Data Protection Solicitor/Associate

Job Introduction

Our information law team works cross sector and practice group and office to deliver market leading, industry specific data protection, freedom of information and data breach/cyber expertise. Work is growing fast here, resulting in the need to find a new mid-level team member to help deliver our data protection advice to clients across the firm.

We have a varied base of clients.  There is a large focus on the financial services sector but we are also growing our practice within other key sectors including public sector and private healthcare, a number of key technology clients and real estate clients.

The successful applicant would work within our financial services advisory team, working alongside data protection partners Rhiannon Webster and Jade Kowalski who are based in London. 

There are opportunities to nurture existing and grow new client relationships.

Role Responsibility

The workload is expected to consist of the following:

• Data protection compliance advice given to subject matter experts within clients.  This includes
  • advising on privacy impact assessments;
  • board reporting;
  • risk based analysis of data protection compliance of IT projects and systems;
  • advice on structuring new initiatives, such as big data projects, marketing plans, data sharing programmes
• Advising on responses to ICO complaints and investigations;
• Dealing with data subject requests;
• Advising on the use of cookies and new technologies;
• Complex contract negotiations;
• Advising on issues arising out of transfers of data
• Supporting litigation team where disputes include a data protection element
• Supporting our cyber/breach response team on data breaches

We would also expect the successful candidate to:

• Work flexibly with clients who may or may not be legally qualified.
• Develop an early awareness of the relationship with and position of client contacts.
• Assist, where required, with the relationship management of existing clients of the business.
• Support marketing and business development activity within the team e.g. article and newsletter authorship, attending marketing events and client training.
• Work with other practice groups to identify mutual business opportunities. Build effective internal and external networks.

The Ideal Candidate

• A solicitor with 1-4 years post qualified experience gained within a boutique or national law firm with significant data protection experience.  Inhouse experience will also be considered.
• Solid technical ability, particularly within drafting policies, drafting and negotiating data protection clauses in agreements, conducting audits and advising on international data transfers
• Desire to help maintain existing and grow new client relationships
• Professional certifications such as IAPP CIPP/E and CIPM are desired
• Maintains up to date knowledge of legal developments and case law in relevant market and industry sector.

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,400 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Peru, Central America, Argentina, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are known for our market-leading presence in sectors such as Insurance, Health and Real Estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for the majority of the top 30 insurance and financial services companies operating in the UK. We are the asset management lawyers for the UK’s largest shopping centres and act for 9 of the UK’s top 10 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 155 Chambers UK 2019 practice area and individual lawyer rankings, including 30 rankings at 'Band 1' level. In Legal 500 UK, 2018, the firm received top tier ranking for 32 of its practice areas and 59 practice areas in the top two tiers. In March 2018, we were named as one of Legal Week's Best Legal Advisors for the third year running, achieving category-leading satisfaction scores for our commercial approach, service delivery, quality of legal advice, communication & responsiveness and overall relationships.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

DAC Beachcroft is an equal opportunities employer; we welcome applications from every sector of the community and are happy to talk flexible working. We also welcome direct applications. If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV. Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft recruitment team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible.  We do work with recruitment agencies and where we require external support we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us.  Speculative CVs sent by any agency to any DAC Beachcroft employee without a specific request by the recruitment team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our recruitment team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft