveyancers or legal executives with between 2 and 6 years’ conveyancing experience. The post is full-time, permanent and salary will be 30-50k depending on experience plus a significant and acheivable target related bonus scheme.

VAC-17068 Litigation Solicitor – well established Essex firm are looking for an experienced litigation solicitor to manage their litigation department at their Billericay office. This is a full time, permanent role. Caseload will be mainly civil litigation with some commercial litigation but also a small amount of company commercial and commercial property work depending on candidate. Good career prospects including future partnership prospects and competitive salary with bonus scheme on offer to the right candidate.

VAC-17067 Residential Conveyancing Solicitor – small to medium sized established practice based in the Kingston upon Thames area is looking to recruit a residential conveyancing solicitor. They will be looking to do this at one of two levels – either at 5 years PQE and upwards or 3 years PQE and upwards.
Salary levels are going to be £50,000 – £60,000 p.a. An offer of Partnership is anticipated in about 2-3 years’ time after joining.

VAC-17062 Residential Conveyancing – well established Oxfordshire firm are looking for a conveyancing lawyer to work at their Abingdon office. The caseload will be purely residential and candidates will be dealing with transactions from initial client contact right through to completion. The firm are happy to consider solicitors, licensed conveyancers or legal executives but applicants should ideally have a minimum of 4 years’ experience in residential conveyancing. The post is full-time, permanent and salary levels will be up to £45K plus access to a bonus scheme, pension scheme, childcare voucher scheme and parking space. Full job description and person specification available on request.

VAC-17061 Family Solicitor – West London law firm based in Hammersmith have an opening for an experienced family law solicitor. The firm have an established and rapidly growing family law department consisting of 3 solicitors and deal with a mix of legal aid and privately funded matters. Ideally candidates should have experience of both with a firm knowledge of matrimonial and ancillary relief work. This is a full time, permanent role. Starting salary: around £30K per annum depending on experience plus performance based bonus scheme.

VAC-17058 Head of Legal Collections – company based in Bromley, Greater London and Kilmarnock, Ayrshire are looking for a permanent lawyer to join them at either location as Head of Legal Collections. The company are one of the largest consumer debt buyers in the USA and UK. You will need to have worked in or for the debt recovery industry, whether in private practice or in house, and have experience of managing a legal and collections team, along with strong knowledge of civil litigation procedures including Pre-Action Protocols, and good knowledge of rules and regulations relating to the Collections industry, particularly FCA regulations.
Salary levels £70-80k range, negotiable.

VAC-17055 Wills & Probate Lawyer – large firm with offices across the South West of England are looking for a wills & probate lawyer to work at their Weston-Super-Mare office. The successful candidate will be taking on an established caseload of Wills, Administration of Estates, Court of Protection, and Administration of Trusts work and assisting with the development of the department. The firm are happy to consider solicitors or legal executives with a minimum of 3 years’ PQE in private client work. The post is full-time, permanent and salary will be negotiable depending on experience.

VAC-17052 Wills & Probate Solicitor – an incredibly well established Essex law firm are looking for a wills & probate solicitor to work at their Witham office. Ideally candidates should have 1-2 years’ PQE in Wills & Probate work. The post will be full-time, permanent and salary will be negotiable depending on experience.

VAC-17050 Commercial Property – very well respected Herefordshire firm are looking for a Commercial Property Solicitor to work at their Ledbury office. Ideally candidates will have a minimum of 3 years’ PQE in commercial conveyancing work and be able to manage a caseload without supervision. The post will be full-time, permanent and salary will be negotiable depending on experience.

Ask a Recruitment Consultant – questions this month on our chat bot

Questions sent to us via our new Chat service online, together with general career questions emailed across. We do our best to answer all queries, sometimes after a fairly lengthy delay if we are busy!

Why is there a shortage of private client solicitors and so many vacancies?

Are Locum Rates cheaper for Maternity Leave Cover?

I want to expand my law firm and get consultants working on a fee share. Have you got any?

