Senior Associate - Employment

About The Role

We are currently looking to hire a Senior Associate into our highly regarded specialist Reading Employment team. The team works as part of the Firm’s wider Thames Valley and South Coast employment offering which would involve work from the Oxford office on occasion (one or two days a month), and from Southampton (usually one day a month). The role on offer is a great opportunity to develop; the prospects for advancement are real. The team provides advice on all areas of employment law and acts for a wide range of national and international clients across the public, private and third sectors. We are consistently ranked in the top tier in the independent legal directories Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.

We can provide you with an excellent platform to develop both your technical ability and business development skills within a supportive and thriving team. You will likely soon develop close client relationships that will endure throughout your career and you would have the opportunity to work for clients in both the Thames Valley and South Coast markets. Our encouragement of a decent work/life balance and complementary interests will help you towards a strong long-term profile in this region.

This is predominately an office-based role but with opportunities for flexible working dependent upon client and team requirements.

Typical Workload

If successful, you can expect a mix of employment work. Your responsibilities might include but not be limited to:

• Being involved in a broad mix of contentious and non-contentious work primarily supporting our Employer clients. Your time will be split between disputes, general advisory work and corporate support work with some client training from time to time.
• We act for leading employers in a wide range of sectors, from household-name retail clients to leading NHS, government or third sector organisations. You'll have a great variety of work and the opportunity to advise in a range of interesting areas.
• You will have a direct influence on how you want your experience and expertise to develop and you will be strongly encouraged and supported to get involved in business development work, taking an active role in seminars, webinars and networking events in addition to drafting guidance and articles. Your role will include assisting the partners in supervising and developing junior members of the team.
• You will also benefit from the support and resources of the larger team based across our other offices, which includes specialist Pensions and Immigration lawyers as part of our business group.

Skills / Experience Required

You will have developed a genuine interest in employment law in your early career. You will be keen to continue to build and develop your specialist knowledge and your legal skills, including drafting and negotiating skills; carrying out legal research and due diligence; guiding clients in a supportive environment through operational challenges; providing advice in an unambiguous and pragmatic manner; developing client relationships and ensuring that you are a key member of the team to deliver solutions in line with our clients' aims.

• Solid relevant technical expertise and intellectual ability
• Enthusiastic and committed to a career in employment work
• Strong analytical and research skills
• Relationship-driven and personable
• Collegiate
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written)
• Strong client and matter management skills
• A track record of successful practice development
• IT proficient
• Exceptional self-motivation and ability to assume responsibility for your own matters

The interview process will start as soon as suitable candidates have been identified.