Pasquale Agatiello has recently been appointed to launch eNL’s In-House Legal Division.

Having left a major competitor within the legal recruitment market, Pasquale brings with him over 10 years legal experience, working on retained, search and contingency based campaigns. He has a first class reputation based on market knowledge, professional approach and the opinion of key in-house lawyers he has placed into strategic roles across the UK.

As a highly experienced in-house legal recruiter Pasquale can provide comprehensive information on job opportunities, market trends and salary rates. Coverage will include permanent, interim and contract in-house positions from paralegals through to partner/general counsel level.

Pasquale’s diverse client base includes FTSE250/350 companies, some of the biggest names in energy, manufacturing and finance as well as retail, insurance, aerospace and service organisations.

Prior to moving into the legal arena Pasquale was Regional Manager of a global recruitment company before being head hunted to run the UK division of a leading European Technology Search and Selection Company. Pasquale built and managed a successful team recruiting pre-sales and technical support specialists across the Pre IPO start-up sectors.

Away from the office Pasquale’s life is largely dominated by his family, namely his two young daughters who run rings around him at home!  Where time allows Pasquale is a renowned cinema enthusiast (geek), depressed follower of Liverpool FC and a keen cook who enjoys a glass (or 2) of wine.

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Eversheds has begun its fifth round of redundancies in two years, with up to 100 roles under review as the firm prepares to outsource back office functions to Accenture.

A consultation process has already begun which could affect 100 jobs in finance and human resources across Eversheds’ Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds offices.

Over the next 12 months, Accenture is likely to assume responsibility for Eversheds’ HR support services and administration, general accounting functions, billing and collections, and business processes involved from procurement to payment.

The firm stated that the preferred outcome will see a “gradual and controlled movement of HR and finance functions” to offshore offices.

The news comes after the UK top 10 firm brought in the consultancy at the beginning of the year to review its systems and processes in a bid to streamline and improve back office systems.

Eversheds managing partner Lee Ranson led the project alongside finance director Kathryn Fleming and head of HR Angus MacGregor.

Ranson commented: “It is important that any major law firm continues to adapt in line with changes in both our sector and the wider marketplace.”

He added: “We have worked over the last eight months to look at how best to deliver some of our HR and finance functions. This proposal would enable us to put in place a cost-efficient, innovative and robust solution, which safeguards quality and enhances client service.

“It is always regrettable when potential redundancies are a part of such a process and we will of course be consulting with all those members of staff who may be affected by this announcement.

“The proposals are to retain impacted staff for a minimum of six months to assist with transition. Those affected will be offered enhanced redundancy terms and comprehensive outplacement support.”

This is the fifth round of redundancies the firm has conducted since September 2008, with the last round of cuts coming in September last year, when 117 roles were reviewed including 22 fee earners in the firm’s real estate practice.

Source : Legal Week

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Halliwells executive chairman Ian Austin is set to join Heatons as the Manchester law firm’s new head of commercial litigation.

Austin, who will take up his new post at Heatons this week, has held various senior roles at Halliwells, including managing partner and litigation head.

He was named executive chairman last September after the firm overhauled its senior management structure, a move Austin said was prompted by the need for “more resources to manage a firm the size of Halliwells”. Read more »

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The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs celebrates their twentieth anniversary this year. ILSPA not only offers recognised qualifications, but also provides professional recognition for their Members and their ongoing development, together with support, advice and career guidance for trainee and experienced Legal Secretaries. Read more »

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According to a study conducted by Sweet and Maxwell, legal information provider, the number of personal injury claims filed in the High Court have rose 32% between 2006 and 2008.

The rise comes despite attempts to reduce personal injury claims under the Compensation Act 2006, which imposed registration requirements on claims management companies and created the Ministry of Justice’s claims management regulator.

Sweet & Maxwell suggested that the recession is behind the rise in personal injury claims, with individuals claiming because they were under financial stress. At the same time, insurers suffering from weak investment returns were more willing to contest claims, Sweet & Maxwell suggested.

Browse Simply Law Jobs for the latest Personal Injury Law Jobs

Source : Law Society Gazette

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NALP is very pleased to announce the alliance between the NALP (National Association of Licensed Paralegals) and the Fellowship of Professional Willwriters and Probate Practitioners (FPWPP).

Apart from the benefit of being, or indeed becoming, a member of the Fellowship, the only wills and probate membership body which is actively seeking regulation of the industry from the Government, it also means that as an Affiliate member of NALP, Fellowship members can access the benefits previously only enjoyed by NALP members.

NALP is a well respected and highly professional membership body that has, for the last 23 years, been responsible for the Education and Training of many thousands of paralegals across the UK. Read more »

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Below is a guide of your legal obligations once you have employed someone. It is an employer’s responsibility to make sure that the Employment Law checklist is fulfilled.

This guide provides an overview of your responsibilities, with a specific focus on:

• Recruitment.
• Terms of employment.
• Pay.
• Your ongoing responsibilities as an employer. Read more »

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A magistrate who is facing disciplinary action after describing two teenage vandals as “absolute scum” has insisted he had used “appropriate” language.

The 16-year-old boys scribbled racist and sexually abusive graffiti on prayer books and bent a valuable cross out of shape in Blackburn Cathedral, Lancashire.

Sentencing the pair, who were caught after signing their names in the visitors’ book, Austin Molloy, chairman of the bench, said: “Normal people would consider you absolute scum.”

Mr Molloy said his fellow ma Read more »

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Kenneth Clarke has been appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as incoming prime minister David Cameron forms his first cabinet.

Details are emerging of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government, with key cabinet posts confirmed so far including Clarke as the UK’s new Justice Secretary, replacing the outgoing Labour minister Jack Straw.

Clarke, who served in the Conservative cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, holding roles including Chancellor of Exchequer, Health Secretary and Education Secretary, was appointed by Cameron in 2009 as Shadow Business Secretary before being confirmed as Justice Secretary today (12 May) in the new government. Read more »

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The stragglers among the stranded volcano victims may be arriving home but we are not out of the ash cloud yet. Indeed — from a legal perspective — the crisis has barely started. Only now, as people dust themselves down and turn to the paperwork, can we start to get a glimmer of what lies ahead. And like the volcanic ash itself, the issues arising will drift across the legal landscape from airlines to regulators, insurance companies to ordinary employers who have only a remote interest in the airline business. Read more »

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