News/Blog
Thornton Legal news, opinion and insights on legal and recruitment matters.
- Written by Published
It’s been a busy few months at TL, and before I (Nick) go away on a well-earned family holiday to Majorca on Saturday, I thought I would take some time to pen my thoughts and observations on the year so far.
Firms throughout the North show no signs of slowing down when it comes to recruitment and from high street to large national, the emphasis is on growth.
I am sure we are not alone amongst recruiters, but we have never found ourselves so busy.
Since coming out of 2020, the legal industry appears not to have looked back. Almost all commercial disciplines are thriving and the lack of available candidates, whilst a concern, does not seem to have hindered it thus far.
It’s the same old story of too many jobs and too few lawyers. The relentless struggle to recruit has seen a profound upwards shift in salaries across the region and hybrid/flexible working here to stay.
NQ salaries have been a hot topic of conversation amongst lawyers and recruiters alike. Several large firms with offices in the North West have pushed NQ salaries to £60k +, whilst other firms of similar size have bullishly talked down what they see as unsustainable salary hikes.
What we see is candidates understandably taking advantage of the market to drive their own salaries up, either by demanding parity with solicitors at other firms or taking the plunge and entering the recruitment market.
We have seen candidates working for good quality high street and regional firms doing commercially focused work who have been snapped up by the same law firms who, pre pandemic, would not have looked twice at them. One Corporate Solicitor we know who was offered £30,000 on qualification with the firm he trained at only to join a high-profile national law firm on twice this!
I must say I do share some of the same reservations’ others do about where this will all end up and what will be expected in return for the elevated salaries we are seeing, especially if we see a downward dip in the economy, as predicted by the Bank of England earlier this month.
The increased activity amongst law firms and the knock-on effect in recruitment seems to be in direct contrast to the gloom and frustration of the cost of living crisis and rising interest rates. The fear being that the UK will tip into a slow-burning recession due to a reduction in consumer confidence and spending.
This worry does not appear for now to have affected law firms willingness to recruit or candidates confidence to move. I will be interested to see whether things slow down slightly as the year progresses but I am making no predictions. Law firms have proven much more resilient over the past two years than I ever imagined they would!
Thornton Legal is a leading legal recruitment company, recruiting for legal jobs in across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the West Midlands We are passionate about providing a professional, innovative and reliable legal recruitment service that is focused on quality and ensures our clients are matched with the strongest legal talent available. Contact one of our legal recruitment consultants today to see what we can do for your law firm or legal career
- Written by Published
What would you do if you had accepted a new job only to realise that the company, position or location wasn’t the right fit? Perhaps you have accepted a job and realised that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence and you actually like you current job, or you have spoken to other people in your network who wouldn’t touch your new job with a barge-pole whose opinion you trust?
If you have resigned from your current role after being made an offer of employment and your boss has offered you more money to stay, and you have accepted… what would you do then?
Does your intuition tell you that you have made an error of judgement that you have to pull out from or would you stick with the new job for fear of damaging your reputation?
Many people find themselves in this sort of circumstance at least once during their career.
However, it’s important to know that it is possible to turn down a role after accepting a job offer. Indeed, if you have second thoughts after putting yourself forward for a position, this might be your instincts telling you to reconsider. After all, there’s nothing worse than having to go to work every day to a job you just don’t enjoy.
If you’re currently rethinking your acceptance of a job offer, there are some things you can do to exit the deal tactfully without having to face any serious repercussions:
Already accepted a job offer? Read your contract carefully
If you have already accepted an offer of employment and signed a contract for the role, you need to read through the entire document with care. Look for any stipulations about rescinding your acceptance or giving a specified amount of notice should you change your mind.
Most contracts won’t have any specific clauses about this sort of thing and generally focus on salary levels, confidentiality clauses and responsibilities. However, while it is likely there won’t be any legal repercussions if you change your mind, it might be pertinent to get some advice from a lawyer or expert before accepting a job offer.
