Carpe Diem Legal

What does the new Age Discrimination Act mean?

2008-09-07T16:33:00.003Z

From 1st October 2006 the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations make it unlawful to discriminate against employees, job seekers and trainees on the basis of their age, whether young or old. This is good news as it will give employees more rights and opportunities at work. The protection covers direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimization.

In addition the new legislation gives all employees the right to "request to work" beyond the retirement age set by the company. This will not affect the age at which people can claim their state pension. The legislation provides a national default retirement age of 65, which means that complusory retirement under the age of 65 will be deemed unlawful unless the employer is able to objectively justify the early retirement.

This extra protection for more mature workers includes the opportunity to enforce the legislation by way of an employment tribunal and therefore upper age limits in respect of claims for unfair dismissal and redundancy were removed from 1st October.

What are we doing at CDL to adhere to the regulations?

Well, we do not include dates of birth or age indicators on CV's which are sent to our clients and in fact have not done so for some time. Neither do we list qualifications with dates of study. We do not advertise positions with age limits and do not discriminate in any way on the basis of age during the process of obtaining applications, considering CV's and in obtaining interviews and work placements for those candidates who are registered with us.

We short list candidates on the basis of whether their qualifications and experience meet with our client's specification. We also look for a consistent work history and no regular "job hopping" without good reason and that salary expectations are consistent with the salary band for the position under consideration.

Phrases like 'applicants should be 25-35 years of age', ‘young graduates’, ‘mature person’ are discriminatory.

We strive to publicise our vacancies in ways most likely to attract people of a variety of ages, including internet and legal publications. We should stress that we have always had a policy of equal opportunities for our candidates and where firms we work with are found to have contrary policies, we discontinue our association with them. That said, reassuringly, we are beginning to see clients confirming their equal ops' policies and checking our policy in this respect.

It appears that despite the impending enforcement date for the anti-age discrimination rules, law firms and in-house are widely continuing to categorise their positions in relation to post qualifying experience and whilst this might be seen as disadvantaging younger Solicitors, it has been a method of narrowing the search for suitably experienced people for the level of role available.

However, we always take account of the experience our candidate has, rather than a cursory glance at their PQE and would always introduce a candidate whom we consider to have had the relevant experience and exposure to enable them to fulfil the client's requirements. We consider the quality and relevance of experience to be the most important factor - not the number of years of PQE. We know that experience can vary considerably; simply as a result of the type of firm, infrastructure, amount of delegation/responsibility and quality of work dealt with.

We do keep details of date of birth for our records but this information is retained in order to enable us to undertake diversity monitoring.

We work to good practice and have a written Equal Opportunities Policy, which all or staff adhere to and benefit from. We strive for a workforce which is age diverse and to place candidates in firms on the same basis. We seek applications for vacancies from all age groups. We strive to ensure that the vacancies we advertise are objective, being based solely on skills, relevant experience and capacity to do the job.

We hope that you do not need to rely on the legislation in the future but it is certainly worth knowing your rights and encouraging employers, agencies and others to be open minded and non-discriminatory in respect of age. With an ageing population, employers will have serious recruitment problems in the future if they do discriminate.

ILEX Bristol and Surrounds Annual Summer Ball

2008-07-10T11:00:00.006Z

Deborah Saw and Caroline Evans at the presentation of the Carpe Diem Legal Awards.

We were delighted to present the Carpe Diem Legal Annual Achievement award to two ILEX students who have completed the Level 3 and Level 6 awards respectively, gaining the highest marks of all students in the Bristol and Surrounds catchment for the 2007 academic year.

Top table and speaker, Chairman of the Bristol ILEX branch, Sarah Cleave

The Level 3 award winner was Debbie Vizor and the Level 6 winner and exceptionally, the Level 3 winner from last year,was Clare Carolan.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to ILEX for an enjoyable evening.

Pictured with the winners are Tom Corrigan, Partner of law firm Beachcrofts, Judith Gordon-Nichols, ILEX Deputy Vice President and outgoing ILEX President, Mrs Lesley Graham

2008-06-27T12:39:00.011Z

FUN ON THE FARM!

LISA AND DAVE HAVE BEEN RUNNING THE CHERRY LODGE FARM, FRAMPTON COTTERELL, NEAR BRISTOL FOR ABOUT THE LAST 18 MONTHS AND WELCOME VISITORS TO THE FARM AND THE FARM SHOP, WHICH IS OPEN ON THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, WEEKLY.

They also cater for group visits - as can be seen by the photographs of Frenchay Playgroup children, who enjoyed seeing and handling the animals, watched Ian make sausages from the farm's own pork and had a lovely picnic afterwards. Contact details and directions will be posted shortly.

The farm has the Gloucester Old Spot Pig, Chickens (for eggs and table meat), Lamb and Ducks and the shop stocks whole lamb and pig, cuts of meat, quiches, sausages, faggots, scotch eggs and free range eggs. You can also buy live ducks and chickens to keep in your garden, allotment or small holding!

Thank you Lisa and Dave for a fantastically informative and fun day for all concerned - and for supplying our lovely girls (Bonnie, Clarrissa, Sasha and Charlotte) who are busy in the coop, laying eggs daily for the CDL breakfast!

AND a couple of our ladies - including the sun bathing hen!

2008-06-26T14:38:00.004Z

Congratulations to Richard Childs winner of the Endangered Species Group and overall winner of the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2008!

We were already showing the winning drawing, yes drawing!, on our website and are fantastically proud of Richard, who has now won well deserved recognition from a celebrated artist and a few quid for his efforts too!

Go Rich! Want to see how he did it and what else Richard is up to? - Click on his button on our site.

HOLIDAY ENTITLEMENT

2008-06-09T14:50:00.002Z

DID YOU KNOW......

that your statutory holiday entitlement increased in October to 4.8 weeks per year for a full time worker. This means that you are entitled to 24 days paid holiday per year BUT this allowance can include public/bank holidays, of which there are currently 8 for Great Britain and 10 for Northern Ireland.

The holiday allowance will increase further to 5.6 weeks from 1 April 2009.

Part-time workers are are entitled to the same level of holiday but on a pro rata basis (so 4.8 then 5.6 times your usual working week).

Worth knowing is that you start accruing holiday time as soon as you start work. Your employer CAN control when you take your holiday and you will receive your normal pay for your holiday. When you finish a job you will be paid for any holiday you have not taken.

Also worth knowing is that there is no statutory right to be paid for bank and public holidays. If you decide to work on a bank or public holiday, there is no automatic right to an enhanced pay rate. What you get paid depends on your contract of employment.

Do you know what you should be paid?

2008-04-08T12:54:00.002Z

The minimum wage is on the rise once again.

From 1st October 2008 those over the age of 22 can expect to earn a minimum of £5.73 per hour, currently £5.52. And 18-21 year olds will also benefit from a slight increase from £4.60 to £4.77. 16-17 year olds must be paid £3.53 per hour from October - their current minimum rate is £3.40.

Brains for brass!

2008-03-14T17:21:00.005Z

Julie Peasegood asking all the right questions! Roy Winters & Terry Longden talk tactics Magic Magician puzzles Deb!

Carpe Diem Legal were sponsors of the second Brain Game event to be held in Bristol and are thrilled to be able to report that the funds raised on the evening were double that of £30,000 raised in 2007.

The evening was hosted by actress and author, Julie Peasegood, who did a fantastic job of keeping the teams on track, in getting through a frankly quite Einstein list of questions. OK, the CDL team, "We thought it was a disco" didn't do that well overall but of course it is the taking part that counts and we did that whole heartedly!

During the evening we were joined by a Dalek, which sounded very much like Little Britain's Vicky Pollard and Eddie Large, who was just able to see over the podium to raise a few laughs.

The seriousness of what everyone was there for was underlined when a film was shown of a current Marie Curie patient, terminally ill with cancer, who is being home nursed in the South West. The guests responded enthusiastically and generously during the evening's auction and CDL were delighted to see the items we collected fetched a good sum of money. Amongst those items were a case of Estee Lauder beauty products, donated by Beauty Editor, Nadine Baggott, a signed Bristol Rovers football, a signed Bristol Rugby ball and rugby shirt. The football alone raised an impressive £200.

Other auction lots included a tour of the new Cabot Circus shopping development in Bristol, prior to opening and "Manager for the Day" at the Mercure Holland House Hotel.

Rowetta Satchell of X Factor fame was not only one of our team members but our quiz round host, along with Terry Longden of "The Salon". Both Rowetta and Terry were great fun and gave us a lot of laughs during the evening. Rowetta sang a Stevie Wonder number "People" as a finale before guests moved to participate in the casino and other events which rounded of the evening.

We were delighted to be joined by one of our sponsored players from Bristol Rugby, Mariano Sambucetti (Sambu) as well as Bristol lock, Roy Winters,, solicitors Alistair Govier and Clive Weeks of Thring Townsend Lee and Pemberton and Withy King respectively and Nick Wood from our fantastic design team.

We are absolutely thrilled that so much interest and most importantly, nursing hours were secured for the charity and are now looking forward to next year, where we have the expectation of raising even more.

Thank you to Penny, Jon and Ian from Marie Curie, who have been a delight to liaise with throughout and looked after us all on the night.

New Look ILEX Journal

2008-03-06T15:20:00.003Z

There is set to be an exciting change to the ILEX Journal and a fresh new look. As part of that, ILEX will be providing information and advice from a careers panel, selected from national law firms, only two selected recruitment consultancies and ILEX themselves.

We are always keen to support the Institute and its membership so we were delighted to have been invited to participate in the careers section. You can expect to catch salary reviews and the first career advice topics from us over the course of the next few weeks.

Introducing thecvfairy

2008-02-04T23:05:00.000Z

Now it isn't only our registered candidates who can benefit from our skills and advice when it comes to writing and presenting a curriculum vitae which does what it is supposed to do; gain the offer of an interview.

This week sees the launch of thecvfairy.com, where, whatever your experience, status and aspirations, you can provide the facts and let the cv fairy turn those facts into an attractive, "grabbing" and sufficiently detailed (not verbose) CV.

At Carpe Diem Legal, we are used to seeing 100's of CV's every day and despite there being plenty of CV templates available, lots of tips on the do's and don'ts of CV writing (including those we provide) we still see CV's riddled with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and which run to "War & Peace", or are so sparse they just don't give enough information to make it to the short list.

Now, anyone can have a professional CV tailor written for them, quickly, and feel confident that it will say the right things about them.

With a competitive labour market, set to get even more competitive, our candidates know that a professionally written CV gives them the edge and now the cvfairy can grant that wish to you!

For more information go to http://www.thecvfairy.com/ or email thecvfairy@hotmail.com

BEP Awards

2007-10-22T08:20:00.001Z

EMPLOYEES/EMPLOYERS - THIS COULD AFFECT YOU

2007-10-17T10:45:00.000Z

CHANGES TO BE AWARE OF

National Minimum Wage rate change - From 1 October 2007, the National Minimum Wage rates changed as follows:
For employees over 21, the minimum wage increased from £5.35 per hour to £5.52 per hour.
For employees between the ages of 18 and 21, the minimum wage increased from £4.45 to £4.60 per hour.
The development rate for 16 to 17 year olds increased from £3.30 to £3.40 per hour.

Holiday entitlement legislation changes from 1 October 2007 - From 1 October 2007 all employees are entitled to a statutory minimum holiday entitlement of 4.8 times their standard working week. For employees working a 5 day week, this equates to 24 days - an increase of 4 days per year. This entitlement is set to increase to 5.6 weeks from 1 April 2009.
Note: This statutory minimum entitlement can include time off for bank and public holidays.
If you have Holiday Details set up for your employees, you should change their annual entitlement.

SSP Legislation changes for agency workers
Following a High Court decision on the case between the Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Thorn Baker Limited and others, agency workers whose contracts are specified for three months or less are no longer entitled to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

Bristol Evening Post Recruitment Awards 2007

2007-10-16T12:55:00.001Z

CDL is delighted to have been shortlisted for two categories in the first ever Bristol Evening Post Recruitment Awards, which take place on Friday 19th October. The black tie event, hosted at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, will see a host of recruiters represented from all sectors.

Sponsored by insurance giant AXA, the awards have 12 categories ranging from the Best Recruitment Initiative, to the Young Achiever Award and the Best Recruitment Ad Campaign. Carpe Diem Legal has been selected as finalist for the Best Recruitment Initiative Small Business and Best Recruitment Ad Campaign categories.

