Associate

We are a top 50 law firm with over 200 partners and around 1,600 staff in total.  We have 13 locations in the UK from the South Coast to Scotland and a significant international network. Our clients include some of the largest financial, automotive, and technology businesses in the UK. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

We champion diversity and inclusion, and do everything we can 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.

Our UK 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 contentious and non-contentious matters. We also have specialists in advocacy, corporate work and business immigration.

Our employment team in Scotland has recently undergone a period of growth having engaged two high profile partners in the last 12 months, Michael McLaughlin and Kim Pattullo. This is an opportunity to join a high performing and high growth employment team sitting alongside corporate, commercial and real estate colleagues.

We are looking for two Associates from 1 yr PQE upwards to join our employment team in Edinburgh.

We would like to hear from you if you are working as an employment lawyer, acting for Respondent clients with experience of a mixed caseload of contentious and non-contentious matters and a desire to continue to work across all areas. Ideally you will have previously had the opportunity to handle your own contentious caseload.

You will advise on a mix of UK matters, with supervision and opportunity to work closely with our Scottish employment Partners and the wider employment team. We can offer you a clear job ladder with transparency around how to get promoted and move to the next level. We will give you substantial contact with clients and high quality work. You will benefit from our agile working practices and our collegiate culture and in light of this, we’d also be happy to hear from applicants based in Glasgow.

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  2 in our internal framework depending on your experience.

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.

To our agency Partners – Thank you for your ongoing support. Please note that we are recruiting for this role directly and do not require your assistance at present.

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.