Employment - Associate - London

Our client is a top tier global law firm seeking an Employment lawyer for their London office. 

Job Title: Employment Associate

Department: Employment

Location: London

Working Hours

35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required.  The Firm is happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Their approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office.

Firm Description

The Firm is one of the leading global law firms. Their distinctive market position is founded on the Firm's exceptional breadth of their practice, on deep industry knowledge, and on their 'one team' global approach. Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, they have over 40 offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With a presence in the world's major financial and commercial markets, they are well placed to provide excellent business-oriented advice to the their clients locally and internationally. The Firm's people are the key to their success, which is why they seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of the Firm's global practice.

Department Description

The Firm's employment team has a longstanding reputation as one of the best in the business.  It acts for a high quality client base of financials and blue chip corporates, advising them on some of their most challenging employment law issues. The group’s work is a mix of litigation, cross border project work, employment advisory and a limited amount of transactional support work.

Recent representative experience includes:

• Advising a global consumer products conglomerate on the potential restructuring at one of the company's heavily unionised manufacturing sites. Their work has involved planning for engaging in consultation with the GMB and Unite unions, advising on appropriate pools for selection, selection criteria and the redundancy terms that might be offered to affected employees.

• Acting for a global pharmaceutical business on its defence of proceedings brought to enforce threatened injunctions to enforce post-termination restrictions contained in both an individual’s employment contract and a separate shareholder agreement. This included acting for the client in both High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings.
• Advising a global transportation company on proposed EU legislation to create a presumption of employment in favour of those working in platform businesses, and a range of other rights for platform workers.
• Acting for a global bank in defending multiple claims of race discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and whistleblowing detriment.
• Advising a leading engineering institution in respect of multiple investigations into potential misconduct and wrongdoing at board level.  This included conducting interviews, gathering evidence, reaching findings and advising the institution on next steps. The Firm have also advised on the institution’s options and the necessary legal processes for handling disciplinary action and potential terminations of employment and directorships.
• Advising Shaftesbury plc, which owns some of the most iconic areas of London, on its merger with another listed real estate business. Their work involved advising on the departure of three executive directors and on the structuring of the retention terms to be offered to key employees to incentivise them through the merger process

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Technical Ability

• Understanding of legal principles of own practice area, along with a working knowledge of other practice areas

• Has project management responsibility, ensuring timely delivery to high quality standards.

• Stays aware of legal developments affecting any specialist areas and regularly attends appropriate training sessions.

Client Focus

• Has good working relationships with clients.

• Has a good understanding of client, the sector and the associated risks and opportunities.
• Actively works to develop and strengthen new client relationships.

Team Work and Interpersonal Skills

• Acts as a source of advice to others, sharing knowledge and expertise.

• Has strong relationships and profile amongst senior colleagues.
• Ability to work effectively with others.

Firm Mindedness

• Understands the industry and market in which the practice stream and clients operate.

• Contributes to the management of the group/practice area by understanding the areas of specialism, the firm’s capabilities and business plan.
• Takes an active role in managing the firm's reputation both in and out of work.
• Understands the responsibility to give back to our communities.
• Understands the value of a diverse workforce.

Person Specification

The Firm has an opening for a first rate Employment lawyer.  Experience, which should include a mix of contentious, advisory and transactional work, gained within a top tier firm is preferred.  It is essential that the candidate has a strong academic background (minimum 2.1 degree) with excellent written communication and drafting skills. The successful candidate will also have outstanding technical skills, together with the ability to build relationships with clients and colleagues and work well in a team. The ideal candidate will have 1-3 year post qualification experience (or equivalent experience).

In return, the Firm offers excellent training and development, a superb working environment together with a competitive salary and benefits package.

Agile Working Statement

The Firm's goal is to embed flexibility across their business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is the policy of the Firm to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion.  Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of age, disability, ethnic origin, gender identity, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

Should you be interested in this opportunity, or for any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0203 355 2262 or contact Sasha@hunterslegal.com