Evening Post managing director Steve Anderson-Dixon said: “Recruitment is a vital key to any successful business and we are delighted to launch these awards to shine the spotlight on those who are the very best in their business in the Bristol area. We are confident that these awards will be sought after and coveted by the recruitment industry.”

The Directors of Carpe Diem Legal had the opportunity to meet with Steve Anderson-Dixon and Jill Mikkleson, HR Director for Bristol City Council, to talk about their entries and were photographed at Solar House with recruiters Mel Tonkin and Kelly Turner for the evening's presentation and 24 page BEP supplement, which will be published following the Gala Dinner.

We will keep you posted on the evening's proceedings and whether we are fortunate enough to be selected as outright winner in our chosen categories. We would however, like to thank all clients, candidates, professional bodies and charity representatives who kindly took time out to provide us with their support. Testimonials were used in the team's presentation but were very much appreciated in their own right. We are not what we are without you - so thank you.

Another How Not To.....Sometimes more is more

2007-10-15T15:32:00.000Z

Again, candidate's identity changed but CV is just as cracking - for someone of 48 years of age it is amazing how they have done so little to talk about, to promote themselves for a new job! Sometimes more is definitely more..

CURRICULUM VITAE
Miss B R Freshton,
24.09.1959
13 Rainway Road,
Clemmington,
Wrexham,
Countyshire,
England.
CT3 4RB
emailme@yahoo.co.uk

PERSONAL DETAILS
Single; 48; Returnee to Employment; Non-smoker.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
A Levels Sociology [AEB – B, JMB – B]; 3 A Level Law Passes[Criminal Law, Tort, Contract]; 3 A/S Passes[ICT, Law, Business Studies]; A.O., Psychology[A]; O Levels English Language[B]; History[C]; G.C.S.E’s Sociology[A]; Law[A]; Economics[B]; Typing 1 & 11; Shorthand[100 w.p.m.]; Sage 1 & 11; Word Processing 1, 11, 111;Clait; City & Guilds in IT; IBT 111; I have studied Maths, Accounting and 1st Year A.C.C.A,[unable to certificate as ill, etc.]. I have a school knowledge of French and a basic of Latin and Russian.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Office; Service.

PERSONAL INTERESTS
Reading. Gardening.

POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY
School Prefect; School Librarian.

How not to.............

2007-10-15T14:48:00.000Z

This is a genuine CV received by us but the personal details have been changed to protect the applicant's blushes! The application was for a locum litigation role, where legal qualification and experience was expressly requested. This demonstrates how important it is to check what the role requires and to run spell checker!

FRED WAKELAND
24 Oldland place, Newsome, Countyshire, CT29 6PP

Personal Details

Driving Licence: Full Uk
D.O.B: 18-04-1987
Telephone number: 01567-664433 : 0444567103

Employment History

Rogers Fish Bar – Part time 2005-2005
With this job my main roles included:
1 Preparing food
2 Cleaning the café
3 Serving customers
4 Cleaning the shop and the café at end of night

Realty Plumbing 2005-2006
With this job my main roles included:
1 Serving customers
2 Taking phone orders
3 Placing orders over the phone
4 Stock checking
5 Cashing up at end of the night
6 Taking delivery’s

Tesco 2006-2006
With this job my main roles included:
1 Shelf filling
2 Helping customers
3 Cleaning up spillages and breakages

Castle packaging and Warehousing: 2006-2007
With this job my main roles included
1 Taking orders over the phone fax
2 Placing orders via the phone and fax
3 Putting orders onto the computer
4 Filing
5 And updating customers details

Countyshire Travel Lodge 2007-2007 With this job my main roles included
1 Taking telephone calls
2 Checking Gusts in and out
3 Make sure are fire escapes are clear
4 Helping gusts out with any problems
5 Making sure the building was locked at night

Education and Training

Countyshire Comprehensive School 1998 – 2004

Maths
English
Science
Business Communications Systems Grade: C

I live within Countyshire and am available to start work straight away.

Fred Wakeland.

For Charity

2007-10-12T12:19:00.000Z

Congratulations to Jan Roebuck, of Veale Wasbrough Solicitors, for winning the charity draw last season. Here she can be seen receiving her prize of a Bristol Rugby signed match ball from Deborah Saw, at the recent game against the Newcastle Falcons. Well done Jan and thank you to everyone who supported us last season in raising money for the Amelia Price fund.

We were all deeply saddened to hear that Amelia lost her fight against a form of cancer known as neuroblastoma, earlier this year. However, the fund set up for Amelia whilst she was battling the illness has continued and we hope to make further donations this season.

Reds leave us in the pink!

2007-09-20T15:26:00.001Z

Kelly, Manager Gary Johnson and Caroline

City player Alex Russell, showing the girls around a very messy changing room!

CDL were treated to a tour of Ashton Gate (including the changing rooms!) recently and were impressed by the professionalism of all those involved with Bristol City FC and the facilities the stadium offers.

With the robins now gearing up to a successful season in the Championship, Carpe Diem Legal have found that much of the motivational talk given out by the manager, Gary Johnson, strikes a similar chord to the advice we give to our candidates , to enable them to achieve their aspirations when moving firms.

We wish Bristol City all the best this season and hope to be organising events for candidates and clients at the fantastic hall of the Dolman Stand at Ashton Gate in the near future.

Claws out for the tigers in the first home game for Bristol

2007-09-17T09:23:00.000Z

But it wasn't enough and Bristol was defeated 13-26. A disappointing result, particularly as Bristol had come out strong in the first half and the teams were tying as they left for the changing rooms at half time.

On the 'Ockey!

2007-08-28T16:49:00.000Z

Caroline grew several feet when she met Five Times World Champion and Crafty Cockney, Eric Bristow, MBE, who stands in at well over six feet (OK, he bent down a bit). Eric insisted on having his photo taken with Caroline, becoming totally star struck and setting down his arrows without a second thought.

And it was two for the price of one, as Keith Deller, AKA "The Milky Bar Kid", cause of Bristow's shock defeat in 1983, and at that time an unknown, sidled in alongside to get his photo taken with Caroline; standing up straight, well almost!

Application Etiquette

2007-08-09T11:14:00.001Z

If you want your internet vacancy application to stand out from the others, to get your CV read, and put forwards for the vacancies you are interested in then there are some things you can do - or not do - to get you to the top of the pile.
Definite no no's are :

Spelling Mistakes

Typing errors

Poor Grammar

This applies to applications generally but if you are applying for a legal post, where it is generally expected that you have a good eye for detail, are methodical and a good communicator, this immediately suggests that you are not up for the job.

We have already advised in our previous IT article, that you check and check again. Don't just rely on spell check (although it does really help if you run one) as it doesn't pick up that you have, for instance, used here instead of hear or to instead of too but it will pick up the misspelling of liaise, which is one of the most common words we see mispelt on CV's we receive.

Too little information about what you do in your job or too much. Recruiters will have a good grasp of what you day to day work involves but if you give a bland list of duties, such as drafting correspondence, diary management, research of law, this tells us nothing about which area of law you work in and does not highlight what you are good at, your accomplishments in the position, cases you have been involved in or billings you have recorded, all of which prospective employers are keen to hear about.
Inaccurate dates or none at all. We don't include dates of study on the CV we send to prospective employers but we do like to be able to tie dates of study in with your career history and do need dates of employment, "from and to". The absence of dates only serves to raise concerns about consistent work history and you may be passed over on that basis. Gaps in employment can usually be readily and justifiably explained, ideally in the cover letter or email to the recruiter.

Wrong or missing contact information. If you have given us an email address which doesn't work very well, an old mobile number, have got the numbers of your telephone number jumbled or don't give any contact information at all, we can't contact you. Double check all your contact information. It is helpful to know when you can be contacted by phone/email and we always need your postal address too.

Fancy boxes around your text, flash formatting, and different colours are lovely - don't they look great? But they can make it difficult for us to scan your details and can look very different by the time the document has been uploaded and received in our inbox. We recommend that you keep it simple, using a plain font, such as Ariel, without fancy tables or text boxes.