Tell the recruiter or employer as soon as possible
If you decide to decline a job offer, you need to be 100 percent sure about your decision. As soon as you have made up your mind, you must tell the recruiter and/ or company immediately. It’s critical to do so, as the employer has already invested time and money in the hiring process. They will quickly need to assess the situation and alter their plans.
Do not damage your reputation by ignoring the recruiter or employer. It is far better to be honest as soon as possible, especially if there is a valid reason for turning down the offer. The recruiter and hiring company will be understanding and respect you for your honesty. Additionally, you may need the assistance of the recruiter in the future or want to work with the company as a client.
Be polite always
The best way to come out of an awkward situation, such as reneging on an acceptance of a job offer, is to make sure all your interactions with the recruiter or employer are polite. Call them to communicate your decision and apologise personally. Sending an email or text message will leave them with a lot of questions, they will question your professionalism and be dis-inclined to deal with you again.
Do not make up vague reasons for turning down the offer of employment. Stick to concise – but honest – explanations, such as receiving a counter-offer from your existing company or even saying that on reflection that this is not a good fit for you at this time. Explain that you know that this outcome is not ideal, how disappointed everyone will be and apologise again. Tell the recruiter that you appreciate the hard work they have carried out on your behalf and tell them that you would be happy to work with them in the future.
This way you will mitigate the recruiter’s and employer’s disappointment by offering a valid reason.
This will carry much more weight than leaving the recruiter and hiring company guessing.
You never know when you might come in contact with them again.
Conclusion: It’s not the end of the world if you have second thoughts
While having to go back on your acceptance of a job offer is never going to be the preferred choice, It is unlikely to affect your career negatively over the long term, especially if you don’t make a habit of doing it.
Receiving an offer from a company is exciting and sometimes it is easy to miss or overlook important factors that become more apparent after further consideration.
So, before accepting a job offer it’s important to take time and carefully consider if the position is truly good for you. If you spend time digesting all of the information to fully understand what the position entails, you are able to make an informed decision to accept or decline.
Keep in mind that employers don’t want new hires who would rather be somewhere else.
Thornton Legal is a leading legal recruitment company, recruiting for legal jobs in across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the West Midlands We are passionate about providing a professional, innovative and reliable legal recruitment service that is focused on quality and ensures our clients are matched with the strongest legal talent available. Contact one of our legal recruitment consultants today to see what we can do for your law firm or legal career.
- Written by Published
This week is Thornton Legal’s sixth anniversary, and it’s come around in the blink of an eye. I am also 43 years old tomorrow. Happy birthday to both of us!
It’s fair to say that Thornton Legal is faring better than I am.
There have been tough times (we thought Brexit would cause us problems, then COVID came along!), and episodes of self-doubt (recruitment is mainly disappointment mixed with a magical smattering of success), but Nick and I can honestly say that the past six years have been a huge success.
As a business, I think we fly under the radar. Self-promotion doesn’t come easy to use so you won’t find us humble bragging on social media (after all today’s rooster is tomorrow’s feather duster!), but I will say we have a very heathy business and one Nick and I are proud to have started on the few quid we had saved and the desire to make it work.
We have a lot to be thankful for. A lovely office, fantastic staff and a loyal and constantly growing client base.
In the last few years, we’ve successfully juggled our business responsibilities with hectic home lives. We have two children each all under five, so we are very thankful for the flexibility Thornton Legal gives us. This flexibility to manage our home and personal lives is embedded in our culture, with our team benefitting from it as well.
But, of course, this isn’t it for Thornton Legal. While years zero – six can be stamped ‘success’ and filed away we now have the next six years to focus on and there’s lots we want to achieve in that time.
2022 is set to be a further challenging year for the UK. The ongoing uncertainty surrounding COVID is an unwanted distraction for all law firms, and the business community generally.
In spite of this, there is absolutely cause for optimism. The legal industry has again proved to be impressively resilient, and we want to continue to grow our business by providing a quality recruitment experience to clients and candidates.
We also want to ensure that working for Thornton Legal continues to be fun, flexible and rewarding.
