Employment Associate (3-5+ PQE) - Manchester

Job Introduction

The Employment and Pensions Group at DAC Beachcroft LLP is one of the largest teams in the UK with over 110 fee earners and 17 Partners. The team advises public, private and third sector employers on human resource issues from daily personnel matters, including disciplinary and grievance issues, to strategic management issues such as collective redundancy programmes, industrial action,  transfers of employees both within and outside the UK.  The Group handles approximately 1,000 Employment Tribunal claims per annum.

Our Manchester office, led by two partners and with 8 additional fee earners, is amongst the best in the country; ranked as tier one in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners Guides. The team work with well-known clients, such as DHL, Royal British Legion, Places for People Group and McDonald’s.

Manchester is a full service office for DAC Beachcroft, comprising of 250 members of staff and boasting a close knit, supportive and rewarding culture. The office enjoys regular social activities such as a monthly staff club for shared events, regular charitable exercises to support their nominated charity and some taking part in the Manchester 10k. The office also immerses themselves in the sector, by running a Legal Clinic with University of Manchester and taking part in the Manchester Legal Walk. We are serious about responsible business and have a head of Responsible Business whose role it is to ensure we take forward our strategy. We have for example recently won a national award for our Helpforce programme working with our NHS client, local secondary schools and elderly people

At DACBeachcroft we offer “A Life That Works” in a way of working which enables our diverse group of colleagues to balance professional responsibilities with personal commitments. Flex forward is how we deliver this. We have location based working, office-based, hybrid and fully flex to offer the maximum flexibility for each colleague’s role. We also offer a flexible approach to working hours, enabling colleagues to “glide their time”, or flex their hours across the day and week with relaxed core hours.

Main Responsibilities

DAC Beachcroft’s Northern England offices; Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle teams work closely together, with a focus on providing a seamless service to our client base across the North and nationally. Together the teams comprise of 5 Partners, and 26 lawyers, giving DAC Beachcroft a market leading powerhouse in the North of the country.

Role Responsibility

• Undertake a varied workload of employment matters advising employers in a variety of sectors, including retail, health, logistics and insurance work.
• Progress and manage a wide variety of client matters both contentious and non-contentious, and of varying complexity and scale.
• Manage own matters, time and relationships with minimum supervision.
• Maintain an awareness of the appropriate limits of own competence/authority.
• Actively identify and exploit business development opportunities and marketing activity for team clients and own contacts.
• Participate in and initiate marketing / network activities in order to maintain and develop work from existing clients and potential clients.
• This includes presenting and assisting in client and other external seminars, taking part in pitches and contributing positively to business development.
• Maintain and develop technical knowledge through leading and attending training sessions, reading appropriate publications and exceeding Law Society CPD requirements.
• Provide support for colleagues where appropriate e.g. progressing matters in colleagues’ absence, supporting CRM activities.
• Continually monitoring and taking responsibility for own financial performance and demonstrating proactive financial management; attention to billing regimes, credit control, debt collection, accounting procedures and client service level agreements.
• Handle confidential data in line with the firm's data security protocols.

We would expect the post holder to be a solicitor of at least 3 years+, or more, post qualification experience (but will consider strong candidates with a different level of experience), from an established respondent focused practice, who will be able to manage their own work and caseload with minimal supervision

The Ideal Candidate

• A qualified associate (3-5PQE+)
• Must have experience of contentious and non-contentious matters, and preferably experience of advising on major projects involving restructures, M&A, TUPE, collective consultation as well general advisory work with clients on senior level issues, such as executive terminations or restrictive covenant disputes.
• Good academic record.
• Independent thinker with a focus on generating commercial solutions to problems on behalf of clients. Up to date knowledge of key trends in order to maintain credibility in conversations with clients.
• Confident communicator with an ability to develop relationships, undertake client marketing and influence at all levels, in particular HR Director/General Counsel level.
• Enthusiastic team player with a flexible approach, and demonstrates role model behaviours at all times.
• Track record of business development is desirable

DAC Beachcroft