Associate

Weightmans is a Top 45 law firm with offices throughout the UK. Having been recognised as the leading legal employer at the annual Britain's Top Employers awards and achieved record rankings in Chambers UK 2017, we are immensely proud of the work we carry out for our clients and the culture we provide to our people.

Our national Commercial team works with a wide range of clients both private and public. We provide a comprehensive range of commercial services encompassing commercial contracts, intellectual property, data protection, competition, procurement and state aid, and strategically supporting supply chain management. Our clients are in various sectors such as retail, transport and logistics, media, pharmaceutical, insurance and technology and, within the public sector, universities, police forces and local authorities. We advise on a variety of contracts from day-to-day business relationships up to major projects, and have expertise in IT contracts, joint ventures, collaboration and partnership agreements, public-private projects, agency and distribution agreements, supply chain agreements and franchising.  The team has been shortlisted for Corporate/Commercial team of the year at the Manchester Legal Awards 2019.

• To advise and support clients on all matters relating to commercial law, including drafting, negotiating and advising upon the risks connected with agreements in both the private and public sector
• To assist partners with all manner of commercial work including, but not limited to, general commercial, GDPR, data protection and IP/IT matters
• To develop and build upon own case load of commercial matters whilst supporting partners with larger scale matters
• To draft, review and negotiate a range of agreements
• To take an active role in business development
• To train, supervise and develop junior team members

• 7-10 years PQE with a good grounding in commercial law
• Strong experience of commercial work in particular drafting and negotiating supply, services, consultancy, agency, franchising, outsourcing and general commercial contracts and advising on how to manage associated risks
• Experience of GDPR, data protection, IP/IT and competition law drafting and advice
• High level of commercial awareness with strong attention to detail and good drafting skills
• Conscientious, self motivated, hard working, responsive, with critical thinking abilities and excellent communication, organisation and analytical skills
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team within the national Commercial team supporting more senior and junior staff and across the wider firm on larger projects
• Methodical, organised approach
• Passionate about growth, generating work opportunities both internally and externally
• Passionate about operational excellence generating work opportunities through great service delivery and improving the client experience
• Ability to work to strict deadlines, tight timetables, targets and client protocols while maintaining high standards in terms of accuracy and quality

Please note:

• Any reference to experience or PQE in our adverts or job descriptions is to be used as a guideline only. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and with different levels of experience who can demonstrate that they fulfil the requirements of the role.

• The successful candidate appointed to this role will be subject to our standard background checking process, and any offer of employment made is conditional upon successful completion of those checks. Further details can be obtained from the Recruitment team.