Researcher

Watson Farley & Williams was established in London in 1982 and is an international law firm dedicated to client care, legal excellence and investment in its people.  The firm has offices in Athens, Bangkok, Dubai, London, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris, Rome and Singapore.

The firm has seen rapid expansion in size and geography.  Having started as a maritime law firm, in which it remains pre-eminent, the firm is today recognised for its specialist focus on five core sectors: Energy & Infrastructure, Maritime, Natural Resources, Real Estate and Transport in which it provides a full suite of services including finance, corporate, dispute resolution, tax, employment and regulatory.

The team comprises: Head of Information & Research, Senior Researcher, Researcher and Information & Research Assistant.

To provide a legal and business information service to fee-earners and Business Development in all WFW offices, promote good knowledge management practice and encourage knowledge sharing. 

Legal & business research

• Respond to legal and business enquiries globally as required
• Assist with larger projects

Current awareness

• Maintain tracks on specific topics and clients
• Participate in testing and trials of alternative current awareness provider solutions

Contract management

• Promotion, testing and researching of new services
• Maintaining user lists of key sources on LMS
• Maintaining good relationships with supplier reps and attending update meetings as required

Serials management

• Maintenance of journal renewals on LMS (Bailey’s KnowAll)
• Obtaining authorisation from budget holders and processing of invoices
• Keeping journals list up to date to send out to new joiners and updating distribution lists
• Supplier relations – meeting with suppliers for negotiation of firmwide subscriptions
• Maintaining journals section of inhouse training guide for LMS
• Transferring journal records to new version of LMS

Looseleaf management

• Responsible for renewals of annual looseleaf subscriptions on LMS
• Obtaining authorisation from budget holders and processing of invoices

Knowledge management

• Cataloguing knowhow submissions

Intranet              

• Promotion of new subscriptions and tools
• Updating of I&R pages

Training

• New trainee and vacation student inductions
• New fee-earners training
• Targeted training by department or resource

Copyright

• Responsible for liaising with CLA and NLA to ensure the firm’s licences remain current and are adhered to
• Responsible for keeping the I&R team up to date on copyright requirements

Ad hoc

• Holiday cover
• Book shelving
• Other projects as required by the business

Qualification in library / information management

• Experience of carrying out complex legal and business research

• Experience of working in legal or professional services environment

At Watson Farley & Williams we value diversity and promote a culture of respect for each individual. We encourage workforce diversity at all levels and in all aspects from recruitment and selection to appraisal and promotion. All decisions relating to employment practice will be objective and based on merit and ability.