Legal Reviews online

How to find information on Law Firms and Solicitors in the UK
If you are a member of the public looking for information on a solicitors or law firm in the UK what are the best resources to use and which resources can be trusted in terms of reviews and rankings that they give to a law firm.
There are three main legal directories in the UK that have long a distinguished history of rating and reviewing law firms. The three main players are The Legal 500, Chambers and The Lawyer.  I will examine each one of these sites in more detail.
The Legal 500

The Legal 500 website and matching printed directory are the flagship products of Legalese Publishing who were formed in 1987. The Legal 500 was the first was the first UK website that provided reviews of large firms and it is currently the largest site of its type.
Legalese was founded by John Pritchard and he still edits and publishes the directory. Although it initial started as a directory of UK legal services the Legal 500 series now covers most regions in the world.
A firms listing in the directory covers areas of specialism and their position in their region or location. The Legal 500 listing also includes information on key individuals and a firm profile.  The Legal 500 is seen as the most authoritative of the legal directories in the UK due to the in depth nature of the research it carries out and the length of time it has been established.

The legal 500 can be viewed on the internet, in a hardback book form an as an ebook.

http://www.legal500.com/

An example of a Legal 500 company profile – Lester Aldridge Solicitors Legal 500

Chambers

Chambers was established in 1990 and currently employs 140 highly qualified full-time researchers who conduct thousands of interviews with lawyers and their clients worldwide. The legal directory covers a wide range of practice areas and locations within the UK and abroad. They also publish the UK Bar Guide for barristers and barrister chambers and a UK Student Guide that looks at law firms from the view point of those what a career in law.
Lawyers and law firms are ranked in Bands from 1-6 and these rankings are based on a number of criteria including technical legal ability, professional conduct and client service.
Chambers and Partners is available as a hardback book, via their website and as an e-book.

http://www.chambersandpartners.com

An example of a Chamber company Profile – Lester Aldridge LLP 

The Lawyer

The Lawyer is the leading magazine in the UK for solicitors, lawyers and other members of the legal profession. It has first published in 1981 and is owned by Centaur Media who also own Marketing Week and The Creative Review. The magazine and website cover a wide range of legal news stories, briefings and legal jobs. Unlike both The Legal 500 and Chambers the law firm reviews are not the primary function of the lawyer. That is not to say that the reviews do not carry weight and value. The reviews in the lawyer tend to focus on the profit and turnover of the firm with less in depth analysis of the type carried out by The Legal 500 and Chambers. There is a neat little tool that allows you to compare law firm turnovers and plots them against each other on a graph.

The Lawyer - http://www.thelawyer.com

An Example of a company Profile - http://www.thelawyer.com/lester-aldridge/414809.supplier

There are also a number of other ways to check law firm feedback including checking local forums, Google+ pages, sites such as Trip Advisor and Qype. The issue with these sites is that the information is not always verifiable and the identity of the reviewers cannot be checked.
If you are a member of the public looking for information on a law firm then Chambers and The Legal 500 provide the best information in terms of reputation and areas of expertise. If you are a student thinking about working for a firm then the tools on the lawyer can be useful as well.
  Tony Heywood ©

Corporate Finance Solicitor, Plymouth

Corporate Finance Solicitor, Plymouth 
This leading regional law firm continues to punch well above its weight and has an impressive list of clients that leading national firms would be proud to call their own. Through a series of recent hires the firm have won a number of accolades in Legal 500 and also Chambers & Partners and are now looking to recruit in a number of junior lawyers across the firm. The Corporate team boasts a number of highly thought of Corporate Partners from a wide and varied background and as a result the calibre of work the department undertakes is second to none. Now looking to appoint a junior lawyer to the team, the successful applicant will be between 2 -4 years qualified and will have undertaken a training contract within a leading national law firm or a leading regional practice. What will stand out will be your technical ability and a true understanding of all transactions ranging from M&A work through to MBO, MBI and Joint ventures. You must be ambitious dynamic and enthusiastic with a passion for this area of law and a genuine desire to develop your career. 


Full job spec is here:


http://www.simplylawjobs.com/jobs/corporate/devon/corporate_finance_solicitor_plymouth-284327.html?refid=SEARCHSPONSOR

Simply Law Jobs celebrates fourth birthday with record results

This week sees the fourth birthday of Simply Law Jobs, the leading niche law recruitment jobs board.

The site was launched in the spring of 2004 and unlike many other recruitment sites that have been launched and fallen by the wayside; SimplyLawJobs.com has gone from strength to strength during this time.

