Employment - Solicitor/Associate, Newcastle

Job Introduction

The Employment Pensions and Immigration Team at DAC Beachcroft LLP is one of the largest teams in the UK, over 90 strong with 17 Partners, and a presence in London, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol, as well as Dublin and NI. We have a strong public sector client base and a thriving and large commercial client base, including a significant number of household names.

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, and  transfers of employees both within and outside the UK.  The Team handles approximately 2,000 Employment Tribunal claims per annum and we are one of the largest users of the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

At DAC Beachcroft we offer “A Life That Works”, 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 offer location based working, fully flex and hybrid working, enabling colleagues to work primarily in office, remotely or a mix of the two, which 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.

DAC Beachcroft - North

DAC Beachcroft’s Northern England offices; Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle EPI 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 health and social care, central government, telecommunications, retail, 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 appropriate 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.
• 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.

The Ideal Candidate

A qualified Solicitor or Associate of ideally NQ to 6+ PQE (but will consider strong candidates with a different level of experience), with a demonstrable interest or previous experience, and real zeal to practice in this area.

• Solid track record in terms of academics
• Advocacy experience is an advantage (but not essential as training can be provided in this area)
• Excellent relationship and client handling skills. Able to deal confidently and professionally with clients on day to day issues.
• An ability to adopt a client focused and commercial perspective rather than an ‘academic’ approach to legal issues, coupled with a keen grasp of legal issues, as these arise (demonstrating a clear ability to learn quickly ‘on the job’).
• Highly motivated, sharing our commitment to providing excellent service to our clients.
• Change oriented with a positive, flexible approach towards the implementation of new initiatives.
• Team oriented and collegiate with a willingness to share knowledge with and support other members of the team.

This is an opportunity for someone looking to join a successful and expanding team in an exciting and developing sector, within a firm with an excellent reputation in Employment nationally and as a great place to work.

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,500 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 Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in 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 all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

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.

Application Details

At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences we celebrate them.  From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you like an individual.  Our strength comes from your diverse ideas and bringing the whole you to work. So if you’re good at what you do, come as you are.  We welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.

We also want you to be at your very best.  Please feel free to let us know of any changes we can make at any point in the recruitment process that will help support your application.  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