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 and a significant international network.  Our clients include some of the largest financial, automotive, and technology businesses in the UK.

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 the first major law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People. 

Perhaps most recently we are celebrating a win as Law Firm of the Year (Large Firms) category at the first ever Women in Law Awards.

Our Employment team is widely respected for providing an excellent service and delivering pragmatic and timely legal advice to its highly regarded client base. It’s a collaborative unit, operating on national lines.

We work differently here and pride ourselves on our commercial edge. We aim to act as an extension of our clients’ business and understand how they operate – partnering with them to drive improvement and add value in many different ways – not just by delivering legal advice.

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

In Manchester, our employment team is led by Emma Morgan, partner. The team handles the full range of employment instructions and also deals with business immigration. 2020 has thrown up new concepts and challenges for employment lawyers and we continue to place our clients at the centre of what we do as we negotiate the changing landscape.

We are looking for an Associate from 2 yr PQE + to join our Manchester team. You will step in to a busy team with the opportunity to run a caseload of Tribunal matters along with general advisory work and corporate support. You will have the support of a close-knit team in Manchester but also be able to dip in to our national network of employment lawyers as appropriate to develop your network and your range of skills and learning.

We would like to hear from you if you have previous Respondent facing employment experience – enjoy working on your own initiative with a collegiate team behind you. We know the events of this year have changed expectations around where and how we work. We pride ourselves on having a culture and technology which lends itself well to flexible working and in this role, we will expect to offer a mix of office and home working.

We hope that you will want to be involved in client relationship management from the beginning and that you will take a role in delivering a commercial and effective service for our clients. In return we offer a forthright and transparent approach to promotion and a positive, grown-up working environment in our superb offices in Spinningfields.  

We place a lot of belief in culture and community, and genuinely think we have something different to offer you at Shoosmiths.   This is reflected in everything we say and do from our use of technology to enable agile working, to the team spirit and culture.

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.

If you have any queries about this prospect or life at Shoosmiths before deciding whether to apply, we are always happy to have a confidential discussion with you so please get in touch with Rachel Charlton in our recruitment team (Rachel.charlton@shoosmiths.co.uk).

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.