Senior Associate

Overview

Job Description
We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Associate to join our Employment team in Birmingham.

We are around 10 employment lawyers, working as one team across our London and Birmingham offices, with a national reputation in the employment law market. We distinguish ourselves by being good people to work with and offering practical advice, backed by the highest technical standards, delivered in plain English. We offer excellent training and development for our lawyers, consistent with the firm's ethos, and we are part of a firm which regularly wins awards for being a good place to work.

The vast majority of our clients are employers; we act for employers in a wide range of sectors with particular strengths in tech, manufacturing (particularly automotive), financial services, social housing, construction and the public sector. We regularly work with international clients supporting their UK operations and with overseas law firms on referrals.

This role will involve acting for our employer clients, from major corporates or public sector bodies through to tech start-ups, providing advice in a wide range of employment law issues including:

• Advising clients on how best to deliver their objectives, despite the complexities of employment law
• Drafting all types of employment-related documents – for example, service agreements, handbooks, secondment agreements, consultancy agreements
• Advising on legislative changes as they are proposed and finalised
• Advice on TUPE, from application to day-to-day support on handling information and consultation exercises
• Advice on redundancy and restructuring exercises
• Corporate support
• Transactional support to our commercial and real estate teams
• All types of litigation, in the employment tribunal or civil courts, including discrimination litigation and business protection disputes
• Support with all types of ER issues, from advising on grievances or protected disclosure issues, through to family friendly queries, agency work and working time issues
• Advising on trade union issues and industrial relations disputes
• Advising on and conducting workplace investigations
• Employment-related data protection issues, including handling DSARs and employee privacy notices
• Delivering training to clients
• Business development and profile raising for the team, including public speaking, alerts/articles for clients and targets

You will be a qualified Solicitor with 4 to 6 years' PQE. Some or all of the following (depending on the level of qualification) would be beneficial:

• Demonstrable post qualification experience in employment law at a firm/department with a proven reputation
• An excellent understanding of the principal provisions in relevant employment legislation
• Experience in building and maintaining client relationships
• Experience in participating in client development events
• A clear understanding of the importance of accurate and efficient financial management
• Experience assisting partners and senior lawyers with a broad range of marketing and profile-raising initiatives
• Experience writing technical articles and presenting seminars or briefing sessions
• Understanding of how employment law can impact a client's business

• Solid organisation and time management skills
• Experience of working in a team and developing relationships with colleagues and clients
• Proven attention to detail and drafting skills
• Sound problem solving skills
• Ability to adapt to a broad range of situations and remain calm under pressure
• Strong interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills

The opportunity to work for a firm recognised as one of the best places to work in the UK, ranked by Great Place to Work® for 25 consecutive years.

• A hybrid approach to office and remote working
• Lawyer bonus
• Generous annual leave, with the option to buy up to a week of extra annual leave
• Private medical insurance, and the option to add family members
• A generous pension allowance
• Life insurance covering four times your annual salary
• The chance of a three-month sabbatical every five years
• Maternity, paternity and adoption leave schemes
• A range of health and wellbeing programmes
• State of the art offices
• Opportunities to flourish in your role through training and personal development

Many of our people work flexibly in some way. If you would like to explore flexible working arrangements with us, we are happy to discuss this during the recruitment process.

Gowling WLG is committed to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment. We believe in equality of opportunity regardless of race, religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity. This also includes incidents of perceived discrimination and harassment. Our aim is to attract and retain talented people from diverse backgrounds and cultures to create an exciting and rewarding place to work.

Offers are…