A Guide To The Recruitment Process

The Initial Discussion

Every CV we receive is considered in detail and it is our usual practice to invite candidates in for an initial discussion to establish their professional and personal profile and ascertain their precise career aspirations. Where a meeting is not possible, we will cover as much ground as possible by telephone.

CV Preparation

Using your own CV and the information gleaned from our discussions with you, we will prepare a formal CV containing a detailed account of your educational achievements, professional experience and relevant personal particulars, in a concise and accessible layout which is familiar to our clients.

The CV is a powerful marketing tool and our format presents our candidates in the most favourable light, without embellishment. It is in our interest as well as yours to provide reliable information and naturally, we can only look to you to supply the correct details.

The Search

We have a vast client base which includes every leading firm in London and the provinces, an extensive array of smaller and medium sized practices nationwide and myriad Blue Chip companies in the manufacturing, banking, energy, leisure, hi-tech, chemicals, construction and insurance sectors, among others. Our international network also gives us access to a vast database of vacancies in the Far East, Europe, Australasia and the USA.

If you have utilised the search and/or update facilities on our site, you will probably have selected a number of vacancies which are of interest to you and, naturally, these will be discussed with you along with any vacancies we consider to be suitable for you having conduucted our own search on your behalf. We never settle for the obvious solutions. Our approach is both creative and lateral, utilising our detailed insight into our clients and marrying that to your particular skills and personality, thus providing you with the widest possible range of opportunities to consider. We often place candidates into positions they did not envisage when they first registered with us!

Approaching Employers

It is a central tenet of our operation that we do not send out candidates’ CVs without first obtaining their express permission to do so. Lipson Lloyd-Jones is a founder member of the FRES Legal Section and was instrumental in the formation of a code of conduct which ensures that this requirement is observed by all member agencies.

Keeping Us Informed

When discussing suitable vacancies with our candidates, we do expect them to notify us as to whether the suggested employer has already been approached, either directly or indirectly via a third party. Employers will always draw an adverse inference from the receipt of the same CV from different sources and your prospects of impressing will all but have disappeared. In limited circumstances - eg. the passage of time since the first approach, a different vacancy, a personal contact - a fresh application may be advisable, but we will always discuss this with you first.

Ongoing Search

We never take any candidates off our database unless and until they ask us to and we will continue to advise you of all new vacancies immediately upon receipt of instructions. We never forget a candidate and if you do not hear from us for a while, it is only because no suitable vacancy has arisen.

If you wish to consider vacancies in legal disciplines, environments or locations other than those originally discussed, let us know as soon as possible so that we can conduct a new search for you. Similarly, if you no longer wish us to pursue the original lines of enquiry, do tell us!

Interviews

As soon as a client asks to interview you, we will contact you. In the majority of cases, clients prefer candidates to contact them direct but occasionally they will give us a number of alternative dates for you to consider.

We recommend that interviews be arranged as soon as possible after they are requested as prevarication can lead to a lost opportunity.

Clients are generally quite flexible about interview timings although, naturally, early, late and lunchtime appointments are preferred.

We will arm you with detailed interview advice (also available on this site), all necessary information about the job and an insight into the client’s culture and practice philosophy to include brochures and other relevant literature, where available.

Please telephone us after your interviews to let us know your views. The quicker we convey feedback to the client, the better. We will also tell you what the client thought of you!

In most cases, where the client feels positive about a candidate, a second interview will be arranged. Occasionally, third and fourth (and sometimes more) meetings take place, but this is usually the case only at more senior levels.

Offers

We will, of course, inform you immediately should a client wish to make you an offer. We are always happy to assist as intermediaries in the negotiation of packages or terms and often this service is an effective means of preventing a face-off between the parties, which can lead to entrenchment or fractiousness! However, in the majority of cases, the parties prefer to negotiate offers directly.

Acceptance

Clients do not expect offers to be accepted immediately but they will not wait forever for an answer. If you are unsure about accepting an offer, tell us why and we may be able to help. If you leave it too long without communicating your reasons to us or the client, the offer may be withdrawn and an opportunity lost forever. It is almost impossible to resuscitate an offer once a candidate has indicated negativity or indifference.

References

In virtually every case, the question of an offered candidate’s references only arises once an offer has been made. Naturally, you should have a good idea in advance of who your friends are amongst your potential referees so that when the issue does arise, you do not fall foul of an unexpected grudge or damaging remark. Employers generally rely upon written references alone although they occasionally seek verbal confirmation. In either event, be prepared to provide us with names, addresses and telephone numbers for us to pass on to the client.

Persuasion

Occasionally, a candiate will have competing offers from one of our clients and from another to whom they have been introduced by a different agency. We will never attempt to influence you to accept the offer from our client by denigrating the other offeror. We consider any attempt by an agency to exert pressure on a candidate to accept an offer from one of their clients to be unacceptable. Career decisions are too important and you need to be able to weigh up the merits of competing offers with a clear mind.

Queries

If there are any aspects of the legal recruitment process you would like to discuss in greater detail, please do not hesitate to contact us.

info@ll-j.com