Associate

Closing date: 12/02/2019
PQE: 1-2
Term: Permanent
Working hours: Full-time
Reports to: Head of Dispute Resolution
Department: Dispute Resolution
Location: London
Specialism: Commercial Disputes
The firm

Lewis Silkin is a UK top-100 commercial law firm with offices in London, Oxford, Cardiff, Dublin and Hong Kong. The firm is recognised by clients and industries alike as being distinct: for its deep understanding, insight and advice to creative, innovative and brand-focused businesses; for its market-leading international practice in employment, immigration and reward; and for delivering pragmatic, commercial advice in a refreshingly human way.

With 59 partners and more than 300 staff, the firm is structured around two key divisions.

In employment, immigration and reward, it is consistently top-ranked, and was named HR Law Firm of the Year 2015 by the Legal 500. With over 100 lawyers, Lewis Silkin’s employment and immigration team offers an unrivalled service supporting clients, including many of the world’s leading businesses, on their HR, employment and immigration law needs domestically and internationally. 

The creators, makers and innovators team is made up of leading advisers for creative, innovative and brand-focused businesses, offering a deep understanding of the industry sectors in which clients operate combined with real expertise across a wide range of legal services. From start-ups to multinationals, the firm’s comprehensive and commercially focused advice helps clients succeed in an increasingly complex and converged international marketplace.

The department

Our Dispute Resolution Practice Group supports the wider firm’s clients with a range of disputes. 

The Group is looking to recruit a 1 – 2 PQE associate to join its commercial disputes team.  The team is an energetic and informal group with an impressive client base. It litigates high value and complex claims at all levels before the English Courts.  It regularly collaborates with lawyers internationally to resolve cross-border disputes. It handles major domestic and international arbitrations (ICC, LCIA, specialist tribunals and ad hoc) and makes effective use of all forms of ADR. The team has the capacity and experience to handle heavy claims and it consistently achieves excellent results, often against much larger firms.

The team is highly regarded and consistently ranked in both Chambers (UK and Europe editions) and Legal 500.

Responsibilities

Our preferred candidate will have spent time within the Dispute Resolution group of a medium or large private practice law firm, where they developed strong technical legal skills and gained experience of commercial disputes.

The role will involve working alongside market leading partners within the team, handling a variety of commercial disputes.  Typically our work involves contractual disputes, professional negligence, tort claims, director and shareholder disputes, partnership disputes and insolvency issues. Whilst the team’s work is primarily litigation-focused, it also handles arbitrations, ADR and a variety of disciplinary, regulatory and statutory tribunals. 

We welcome candidates with strong commercial acumen. This should manifest itself both in their advice to clients and their efforts seeking out business development opportunities. Academic rigour is an important component of this position together with technical excellence. The ideal candidate will have excellent drafting, analytical and communication skills and be able to run their own files with minimal supervision where appropriate. They will report to partners/senior associates within the team in respect of individual assignments.

Our associates have a high level of direct contact with clients and are encouraged to take responsibility from the outset.  They are also expected to play an active role in business development through writing articles, client guides, organising and presenting at seminars and participating at client social events.  We are looking for a team player who will participate fully in all aspects of the life of this strong and growing group.

The successful individual will be a key part of a hard-working, friendly and supportive team; therefore, the ideal candidate must be a strong team player and have experience working in a high performing and collaborative environment.

Knowledge of retail, leisure, technology, automotive, financial services, marketing and/or media sectors would be advantageous.

Additional information

IT SKILLS REQUIRED:

  • Competency in MS Office suite.

EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

  • Current practising certificate
  • Excellent academics

No agencies please.

Lewis Silkin is an equal opportunities employer.