myCILEx

Welcome to myCILEx

CILEx’s exclusive members area

myCILEx provides you with information on the work CILEx is doing on behalf of its members.
For the latest branch events in your area, visit: www.cilexbranches.org.uk

 

STOP PRESS! Hold the front page: a new CILEx membership benefit is coming your way

Have you given your career serious thought recently? Do you know where you are heading, and are you ready for the next step?

myCareer, your new member benefit, can help you. It is packed with interactive tools, eLearning content and the latest job opportunities, all designed to help you navigate today’s job market and move your career forward with confidence.

Find the support you need

Use myCareer to find the support you need for your situation, whatever it is. You might want to understand your motivations, aspirations and workplace preferences, or perhaps you need help to create your CV or practise for interviews.

CILEx celebrates the fact that our membership is broad and diverse. Members do not all have the same career aspirations, levels of experience and training opportunities, so we have created a place where you can uncover and explore what it is you want and can achieve through myCareer, your career partner.

You can access myCareer through myCILEx, your online private member portal. We have tailored the information you see on myCareer, taking into account where you are on your CILEx journey.

Something else you will notice about myCareer is that the information you see is not static: it changes daily and will bring you up-to-the-minute industry and education reports through the newsroom.

Once you have familiarised yourself with all the wonders of myCareer, you will start to see new and exciting content appear. Bespoke tools will help to guide you through some of the CILEx application processes, such as Work-based Learning, Continuing Professional Development, exam revision or our upcoming Judicial Development Programme and mentoring schemes.

Why not try out some of the courses on the eLearning hub? Do you need to brush up on skills like IT, for example? If so, take a look and jump right in! And don’t forget, once you finish a course add it to your CV, which you can create and store on myCareer, ensuring that it is always kept up to date.

We are confident that your employer will find the content of myCareer of great benefit to you, particularly around staff appraisal time when your learning and development needs are identified. They might need you to develop your leadership and management skills, ready to move into a more senior position or even, perhaps, to support and encourage you to manage your time more eÿciently using our ‘Being more productive’ tool. myCareer could also be used to increase your self-confidence and broaden your knowledge and expertise in delivering presentations or in report writing.

We hope that you will use this up-to-the minute membership benefit to help you achieve your career aspirations. We encourage you to share news of myCareer with colleagues who are, perhaps, considering embarking on their CILEx journey, and to suggest that they join CILEx to gain access to one of the many excellent membership benefits coming your way.

We look forward to bringing you news of further exciting products over the coming months. Watch this space!

 

What is CILEx doing for our branches?

CILEx branch officer Ellen Birch writes:

With the new role of branch officer having recently been developed, CILEx has the opportunity to focus firmly on our branches, to support them in the important work they do in raising the profile of CILEx, and to deliver fun and informative events to their branch members.

Support and networking

Branches are an integral support system for members, and provide a great environment for networking with the best and developing closer links to your professional organisation. They provide subsidised training, and support tailored to your needs, and give access to professional and career development opportunities. They are also a hub for information about local study skills and support services, and joining a branch can help to raise the profile of your firm. The local branch network provides lots of opportunities for members where all of this - and much more - is available to you.

Specialist seminars and training events

As part of my ongoing work to assist branches in supporting our members, I have been looking into various developments: for example, sourcing reports from our database to provide branches with an overview of members’ grades and specialisms focused in their area. In this way, branches can think about tailoring particular seminars and training events which they know will benefit the majority of the members.

Presentations and careers advice workshops

I have also been identifying speakers to deliver talks and workshops that would be relevant to members’ needs and career aspirations, as CILEx lawyers, and help our members to enhance their leadership skills and gravitas within the legal community. Speakers have been an eagerly awaited resource for our branches, and I am now busy forging links with speakers in all subject areas.

We presently have five organisations that have confirmed their willingness to participate in this exciting initiative and provide speakers to deliver varied and interesting talks to our branches and their members. As an overview, presentations range from ‘Wellbeing and resilience’, and ‘LinkedIn: helping professionals to create and maintain profitable business relationships’ to covering ‘Personal branding’, ‘P',enting’ and ‘Making an impact’.

With all these exciting developments, what a good time to join your local branch!

 

The Lawyer Portal is coming!

The Lawyer Portal (TLP) is coming and its core aim is simple: to provide the definitive resource for anyone considering a career in law, whatever their stage or background.

