Legal Director

Company: Shakespeare Martineau
Closing date: 18/09/2022
Term: Permanent
Working hours: Full-time
Team: Commercial & IP
Location: Variable
The opportunity

Are you an Employment Lawyer looking for a career opportunity?

This is a fabulous opportunity to join a brand new role within a growing team. The team has a superb reputation, particularly in the education sector. It’s a really exciting time to join!

We can offer you:

  • A competitive salary with great benefits including private medical, 27 days holiday plus bank holidays and a bonus day off for your birthday
  • A culture of trust, empowerment and autonomy over your work
  • Opportunity to join a newly created role within a growing team with a superb reputation particularly in the education sector
  • Flexible working with a blend of home and office

The role:

We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and driven individual to join our Employment team.

You will play a key role providing high quality legal services to clients on all aspects of employment work, both contentious and non-contentious, for a variety of education clients. This role would suit someone who enjoys client contact and thrives in a busy environment and is interested in developing their own career.

You will also assist in the supervision of more junior fee earners, delegating appropriate work to trainees and supporting on large complex matters.

Key Duties:

  • Assisting on large complex matters with appropriate supervision, and also building up your own caseload
  • Attending and conducting client meetings
  • Taking clients’ instructions
  • Giving clear advice in correspondence and in person
  • Drafting documents, letters and contracts tailored to the client’s individual needs
  • Being a key team player in both the Birmingham and wider cross-office Employment team
  • Taking a proactive approach to business development
  • Working with marketing strategies to attract new clients and developing relationships with current clients
  • Negotiating with clients and other professionals to secure agreed objectives
  • Acting on behalf of clients in disputes and representing them in court, as necessary
  • Instructing Counsel or specialist advocates to appear in court and Tribunal for the client in potentially complex disputes
  • Preparing papers for court and Tribunal
  • Delivering training to clients on various employment related issues

What you’ll need:

  • Previous experience in employment law, preferably from within private practice
  • Some experience with providing advice in the education sector is desirable
  • Some previous supervisory experience is highly desirable
  • A high level of accuracy and attention to detail, with excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • A willingness and enthusiasm to get involved in business development activities, ideally able to demonstrate a proven track record of success in this area
  • Motivation to take up a challenge at an exciting time
  • To be personable and have experience of dealing with a broad range of clients
  • Excellent organisational and prioritising skills
  • Full time preferred but we would consider flexible for the ideal candidate

How we work:

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work. We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. This role can be a blend of home and office based work- most of the team are in Birmingham and tend to get together once a week, therefore some regular travel into the Birmingham office would be required.

Meet the team:

Our team is a leader in providing employment advice in the education sector. We work with incredible clients and we are continually winning new ones. The team is committed to growing the practice and having a significant presence in the sector.

Our Employment team provides commercial, practical advice to employers and senior employees on all aspects of employment law. The team comprises a number of highly skilled litigators and is known for its successful handling of Employment Tribunal litigation, including large complex discrimination cases, and largely undertake our own advocacy in Tribunals. We also have experience of dealing with cases in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Justice. Our specialist lawyers train and advise managers to handle staff effectively and to deal with disputes where and when they arise, including fighting court and tribunal cases where necessary. We have a strong, local, national and multinational corporate client base, particularly in industry sectors such as education, logistics, food and drink, retail, transport and manufacturing. The team also includes specialist advisors on business immigration and provide that support to many clients in most sectors.

Meet David- Partner and Head of Employment.

Find out more about us:

It’s the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams, together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves, from when and where you work, to how you dress; we focus on outputs.  

Check out our amazing benefits here

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

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