Employment Senior Associate/Principal Associate

PQE: 7 years +
Term: Permanent
Team: Employment
Location: Leeds
The role

Our Employment team is looking for an experienced Senior or Principal Associate (7 yr PQE +) to join us in Leeds. You will join a busy, close knit team working with Partners Paul Stokey (National Head of Employment) and Phil Crowe (Head of Employment Leeds).   

The team has a leaning towards contentious work but this role will also involve supervising juniors in this area in addition to managing a broad advisory caseload and corporate/Real Estate support. We work with an impressive roster of clients across automotive, manufacturing, logistics, infrastructure, technology and retail.

We are looking for a candidate who will share our passion for delivering excellence in service levels and go beyond giving legal advice to look for innovative and practical solutions for our clients.  

Based in Leeds, you will work on a hybrid model with a mix of home and office working and will benefit from the support and infrastructure of our national network of employment and immigration lawyers across the UK.

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 effective cross-office working, to our team spirit and culture. We strive to create an inclusive and supportive work place where employees can be themselves at work. We are proud of our active employee networks, the establishment of our Shadow Board and initiatives such as reciprocal mentoring and inclusive leadership training to bring diverse perspectives and recommendations to our leadership team and the firm as a whole.

The team

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 an ambitious, collaborative unit with a flair for client engagement.

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.

The firm

We are a top 40 law firm with over 200 partners and around 1,500 staff in total. 

Shoosmiths is the law firm clients choose for excellent service, incisive thinking and above all for our ability to focus on what matters. From offices across the UK and Brussels, we support some of the world’s most exciting and ambitious businesses; amazing clients making an impact. We empower our people to be their authentic selves and deliver together in supportive teams committed to excellence and innovation. The first top 50 law firm to achieve ‘Platinum Standard’ Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm.

We have an outstanding benefits package to complement our competitive remuneration system. In addition to the competitive salaries, great working environment and high-quality work, we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm through a comprehensive and flexible range of benefits.

To discover more about our benefits, please visit: Benefits Package

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 or 3 in our internal framework, depending on experience.

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.com).

Please note that we are sourcing this role directly at the moment and do not currently require support from any of our Agency partners. We will let you know if this changes.

Equal opportunities

Our approach to our people is underpinned by our approach to diversity, inclusion and well being. Our ambition is to build a diverse and ambitious workforce that reflects all backgrounds and talents, and a workplace that is supportive and inclusive, recognises and nurtures talent, and has a strong sense of community between colleagues.

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.