TLP is brought to you by the creators of The Medic Portal which, in partnership with the Royal Society of Medicine, has rapidly become the number one resource for 300,000 plus aspiring medics across three continents. The creators are now keen to replicate this success in the legal sector, ensuring that the best and the brightest individuals are exposed to all the opportunities available in law.

Crafted by experienced lawyers and legal education professionals, TLP charts the various routes to legal practice. Whether an individual’s interest lies in qualifying as a Chartered Legal Executive, solicitor, barrister or paralegal, TLP’s free guides provide all the information needed to get ahead and make those all-important career decisions. Step-by-step guides to legal study and practice, information on how to gain relevant work experience, and application and interview hints and tips are just some of the resources available to users to assist them on their legal journey.

TLP is working closely with the top professional law bodies (including CILEx), law firms and barristers’ chambers to produce the most up-to-date careers information, which is then disseminated to TLP users and the hundreds of schools with which TLP has partnered. By keeping in close contact with institutions and organisations at the core of the legal profession, we can be confident that the most up-to-date careers advice and information is available from the grassroots level up.

At TLP, we take diversity and widening participation into the legal profession extremely seriously. We believe that anyone with great potential should have great opportunities, which is essentially why all TLP’s guides to practising law are accessible and completely free of charge to all. This - coupled with the targeted events we are running at a diverse range of schools (many of which are free or heavily bursaried) on, for example, the exciting new ‘Trailblazer’ law apprenticeships and other legal careers - is designed to ensure that no one misses out.

We are excited to be working closely with CILEx to ensure that the profession of Chartered Legal Executives is showcased to its absolute and full potential. Informing users about this highly respected and regarded career path, and the exciting opportunities on offer, is extremely important to TLP.

That is why we have structured the portal to provide CILEx with the best possible platform through which to communicate directly with our wide audience, ranging from school-age individuals upwards. Working together in this way will enable CILEx to disseminate cutting-edge, up-to-date news, information, articles, videos, blogs and opportunities around the Chartered Legal Executive career path. The idea is that by providing CILEx with the platform, it can attract the greatest possible pool of individuals to the profession of Chartered Legal Executives, further raising its profile within the industry.

We are excited about the launch of TLP, and are delighted to be working with CILEx on this exciting new initiative!

 

Karon Walton FCILEx becomes law firm partner

Karon said: ‘I am delighted to be appointed as a partner of Tollers and to continue to develop and lead their elderly and vulnerable client unit. Older persons’ affairs are becoming much more complex, and with the combination of an ageing population and cut backs in adult care services, it is more important than ever that proper accredited legal advice is sought and provided.

I will continue working as a director of Solicitors for the Elderly, representing the board at meetings with the Office of the Public Guardian and the Court of Protection as well as assisting the board with media and policy consultations, when required.

 

CILEx Group at Legalex

Legalex, an event dedicated to modernising law firms and making legal professionals more competitive, was held in London in March. The CILEx Group stand saw a steady stream of visitors during the two-day exhibition: from CILEx members stopping to say ‘Hello’ and those wanting to know more about taking the CILEx route to suppliers of innovative legal tools, products, and services wishing to work with the Chartered Institute and its members.

 

Judicial ambitions and dry runs

Hannah Smith reflects on her recent experience of taking part in the Judicial Appointments Commission’s (JAC’s) dry run to recruit 100 new Recorders.

While I was at Bar School, I undertook ‘marshalling’ at Blackfriars Crown Court. It only lasted a week, but it was completely eye-opening. I hadn’t previously appreciated how interestingly varied the cases would be, and how intellectually stimulating a judicial role is. That week changed my mind about my career path, and becoming a judge has been a long term goal since.

I put my judicial ambitions on the back-burner while I spent my early years practising as a criminal barrister, though I always kept an eye on routes into the profession. Thankfully during my time in practice, the avenues to becoming a judge, and the judicial positions available, have opened up dramatically. The traditional route of barrister to Recorder to Circuit Judge is now just one example. In general, legal practitioners will be expected to undertake a part-time (fee paid) judicial post and gaining experience therein before applying for a full-time (salaried) position.

While the minimum level of postqualification experience for part-time judicial roles is usually five or seven years, in my mind I thought that it would be much longer than that before I looked to apply for a judicial position. However, I was involved in a case, in late 2015, during which one of the barristers, who was very able but only slightly more senior than me, was appointed a Recorder. This brought home to me that these appointments really are based on merit, not length of service. As a result, I applied to be appointed a Recorder in February/March 2017.

