Immigration Lawyer

We are a top 50 law firm with 194 partners and around 1,700 staff in total.  We have 13 locations in the UK and a significant international network.  Our clients include some of the largest financial, automotive, telecoms and technology businesses in the UK.

We champion diversity and inclusion, and our mission is to attract and nurture a diverse group of people and to create an environment and culture that is genuinely inclusive, in which every member of staff feels valued for their contribution.  We have been awarded Gold status in the Law Society Diversity and Inclusion Charter in recognition of our commitment to this.  We were also the first major law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People.

We have received numerous accolades which reflect the quality and efforts of the firm, most recently we were named National Law firm of the year at The Lawyer Awards 2019.

Our national Employment team is widely respected for providing an excellent service, offering pragmatic and timely legal advice to its highly regarded client base.

We work differently here and pride ourselves on our commercial edge. We understand how our clients operate – partnering with them to drive improvement and add value in many ways across their business – not just by delivering legal advice.

The team primarily works with employer clients along with some individual advisory work and a mix of both contentious and non-contentious matters. We also have specialists in advocacy, corporate work and business immigration.

We operate as a single team across our London and Thames Valley offices which allows us to resource up or down or call upon various specialisms as the situation may require whilst at the same time having the ability to engage the larger national employment team so as to ensure adequate coverage and maintain client service levels.

The Partners leading our team in London and the Thames Valley are Tier 1 ranked and work for a variety of blue chip clients and/or household names.   We operate in a collegiate manner and are supportive of flexible working practices across the two offices.

There is a place in this team for an experienced Immigration expert, ideally with a compelling business case, to operate at a senior level to hone and develop our existing immigration practice.

We have business immigration experts in various locations around the country but we have existing opportunities and scope to develop a stronger immigration offering across London and the Thames Valley. We anticipate that in order to have the skills, experience and commercial acumen we are seeking for this opportunity, this candidate is likely to be upwards of 6 years PQE but this is a guide only and we will consider applicants of other levels.

We don’t mind if you’re in a wholly immigration focussed role at the moment or if you’re working in an employment team and cultivating this specialism. We are looking for a confident, pro-active lawyer who will complement our existing immigration offering but will take ownership for growing and developing it further. This position would be aligned with London and/or the Thames Valley office and some home-working would also be considered for the right candidate.

As always, we will be impressed by ambitious lawyers with strong client relationships and a desire to work within a collaborative team to make their mark.   

We are a values-driven business – our values are at the core of the firm and we evaluate how we behave in accordance with these values through a competency framework. This role is considered to be at competency level 3 or 4 in our internal framework.

If you have questions for us before you apply – please feel free to contact Rachel Charlton in our recruitment team on Rachel.charlton@shoosmiths.co.uk or 03700 86 5809.                                                                                                                                         

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.