Is there any point taking on LPC graduates after the larger firms have creamed off the top students?

When I graduate what career route would I do if I am wanting to become a paralegal?

I am a conveyancing solicitor earning £28k and I am billing in the region of £3k per month. What should I get paid?

Full answers available at https://www.ten-percent.co.uk/questions-to-our-recruitment-consultants-via-our-chat-service/

Low Cost Recruitment for Solicitors – Ten Percent Unlimited

Ten-Percent Unlimited is a service offering unlimited recruitment for a set monthly fee. It was set up by us back in 2011 with the aim of making the use of a recruitment agency cost-effective in a time of great financial difficulties for all in the profession. It is still going strong – we have over 100 members – most of whom are sole practitioners or smaller sized law firms.

The Unlimited Recruitment service offers law firms the chance to recruit as many permanent or locum candidates as needed over a period of 5 years in return for a monthly payment. There are no restrictions on numbers (although vacancies have to exist and we do operate a fair usage policy – so far never used) and no other costs. No other similar services exist in the recruitment industry.

For example in a 5 year period you may recruit a few locums for cover each year, a replacement conveyancing solicitor, a couple of legal secretaries, possibly a paralegal or two and have a look to expand the firm into a new area of law with an additional fee earner. All of this would cost considerable amounts in advertising and/or recruitment agency fees. However with Ten Percent Unlimited you simply pay a monthly fee for 60 months.

One of our recruitment consultants works full time on our Ten Percent Unlimited member firms’ recruitment needs and is always happy to talk about the service. If you would like a chat with Clare Fagan, please give her a ring on 0207 127 4343 or email clare.fagan@ten-percent.co.uk. www.tenpercentunlimited.co.uk.

How to be a Locum – pdf guide

We have produced a guide on how to be a locum. This includes sections on getting work, realistic expectations, hourly rates, popular fields of law, payment, insurance, umbrella companies and much more. Available for download at no charge from www.interimlawyers.co.uk – click the link on the left hand side of the page.

About Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment

We are a specialist legal recruiter, covering both permanent and locum roles across the whole of the UK. Over 11,000 lawyers are registered with us and we have access to a range of external and internal job boards and websites where we do not have candidates available ourselves. We also assist with recruitment advice and assistance, regularly advising partners and practice managers on suitable salary and package levels.

Our company is unique for a number of reasons, including the fact that we are not shy to publish our fee structure and also donate a chunk of our profits to charity each year. We offer unlimited permanent and locum recruitment for a fixed monthly fee or one-off fees depending on the job. We donate 10% of our profits annually to charity, hence our name.

We have three recruitment consultants, Jonathan Fagan, Clare Fagan and Pete Gresty, together with our finance director Pearl McNamara. As a team we have over 40 years of experience in the legal profession.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment also owns Interim Lawyers, a specialist locum service. We operate an outsourced UK based typing service as well – www.tptranscription.co.uk and are preferred suppliers to a number of institutional clients and law firms across the UK and overseas.

The Ten-Percent Group of Legal Recruitment websites gives 10% of annual profits to charity. We have carried on with this tradition since we formed the company 15 years ago. So far over £90k has been donated to charities in the UK and Africa including LawCare, Unlock and Reprieve.

We hope you have enjoyed reading our newsletter and look forward to hearing from you if we can assist further.

Warm regards

Jonathan Fagan
Director

E: jbfagan@tenpercentgroup.com
T: 0207 127 4343

Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
20-22 Wenlock Road
London
N1 7GU

Jonathan Fagan is a solicitor, qualified recruitment consultant and Managing Director of Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed here – www.linkedin.com/in/jbfagan

Legal Recruitment News is produced by TP Legal Recruitment – you can view all versions of the e-newsletter at www.legal-recruitment.co.uk.

Ten Percent Group – www.tenpercentgroup.com
Interim Lawyers – www.interimlawyers.co.uk
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment – www.ten-percent.co.uk
Legal Recruitment Newsletter – www.legal-recruitment.co.uk