Associate (Newly Qualified)

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 61 partners and more than 350 staff, the firm is structured around two key divisions.

Creators, Makers and Innovators

The CMI division 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. It consists of 37 partners and around 65 other specialist lawyers.

The division’s lawyers have decades of experience both within the creative industries and as legal advisers with in depth knowledge and experience of the many sectors that make up the creative world, including advertising and marketing, technology, financial services, retail, entertainment and media, fashion, hospitality and sports.

The Corporate team (which is part of the CMI division) consists of 11 partners, 7 Associates, 1 trainee, 1 practice development lawyer and a high quality secretarial and word processing support team.

The range of work we carry out includes all aspects of corporate (both transactional and non-transactional), corporate finance and tax advice.

Our clients are interesting and diverse and range from founders, owner-managed entrepreneurial businesses to companies listed in the UK and overseas. It includes the persons and funds who invest in these businesses, and banks who work on exit transactions.

We act for many of the world’s leading marketing communications networks, as well as large independent agencies. We also act for many cutting edge tech businesses, in areas including fintech and medtech among others, and high-profile investors inside and outside the UK. We also act for clients in other sectors including healthcare, media, financial services, professional partnerships, music and fashion, sports, retailers and restaurants.

Each associate is allocated a Career Development Partner from amongst the division’s partners, who will have general responsibility for development of the associate.

All members of our team are given the opportunity to help grow our business and participate fully in our business development initiatives which may range from a variety of sector-based events, to writing in industry journals and presenting at seminars. 

We are keen that our associates (immediately following qualification) play an active role in this aspect of our business and they are encouraged to contribute with their own ideas and initiatives.

All associates have a business development plan: we see this as a commitment of the firm to support these activities (even if comparatively minor), rather than a specific performance measurement rubric.

Person and the role

• We expect the candidate to have excellent academics and strong interpersonal skills.
• We work in teams, with the size and composition of the team depending upon the nature of the transaction.
• The successful individual will be a key part of a hard-working, friendly and supportive team; therefore, the ideal candidate will be a strong team player and have experience working in a high performing and collaborative environment.
• Our associates are encouraged to run their own transactions (with guidance on hand as and when necessary) and to develop their legal knowledge.

Prior experience

• Our preferred candidate would have spent the entirety of their post qualification experience within the Corporate group of a City-based London law firm.

• The ideal candidate would have limited prior experience in respect of the majority of the below:
  • general corporate advisory work such as share issues, share buy-backs, internal re-organisations;
  • producing (if only, a first drafts) shareholder agreements and articles for both owner-managed and corporate owned businesses;
  • the process relating to M&A;
  • undertaking due diligence and assisting in producing the reports on an exceptions basis;
  • assisting in the process of verification on a capital markets transaction;
  • handling calls with clients without supervision, even if only on a very basic level;
  • acting on transactions with persons based overseas.
• The candidate will be expected to have looked at our website, and have assessed which of the sectors in which we specialise are of a personal interest.

IT skills required:

• Proficient IT skills - Office 365, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Skype for Business, DocsCorp PDF Docs, Word Compare (DocsCorp CompareDocs), Document Management System (Netdocs), although full in house training will be provided.

• Time recording (Intapp TIME)

Educational and professional qualifications required:

• Qualified UK lawyer with a current UK practising certificate