I approached the application primarily as exam practice. I used the familiarisation tool available on the JAC’s website to get a feel for the style of the questions and answers.

The first round was a multiple-choice exercise, but technical issues meant that many applicants could not complete it, so everyone was passported to the second round. The second round involved narrative answers, and I know I spent too much time on the early questions with fewer marks, which was good practice at least! Some basic principles are easily forgotten when the exam clock is ticking, for example, read the questions properly (some questions seem to be worded awkwardly deliberately to test this) and spend the most time on the questions that carry the most marks.

The JAC does not publish previous selection exercises, so other than the limited familiarisation tools on the website the only way to practise is to give it a go. It is also worth looking at the ‘Before you apply’ section of the JAC website to see if you are ready/you would suit such a role.

I have attended a number of JAC events, and the commission is keen to send the message that it is looking to encourage applications from non-traditional routes, including women and employed practitioners. If a judicial role is an ambition of yours, I would recommend visiting the JAC website, undertaking some judicial shadowing (whether through the JAC or by taking part in the CILEx Judicial Development Programme) and thinking about applying next time a part-time role you are interested in is advertised. One of the hardest things will be having another (and another and another) go if you are unsuccessful.

If you are interested in finding out about judicial appointment and would like to take part in the CILEx Judicial Development Programme, which is due to launch on 22 June 2017, please contact: beajudge@cilex.org.uk to register your interest. 

 

 

Policy round-up

Simon Garrod, CILEx director of policy and governance, gives an update on current projects.

Judicial appointments

In mid-March, CILEx vice-president Millicent Grant gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution on the barriers faced by Chartered Legal Executives to seeking judicial appointments. She voiced the views of many members in saying that it is diÿcult to encourage members to apply when they face the glass ceiling of ineligibility for roles above District Judge level. CILEx has since provided the committee with further evidence on the diversity of our members, and the rationale for extending eligibility (see also News round up of this issue).

Prisons and Courts Bill

The Prisons and Courts Bill, now at the House of Commons committee stage of its progress through parliament, introduces a number of previously discussed reforms (see (2017) April CILExJ pp4, 6–7, 25–27 and 44).

In the hope of creating a prison system that focuses on rehabilitation and assimilation of individuals who have committed crimes, and expanding the number and powers of UK prison staff, the bill aims to introduce reforms for the UK prison system. However, proposed amendments to the UK’s courts and justice system are not only numerous, but far-reaching and of particular importance to CILEx and its members.

The bill aims to modernise the UK’s criminal court system by extending the use of audio and visual technology in proceedings, introducing a written plea procedure, and establishing an automatic online conviction system - similar to the one found for minor road and traffic offences - for crimes including fishing without a licence and travelling on trains without a valid ticket. In efforts to improve speed and efficiency, the bill also looks to establish and develop online courts for use in civil and family courts and the tribunals.

Other reforms to court procedures include amending Tribunal Procedure Committee membership and employment tribunal procedure, establishing new case officer roles – tasked with assisting the work of judges, magistrates and the courts – as a way of freeing up much-needed time and resources, and prohibiting in-person cross-examination in family proceedings.

The bill also includes reforms to modify the roles and deployment of senior judges and the Judicial Appointments Commission, allowing for greater flexibility.

In its efforts to reduce insurance premiums for individuals, the bill also hopes to tackle the large number of whiplash claims and other minor injuries sustained in road traffic accidents (RTA). The bill includes provisions to introduce a ban on pre-medical-report offers of settlement, a fixed tariff system for individuals who have suffered whiplash and other minor injuries, both physical and psychological, that last for no longer than 24 months, and an increased small claims limit for all RTA claims up to £5,000, and £2,000 for all other types of personal injury claims.

CILEx provided written evidence to the Justice Select Committee on the proposed reforms to whiplash and the small claims limit, and at the time of writing we are working on a written submission to the Public Bill Committee to outline the changes we would like to see to the bill to protect access to justice and ensure that victims do not lose access to legal advice.

Land Registration Rules and leasehold reform

Members of the CILEx Conveyancing Specialist Reference Group have been giving their views on reforms to the Land Registry’s rules, and you can view the resulting submission at: http://tinyurl.com/l4djqn5

With the upcoming government review planned for leasehold, the legal sector in the form of the Law Society, Bold Legal Group, CILEx, Society of Licensed Conveyancers, and the Conveyancing Association have been discussing possible changes to improve the leasehold conveyancing process and ongoing ownership. CILEx’s conveyancing members have been giving their views, and we hope to have more to tell you in future issues.