On behalf of me and Nick, thanks to the Thornton Legal team, our families, clients, candidates and numerous other people who have helped us along the way.
Have an excellent 2022.
- Written by Published
At Thornton Legal we really appreciate the teams hard work and we recognise it as much as we can from late starts and early finishes through to team lunches and various incentive. We’re not perfect buy we do try, and we think we have learnt what works and what doesn’t from speaking to hundreds of candidates over the years.
While there is rarely just a single reason for a valued employee leaving a company, bad management is often an overriding factor. As the saying goes… ‘’people quit bosses, not jobs’’.
According to a study by Gallup, one in two people admitted to having left a job to get away from a bad manager. But what makes you a ‘bad manager?’
- No trust
If you don’t trust your employees, why hire them in the first place? (Obviously if your employee betrays your trust… but that’s a different story)
A manager who struggles with trusting their employees ends up creating a hostile working environment which leaves the employee feeling stressed and unmotivated to perform their best work, especially if they feel their every move is being monitored.
An employee does not want to work in an environment where they’re not trusted by their manager, it creates a negative culture.
- Not being appreciated
For an employee there is nothing worse than consistently going above and beyond what is required for it to only go unrecognised. You can show appreciation to your staff in many ways but a simple thank you is often all it takes.
- One rule for you, another for your employee
Employees get it, you’re the manager, you can do what you like… but it doesn’t create a positive working environment if it is ‘one rule for you, another rule for your employees’. Your employees will eventually become fed up of them not having the flexibility they need, whereas you are swanning off as and needs be.
Unsurprisingly, managers have the greatest impact on employee engagement. Gallup’s research also identified that great managers possess a combination of five talents:
- Motivate their employees
- Assert themselves to overcome obstacles
- Create a culture of accountability
- Build trusting relationships
- Make informed, unbiased decisions for the good of their team and company
Managers who do these tasks well create a positive working environment that motivates their employees to perform at their best. Whereas managers who struggle to do any of the above five points end up pushing good employees towards the exit door!
Despite the salary or amazing benefits you offer, you can’t buy engagement or loyalty. If an employee is not valued, trusted or recognised then they move on. You need to create a positive culture, build loyalty, and do everything you promised in their interview.
If you are reading this thinking is this me? Then it probably is. Luckily it’s not too late to make a change. Get in touch and let’s find you your next legal role.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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Thornton Legal is a leading legal recruitment company, recruiting for legal jobs in across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the West Midlands We are passionate about providing a professional, innovative and reliable legal recruitment service that is focused on quality and ensures our clients are matched with the strongest legal talent available. Contact one of our legal recruitment consultants today to see what we can do for your law firm or legal career.
- Written by Published
The penny, at least for a lot of law firms, is beginning to drop and this is music to recruiters’ ears. There is an ever-increasing acknowledgement amongst partners and internal recruiters that there just aren’t enough lawyers around to satisfy a hungry recruitment market.
Why is this important? Well, the realisation that candidates have choices means that firms are happier than ever before to work strategically with recruiters to get their hiring strategy right.
We have put together some handy hints and tips for law firms to help them stay ahead of the game when it comes to recruitment.
Engage effectively with recruiters
This sounds obvious, right? Unfortunately, too few law firms have embraced the idea, and this has seen them fall behind competitors who are committed to working in tandem with recruiters.
A good recruiter understands the firm’s needs and knows exactly where to go to find the right person, especially in a candidate short market. They have access to a wide pool of candidates including those who may not be actively seeking new employment. They are constantly in touch with ‘passive’ job seekers who won’t respond to a job advert but will take a call about a vacancy from a recruitment consultant who they know and trust.
What does engaging effectively mean? Well, it means doing most of the following:
Providing good information about the role and the reasons why working for the firm is a good idea.
Being open and transparent about salaries, bonuses and benefits and the likely timescales involved in the process.
Coming back quickly on CV’s and arranging interviews in a timely manner.
The Interview Process
Remember, an interview is a two-way process. You need to be able to ‘sell’ your company to the candidate. If the interviewee isn’t excited by the role, they’re not going to be interested in joining.
The best candidate may have multiple interviews lined up, so it is important to create a welcoming, positive interview experience, that leaves a lasting impression irrespective of whether you know you won’t be pursuing anything further with the candidate.
It starts from when they are greeted by reception and doesn’t finish until they have left the building.
Decision Making
Don’t hang around waiting to make a decision. In a candidate short market, time is not on your side.
This goes for every touch point a candidate has with your company - cv send, scheduling an interview and the job offer. Companies that take too long to make a decision are only giving the competition the benefit of time.
An efficient and quick recruitment process goes a long way in securing a candidate.
It also involves providing proper, constructive feedback within at least 24/48 hours of the interview Nothing turns a hitherto excited candidate off a firm more than delays and lack of communication.
Candidate aftercare
If you are investing time, effort and money in securing the best lawyers, the process should not simply end with an offer being accepted.
3-month notice periods can drag so we would definitely recommend keeping the dialogue going with soon to be new starters. A nice suggestion could be meeting them for a coffee or chatting over the phone in the run up to their start date.
Thornton Legal is a leading legal recruitment company, recruiting for legal jobs in across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the West Midlands We are passionate about providing a professional, innovative and reliable legal recruitment service that is focused on quality and ensures our clients are matched with the strongest legal talent available. Contact one of our legal recruitment consultants today to see what we can do for your law firm or legal career.
- Written by Published
Recruiters are often asked why you should enlist the services of a recruiter to help you find a new job. People often assume all we do is a arrange the interview between you and a company.
However, there is much more we do at Thornton Legal, before and after arranging the interview. For example:
We have access to hidden markets.
Not all law firms advertise their job roles on their website or job boards.
We invest a lot of time developing and maintaining relationships with companies and networking. We have the ear of Partners and HR Managers and are aware of opportunities that either aren’t being advertised or are being recruited for exclusively by one or two trusted recruiters.
So, if you are not using a specialist recruiter and are applying to companies directly, you might be missing out on a perfect opportunity!
We have expert knowledge
We are specialised in the legal sector and have expert industry knowledge. We have spent valuable time studying the market. We know who is recruiting, at what level and have detailed information about the role/firm from meeting with the hiring client – this will be information that is not obvious from their website and will help you go a long way in a successful interview process.
Also, by knowing the trends in the market we can help create an opportunity at a law firm for a candidate that otherwise would not have been possible without selling that particular person’s skills and experience to the right decision maker.
Law firms can be passive recruiters, often they don’t realise they need to recruit until the right CV is put in front of them from a trusted source. Sometimes they must be persuaded that they need to recruit.
CV
We take the time to go through your CV with you, this is so we can fully understand your work history, where you are now, what you want from your legal career and your skill set. This is so we know what role you would be suited to and what firm you will be happy at.
Interview preparation
When you get an interview, we want to meet all our candidates (if they want to) to help with their interview preparation. We fully understand what our client wants and what they are looking for. We can tell you informative information about them and the firm, along with interview questions you may be asked!
Interview feedback
After the interview, we will speak to you and find out how the interview went, if you feel like you would be happy at the firm and will pass on any questions you have.
We obtain constructive feedback for you and keep you in the loop on what is going on.
Along with all the above, a few points to mention on the benefits of using a recruiter is
- Confidentiality - If you ask, we can ensure that approaches are made in confidence to firms, allowing candidates the peace of mind that their applications are dealt with securely and sensitively.
- Salary Negotiation – If you have been offered a job and the salary does not match your expectations, we can negotiate on your behalf in a sensitive and effective way.
- Career Guidance – We can give candidates valuable insight into career progression tactics, salary expectations, retrains opportunities or general advice on the job market.
- Time saving – Let us do all the work ?
Thornton Legal is a leading legal recruitment company, recruiting for legal jobs in across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the West Midlands We are passionate about providing a professional, innovative and reliable legal recruitment service that is focused on quality and ensures our clients are matched with the strongest legal talent available. Contact one of our legal recruitment consultants today to see what we can do for your law firm or legal career.