Litigation Associate

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Our Litigation Services team in Scotland provide a broad range of commercial dispute resolution services, acting for clients across a number of key sectors and industries. 

The team covers a range of specialisms including commercial litigation, debt recovery, property litigation, insolvency, and lending and banking disputes.  The team litigates in the Court of Session and in Sheriff Courts throughout Scotland, and is also well-practiced in all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation.

The team won ‘Debt Recovery Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Law Awards of Scotland in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and is ranked in Tier 1 for Debt Recovery in the Legal 500.  It was also highly commended in “Litigation Team of the Year” category in the Scottish Legal Awards in 2019 and shortlisted again in that category for 2020.  Both of our partners, Andrew Foyle and Stuart Clubb are ranked lawyers in the Chambers UK guide.

We are seeking an ambitious and business minded solicitor to join our growing and award winning Litigation Services team in Edinburgh. 

The role will involve managing a busy and varied civil litigation case-load arising from across our specialisms.

The ideal candidate will come from a recognised practice and will have an excellent knowledge of civil court procedure at all levels of the court system and expertise in commercial disputes. The candidate will have advocacy experience and will be well used to litigating in the Sheriff Court and Court of Session. The candidate will be expected to play an active part in the team’s business development activities as well as contribute to client relationship management.

This is an ideal opportunity for an ambitious solicitor, ideally 2-5 years PQE, who is looking to join a collaborative and supportive team. 

We hold a strong belief in culture and community, and genuinely believe 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 and our collaborative way of working across offices.

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 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).

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.  These checks will  include employment references covering the last 5 years, proof of ID, proof of address covering the last 5 years, Personnel Vetting credit search (which will only highlight insolvency or County Court Judgments - should any adverse data show on the Personnel Vetting search then any offer of employment made will be withdrawn).

A DBS check (previously known as a Criminal Records check) and check of social media will also be carried out. 

To our agency Partners - thank you for your ongoing assistance. Please note that we are working on this role directly and do not require your help 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.