Legal professional privilege

As we reported in (2017) March CILExJ p42, CILEx has been lobbying the Home Oÿce to ensure that Chartered Legal Executives are explicitly included within the Investigatory Powers Act’s Codes of Practice regarding protecting privileged communications. We are pleased to confirm that this effort was successful, which is important for ensuring that agencies acting under the auspices of the Act are aware that the clients of Chartered Legal Executives should be treated the same as if they are clients of solicitors, barristers or advocates.

Debt pre-action protocol

Last month, we said that the pre-action protocol for debt claims was with the Master of the Rolls for approval (see (2017) April CILExJ p44). This has now been granted, and it is due to come into force on 1 October 2017.

Specialist reference groups

The specialist reference groups are there to make it easier for you to offer your views on the issues affecting your practice area. Please do join the specialist reference group(s) that relates to your area of specialism. Our active groups include Conveyancing, Personal Injury, Court Users, Regulatory Affairs, Wales, Criminal Practitioners, Family Practitioners, and Civil Practitioners.

We have also recently launched our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans specialist reference group, and others are planned for the future. You can find details on the CILEx website, or just by searching for ‘CILEx specialist reference groups’.
 

Save the date for the 2017 London Legal Walk

The annual 10km ‘after work’ charity fundraising walk will take place in central London on Monday 22 May 2016.

At the time of writing, 543 teams, including CILEx had signed up for the 13th London Legal Walk to support access to justice by raising funds for free-of-charge legal advice centres in and around London that help the poorest and most vulnerable people in the region.

 

 

CILEx Advocacy Support Scheme

CILEx Pro Bono Trust trustees describe the new CILEx Advocacy Support Scheme:

In 2010, the then Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, announced the launch of a joint pro bono scheme between what was then the ILEX Pro Bono Forum and the Bar Pro Bono Unit (BPBU). Dubbed the JIB scheme, it facilitated the allocation of a Chartered Legal Executive volunteer to work alongside a BPBU-appointed barrister to provide additional support.

The scheme has proved of such value that it is being renamed the CILEx Advocacy Support Scheme (CASS), and expanded to all grades of CILEx membership so that even more members can make a difference and help change people's lives. CASS will be launching as a pilot in the near future, and this is an exclusive first look at how it will work and how it can benefit you.

How does CASS work?

In the first instance, applications for help are made to the BPBU for assessment. As part of the assessment process, a note is made of those cases where CILEx help is needed and what that help is. If the case is accepted, then BPBU contacts suitable CILEx volunteers to ask for help. What sort of cases are they? It is impossible to generalise as the range is so great. We support the BPBU in all the work they do, which means all areas of law, including criminal injury, commercial, crime, defamation, employment, family, housing, professional negligence and planning, among others.

The case may be before any of the courts and tribunals, including the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the county court, the Coroners Court, the employment tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and many other tribunals and public enquiries. Help may also be needed in connection with mediation.

What will I have to do?

Again, this can vary but, crucially, you will only ever be asked to do a clearly defined piece(s) of work in a specific case; you will neither be taking on the conduct of a case nor making an open-ended commitment. To enable all grades of members, including students, to provide help, there are two tiers of support work:

Tier 1 covers generic support work, which will call on your developing legal skills to provide important support work. Examples include the following:
- sorting, managing or ordering papers;
- helping the assisted person obtain documents;
- taking notes at a hearing or conference; or
- putting together a bundle for a hearing.

Tier 2 support requires a higher level of legal skill and experience, so may only be provided by Fellows or suitably experienced Graduate members. Examples of Tier 2 support include the following:
- taking a witness statement;
- preparing a schedule of loss;
- conducting negotiations; or
- preparing a case summary or list of issues.

How much time will it take?

Obviously, it is impossible to predict this precisely because each case is different and the work required will vary. However, an early survey of volunteers showed that pieces of work required an average of about four hours' work in total.

How many cases will I have to do?

None. Remember, you are not taking on a case, only dealing with a clearly defined piece of work. Even then, there is no obligation to accept a piece of work. You may be too busy, the type of case may be unsuitable, or there may be a conflict of interest; however, you do not need to give a reason for turning down support work.

I don't do litigation, so this isn't for me

Not so. A good deal of the work BPBU does is actually non-contentious, but you can still help in a litigation case.

Tier 1 support does not require any case-specific legal knowledge, and even when giving Tier 2 support – as the lead lawyer in the case is a barrister with experience and expertise in the area of law – they, not you, will be giving the advice.

You will assist litigants in person, who may lack basic skills or confidence in completing court forms; however, please do not underestimate the professional skills you do have, which will be of enormous value to those you are helping. Background knowledge of the area of law may help, but in general will not be essential: your own skills will be sufficient to undertake the piece of work.

I'm uncomfortable working in an unfamiliar area of law

That is fine and is an excellent reason to decline a piece of work, especially at Tier 2. Tier 1 support is designed specifically to enable non-lawyers to help, and so is suitable for someone wanting to help in an unfamiliar area of law.

One of the benefits of doing pro bono work is the opportunity to try new areas of law, so if you are nervous about this starting off at Tier 1 is a good way to begin; you can progress to Tier 2 when you are more experienced and have gained confidence.

Whether at Tier 1 or Tier 2, the scheme provides an excellent opportunity to experience different areas of work and be involved in interesting or important cases. For example, volunteers have helped in a high-profile inquest and an alleged sporting doping case among others. And, remember you are not alone: you will be working with a barrister who has experience and expertise in the field.

Can I charge a reduced fee or claim expenses?

No. Work allocated under CASS must be done for no charge. If there are expenses such as a court fee, then the client will need to pay that. Expenses, such as copying, telephone, postage or normal travel costs, should form part of the pro bono service. In very exceptional circumstances, where a highly unusual expense might prevent the work being done, please ask us for advice.

I'm employed; do I need to tell my employer?

Strictly speaking, your involvement is entirely personal: you are the nominated helper, not your firm. You will need to take care to explain this to the client, especially as it may affect your role (for example, you may not issue proceedings unless you are authorised litigator).

You may also want to avoid using your firm's headed paper and consider creating a unique personal e-mail address to maintain privacy and separation.

In practice, though, you are likely to need to do some work during office hours, and may want to use office facilities such as the photocopier. We strongly recommend that you explain your involvement to your employer and ensure that you have their approval.

Although opportunities are sometimes limited to solicitors, a great many law firms, and other employers, welcome staff volunteering or doing pro bono work as part of their corporate social responsibility policies. We would expect your employer to be supportive, therefore, but will be happy to try to help if there is any difficulty.

What about indemnity insurance?

Professional indemnity insurance is crucial to your involvement, not just to protect you from the financial implications of a claim, but also to ensure that a client is properly compensated in the unlikely event of something going wrong. We have put in place a block policy, which will cover all authorised work you do through CASS at no cost to you.

What should I do next?

For more information about when CASS will launch, please e-mail: cass@cilexpbt.org.uk

 

Mental Health Awareness Week: are we 'surviving or thriving'?

Elizabeth Rimmer, director of LawCare, writes about the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs from 8 to 14 May. See: http://tinyurl.com/kyfjo6q and #MHAW17

The theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘Surviving or Thriving?’. This year - rather than asking why so many people are living with mental health problems - the aim is to uncover why too few of us are thriving with good mental health. Good mental health is more than the absence of a mental health problem: people are struggling to cope with the demands of life and are stuck on getting through the day.

In terms of thriving, resilience is now recognised as an important factor in the workplace. In the increasingly demanding and changing legal environment, resilience is important in order to thrive.

Resilience is defined as the ability to resist or bounce back from adversity, and in any workplace there will be people who thrive on challenges and difficulties, while others will find it hard to cope with unexpected change or problems. If someone finds it hard to forge ahead when things go wrong, the good news is that we can all learn how to develop resilience and it is not that difficult.

Highly resilient people are flexible, adapt to new circumstances quickly, and thrive in times of constant change. Most importantly, they expect to bounce back, and feel confident that they will. This expectation is closely linked to a general sense of optimism, and finding the positive aspects in most situations is a skill that can be evolved: the right mental attitude to cope, and even flourish, when the going gets tough can be developed.

Ten tips to build resilience

Attitude and perspective are fundamental to building resilience: paying attention to strengths and how to develop them; learning to accept that things won’t always go well; and focusing on what is working instead of what’s not, and we will all be on our way to thriving rather than just surviving.

 
Article 8 and private possession proceedings