Senior Associate

Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.

With offices in London, Oxford, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.

Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.

The Corporate team (which is part of the CMI division) consists of 11 partners, 10 Associates, 1 trainee, 1 paralegal, 1 practice development lawyer and a high quality secretarial and word processing support team.  The team operates as one combined team based in the London and Cardiff offices.  It is Tier 1 ranked by Legal 500 and Band 2 ranked by Chambers & Partners in the London market and is expanding in both Cardiff and London.

The range of work we carry out includes mergers and acquisitions, debt funding and all aspects of corporate finance from early investment to exit transactions, as well as corporate advisory work and tax advice.

Our clients are interesting and diverse and range from founders and owner-managed entrepreneurial businesses, to investors and funders, through to large businesses including companies listed in the UK and overseas. . 

We act for many cutting-edge tech and high-value manufacturing businesses, in areas including fintech and medtech among others. We also act for advertising agencies and leading marketing communications networks, and 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, presenting at seminars and networking activities.  We are keen that our associates play an active role in this aspect of our business, and they are encouraged to contribute with their own ideas and initiatives. This is especially important for Senior Associates as we see this as an important component in their career development, and we will work with them to develop their own personal business plan.

PERSON AND THE ROLE

We expect the candidate to have excellent academics and strong interpersonal skills.

Due to the nature of our work, 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 and must be equally comfortable with playing either a leading or supporting role within the team in order to foster 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

The ideal candidate would have substantial prior experience in respect of the following, gained either in a City of London or strong regional practice:

• the M&A process, including drafting and negotiating purchase agreements as well as involvement in the due diligence and disclosure processes;
• the venture capital and/or private equity investment processes including drafting and negotiating investment or subscription agreements as well as involvement in the due diligence and disclosure processes;
• general corporate advisory work such as share issues, share buy-backs and internal re-organisations;
• producing shareholder/investment agreements and bespoke articles of association;
• (ideally) debt funding transactions including drafting and negotiating security agreements as well as involvement in the conditions precedent processes; and
• acting on transactions with parties based overseas.

We would expect a good candidate to have:

• a solid understanding of when to consult with other specialists, including (for example) tax, real estate and employment, and a good understanding of those wider issues as they arise on corporate transactions;
• meaningful experience of leading on more straightforward transactions.

IT SKILLS REQUIRED:

• Proficient IT skills - Office 365, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams, DocsCorp PDF Docs, and Document Management System (Netdocs or similar), although full in house training will be provided.
• Time recording (Intapp TIME or similar)

EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

• Qualified UK lawyer with a current UK practising certificate

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

• Please let us know of any foreign language capabilities.  Whilst not essential, they may be useful in dealing with our diverse international client base.

At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.