Since joining the Simply Online Services group of jobs boards at the end of 2007 and a subsequent re-brand in January of this year, this success has been even more marked.
There are currently over 15,000 live jobs on the site and nearly 18,000 unique visitors were recorded in March this year.

Clients of Simply Law Jobs are benefiting greatly from the site’s success in many ways. Not only are there more job seekers than ever before (over 10,000 at present) and a growing CV database, but also application rates have doubled month on month compared to a year ago
In addition to this, there are dedicated account managers who are on hand to advise clients and help them get the most out of their recruitment advertising campaigns.

Michelle Jones, Project Manager for Simply Online says "I am ecstatic to see the business doing so well and firmly establishing itself as a top industry player.
“Since Simply Law Jobs became part of Simply Online it has grown dramatically and our client advertisers are certainly reaping the benefits.”

For more information about SimplyLawJobs.com please contact Ian Partington on 01772 639030 or email ian@simplygroup.net.

Men are CV liars

According to some latest research, 1 in 10 men lie on their CVs. BackgroundChecking.com quizzed almost 1,500 respondents and found that whilst 12% of men admitted to lying about their job title on their CV, just 7% of women did the same.Likewise, more males were willing to exaggerate their educational qualifications, with 14% of men questioned admitting to falsifying this information on their CV and job application forms, whereas only 11% of women would do the same. Avis Easteal, general manager at BackgroundChecking.com, said: "HR departments need to check every application thoroughly. If people believe they can get away with lying on their CV, then they will. There are serious implications for anyone who employs a person without checking their credentials, whether qualifications for the job, experience or even employment eligibility." For example, the recent introduction of the Immigration Act means that a company can be charged up to £10,000 or even face imprisonment if they employ someone who is not permitted to work in the UK."

Naked Law: Nothing can stop a good Policeman

Nude policeman confronts thief while off duty – yes he was stark naked when a thief tried to steal his wife’s car in the early hours.

Metro.co.uk reports “Faced with the sight of a naked, torch-wielding man running towards him, the offender made a run for it – only to be apprehended by the policeman's (clothed) wife, who grabbed him by the collar. He managed to get away again briefly – perhaps spurred by the fact that a naked guy was ordering him to lie on the ground – but was quickly picked up by some properly dressed policemen shortly afterwards.”

For Police Station Accredited roles to uncover the naked truth, click HERE

Money Can’t Be Me Love (but it can get you a good legal team!)

On the steps of the High Court Heather Mills attempted to spin her divorce settlement as a victory. The fact that she had represented herself, saved approx £600,000 in legal fees & negotiated a settlement of £24.2 million was dressed up as a positive outcome. Unfortunately, like much of Heather Mills’ life the facts don’t quite add up.

The legal fees really are small change when compared to her initial petition for £125 million and the widely predicted settlement somewhere in the region of £30 million. To spend £600,000 to gain £4 million seems simple arithmetic. In the logarithms of Heather Mills’ mind for some reason it doesn’t. The loss in the region of £4 million is dressed up as win. I can’t believe she is really that self deluded.

The harsh reality is that the money Paul McCartney spent on his legal team was money very well spent. Mills hubris, her misplaced beliefs that lack even the basic rudimentary skills and with no legal training that she could negotiate a positive outcome has back fired spectacularly.

McCartney’s side of the case was represented by Fiona Shackleton of Payne Hicks Beach LLP. Shackleton who represented Prince Charles in his divorce from Diana, in contrast with Heather Mills total inexperience, is a lawyer at the top of her profession. Although McCartney has lost out on some minor points; the yearly amount for his daughter, the upper limit of salary for her nanny. In the cold light of day he has come out of the settlement much better than his ex-wife. The settlement has barely dented his vast wealth. In comparison to the divorce settlement of Michael Jordon £75.5 million, Neil Diamond £75.5 million and Steven Spielberg £50 million it can be seen as a huge failure. Heather Mills hasn’t secured even a pyrrhic victory, no she has just highlighted the need for quality legal advice and a top legal team.

Michelle Jones ©

For Family Lawyer Jobs & Libel Lawyer Jobs visit Simply Law Jobs

Awards ceremony for the UK online recruitment industry

The Onrec.com Awards has been established to celebrate the success, growth, innovation and talent within the Online Recruitment Industry. This year it was celebrated on Wednesday 5th March at the Café Royal in London, with c400 attendees.

A few of us from Simply Online attended, along with entertaining clients from MKH Advertising and Barkers to name a few. Simply Sales Jobs was nominated for the Innovative Online Marketing Award for marketing it does on the Ecademy business networking website. Ian Partington, Managing Director of Simply Online Services was also nominated for Personality of the Year Award! Sadly, we were not winners on the night but it was certainly enjoyed by all.