Stick to a most recent to oldest chronology of work and educational history. The most salient information should then be right where it needs to be, at the top. Focus on what the vacancy you are applying for requires and tailor your CV, or at least your covering letter, to what skills and experience you have which match.

Long CV's and chunky paragraphs, with lots of 'also's' are not only difficult to read but time consuming and recruiters do not have the time to read every CV received in detail, unless they are concise and to the point. Every word your write counts.

Don't apply for vacancies for which you don't have the qualifications or experience needed. The job may seem attractive and the pay great but if you don't have the skills and experience needed your application will be an all round waste of time. Look at the job description and ideally highlight, or bullet, all you can offer, which ties in with the job description.
Recruiters are inundated with applications and have to limit the time available on each. Otherwise, they would not have time to make applications to clients, arrange interviews and confirm offers. Any personal information, which is not directly linked to the position can give the wrong impression and will take away from the point of the CV.

Using this as a guide, get your CV ship shape and be choosy about the vacancies you apply for. If you have a good CV, you will find that a recruiter will consider you for other appropriate vacancies without you having to apply on line for each and everyone. Once you are registered with the consultancy, you will have the opportunity to build a rapport with your consultant and they will be able to "sell you" in the best possible light.

WORK, REST AND PLAY

2007-08-06T09:01:00.001Z

Carpe Diem Legal recently announced continued partnership with Bristol Rugby, with a secured deal stretching into the 08/09 season. Having seen so much passion and enthusiasm from the whole Bristol squad during the 06/07 season, Bristol Rugby Club mirrors everything Carpe Diem Legal stands for and we are very much looking forward to seeing Bristol succeed in the various cups over the coming seasons.

We are also delighted to support players such as Shaun Perry, Dan Ward-Smith and Mark Regan, who are recognised on an international platform.

The JLC meets Mel T!

2007-07-30T08:08:00.000Z

Amazing!!!

2007-07-11T16:28:00.000Z

On a recent day out Abi Titmuss, Venessa Feltz and George Michael sought to wow and impress us. Here are just a couple of snaps from the day.

Red Nose Day!

2007-07-11T16:18:00.001Z

Carpe Diem Legal did its little bit for RND this year by providing the top bid in an auction for a dot print poster of Lenny Henry, wearing a shiny red nose and signed personally by the very said! Proceeds went to the Comic Relief fund.

The print now has pride of place at CDL Towers but we thought you might like to see a pic of Lenny signing the print.

STUDENT AWARDS

2007-07-11T08:39:00.000Z

From left to right: Kelly Turner, Samantha Piper (Level 6 winner), Caroline Evans, Clare Carolan (Level 3 winner), and Deborah Saw

CDL were delighted to attend the Bristol and Surrounds Annual ILEX Summer Ball on Friday 29th June and better still, Deb and Caroline had the pleasure of presenting the first CDL achievement awards to two of the best ILEX students of 2006.

The winners were Samantha Piper, who works in the private client department of Meade King and had top marks in the ILEX Level 6 examinations in 2006 and Clare Carolan, the ILEX Level 3 winner, who works in-house for Cobalt Capital in Bristol.

The evening's events were hosted at the Marriott Hotel, Castle Green and guests included the President of ILEX, Alan Craig and Bristol Law Society, Andrew Gregg.

Guests enjoyed a 3 course dinner, followed by the CDL awards presentation and raffle. CDL donated two funky iPod Shuffles and a bottle of champagne to the raffle, the proceeds of which went to the charity "Survive" which supports victims of domestic violence.

Unfortunately, Mel Tonkin was unable to be at the event, as she had a prior engagement with Meatloaf at the Bristol City Football Club ground but Kelly and Darren donned their best threads and were seated with representatives from the Institute, which included Nick Hanning from the Bournemouth and District Branch (BAD).

After the formalites was the opportunity to dance, drink and chat the night away!

Some of the CDL team

TRUST CARPE DIEM!

2007-05-24T14:05:00.000Z

We are delighted to hear that team Carpe Diem have reached the magnetic North Pole, only 24 days after setting off from base camp. All at CDL offer huge congratulations to Jan, Daniel and Richard, as well as the support team, on this fantastic achievement - Jan you are an inspiration - the oldest woman to walk/ski to the Magnetic North at the youthful age of 62!

Some photographs from the North pole: