Welcome to JF Law, you're fired!
Liverpool law firm JF Law has sacked a paralegal after just two days, and in a particularly callous fashion.
At 6pm on her second day in the job the junior lawyer received an email from JF Law call centre manager Nicola (RollOnFriday is withholding her full name).
“Please accept this email as confirmation that your 30-day trial has been terminated with immediate effect!” began the email. ROF did not add the exclamation mark.
“I have this evening checked the stats and can see that you have taken on 1 claim with 1 signed”, Nicola informed the new arrival.
“As management we would expect to see more than this on day 2 on the job”, continued the perfunctory email. “I understand you are new to the role but feel like this role is not for you.”
It concluded, “Please note we will ensure you are paid for the days worked which will be at the end of the month. Take Care. Nicola”.
Apparently JFL stands for 'Just F***ing Leave'.
The lawyer’s sister, a paralegal at rival firm Bermans, posted JFL's heartless message on LinkedIn.
“I am absolutely astounded that a firm such as JF Law Limited would treat new employees with such little respect as to terminate their employment two days into the role with little to no training”, she said.
To then send an email “in such an unprofessional manner, punctuated with exclamation marks” was “frankly shocking”, she added.
The sacked paralegal declined to comment, but RollOnFriday understands she’s not the only entry level employee to be shafted in such a fashion by JF Law.
Lawyers commenting on her post called its conduct “shameful”, “brutal” and “utterly disgusting”.
“She dodged a massive bullet. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour”, said one lawyer, while another queried how the firm could “possibly judge someone after 2 days”.
Others said the firm’s behaviour “says more about JF Law Limited than the new starter”, and that “to sign off with 'Take care' is appalling”.
The paralegal’s plight also created a few Good Samaritans. Price Slater Gawne Solicitors Practice Manager Kim Carmyllie pinged across details of her firm’s paralegal vacancy.
Sam Shabir, a Senior Recruitment Partner at DWF, told Lacey Rhodes, “I’m sat here reading this in disbelief. This is unacceptable on every level. Please tell your sister that we’re all not the same and I would be delighted to chat to her about roles we have on here at DWF where she would be supported and welcomed”.
JF Law did not respond to a request for comment.
Firms ping LawyerUp when they like you for a role. It's available on the App Store and Google Play.
Comments
52
5
The paralegal in question shouldn’t be disheartened. With this work ethic, they could easily be a Womble Partner.
2
8
Easy come easy go
7
5
Churn baby churn!
57
3
Mildly surprised not to see a "yourself" in there.
25
4
I thought this firm rang a bell. I'm an in-house lawyer and my company received the strangest fishing expedition email from them. It contained a "signed authority" from "their" client to contact us on their behalf in relation to a "data breach claim".
The "signed authority" was a form with the person's name on it inserted in tracked changes.
The letter itself stated that they were instructed that the "client" had discussed the "data breach" with us but JFL were asking us to draft a letter to them to confirm whether such a discussion had taken place and what had been discussed.
Both attachments were unsigned word documents purporting to be from a qualified solicitor. We had no record of any related incident.
15
23
What do you expect from the tinpot shop outfits up North?
17
12
@Anon - Standard. A common occurence that I'm sure we are all familiar with. I've never been, but apparently the high-streets of Manchester are unbroken vistas of Bookies, knock-off not-KFC chicken shops, and bulk litigation factories such as JF Law. In which young paralegals are obliged to dress in gimp-suits, be lashed to a keyboard, and spend twelve hours a day vomiting out dozens of timewasting data protection claims from shoddy precedents. A grim hellscape from which even the rats have fled.
14
4
She dodged a bullet.
9
5
They didn't give her much of a chance! I had a client receive a really spurious set of data protection claims (which we managed to fight off) from some kind of factory like firm in Liverpool.
I suppose it is possible the paralegal was very late for work on both of her two days and really awful to everyone at work - may be there is a full picture we don't have as yet, but that seems unlikely. Surely she should be being trained in the first few days, not expected to have met a target.
10
5
You couldn't make it up.
Even by the subterranean standards of provincial law firms, this is surely a new low?
3
4
Tom 12 April 24 10:13
'Mildly surprised not to see a "yourself" in there. '
Yep - can't beat some inappropriate use of the reflexive pronoun in missives like this!
14
5
It's a claim factory, not a real law firm.
15
4
Call Centre Manager Nicola should get the sack for that exclamation mark
8
2
Sounds like she was in sales, not lawyering.
3
3
Is a paralegal with potentially 2 days experience a lawyer?