LLP - Solicitor/Associate - Professional & Commercial Risk - Leeds

Job Introduction

Are you looking for a fast paced role where you will be intellectually challenged and treated with respect? Or an environment where you can enjoy industry-leading work quality without compromising on client contact and business development? Or a position that offers genuine flexibility to allow you to meet your personal and work commitments? If so then an opportunity in our Professional and Commercial Risk team may be for you.

What do we mean by "Professional & Commercial Risk". We mean we provide expert legal advice to clients across a broad range of industries and sectors via our two complementary practice areas:

Professional Indemnity: we act for insurers and the professionals they insure dealing with the full range of issues that they face. Insured clients include Surveyors and Valuers, Brokers, Solicitors, Directors & Officers, construction Professionals, Trustees, IFAs and the Technology Industry.

Commercial Dispute Resolution: our strong and growing commercial Disputes team acts across forums including in litigation, arbitration and in alternative dispute resolution, advising national and international clients across a wide range of sectors with often complex and high value commercial and contractual claims. We have a number of sub-specialisms within our commercial disputes team, including for example in public procurement matters; and in acting for construction and housebuilder clients, all being areas where we can offer market-leading expertise.

Our teams work collaboratively across these disciplines and, whilst everyone will have their area of particular expertise, we encourage cross-working so colleagues have genuine variety in their work and can use their rounded expertise to provide creative, bespoke solutions for our clients.

So, why should you be excited about a career with us? Our team are empowered to develop their own client contacts and relationships from the start of their careers; you will see how your contribution directly impacts on your clients and understand how the service you provide helps them. We are very proud of our client base, who provide us with top-quality instructions. We have the backing of a truly international firm with over 2,500 colleagues across 9 countries and with international associations further bolstering our capabilities.

We aim to encourage diversity by offering the opportunity to bring your whole self to work, underpinned by our employer brand of A Life That Works. Our team are very busy and work hard, but we offer genuine flexibility to allow you to meet your personal and work commitments – and that flexibility that hasn’t disappeared post-Covid. All across our team, from our emerging talent to our senior leadership, you won’t find a closed door, real or virtual. Read on for more information about our specific vacancy and the firm as a whole.

The Opportunity

As part of our growth and strategy, the CDR team is looking to recruit additional lawyers to join the team, including from those with a focus on and / or interest in housebuilder disputes and public procurement. The individual(s) will play an active role in the continued growth and success of the team in collaboration with our wider practice in the North, nationally and internationally. 

The team has an impressive range of specialist skills, with a strong and growing list of national and international clients as well as a broad portfolio of work, including handling heavyweight disputes for leading clients including in High Court litigation, arbitration and other proceedings arising from high value and complex contractual disputes, IT and telecoms disputes, insolvency litigation, shareholder disputes, fraud and asset recovery, construction disputes and public procurement challenges.

Role Responsibility

• Progress and manage High Court litigation, arbitration and related proceedings across a range of commercial disputes and including in the context of specific procedural rules, for example in the context of public procurement disputes.
• Drafting documents, dealing with correspondence and managing the relevant procedural process; supporting in larger matters as well as managing own caseload.
• Use a strong understanding of the factual and commercial context to drive tactical thinking and decision-making from the outset of disputes.
• Assist with urgent applications for injunctive relief and equivalent.
• Gain broad experience across our practice, whilst also helping to develop existing specialisms including in retail, health, sport, procurement, technology and construction.
• Helping to develop a reputation for leading client service, taking responsibility and being encouraged to strengthen existing relationships and develop new ones. 
• Support marketing and business development activity, contributing to strategic thinking and helping to implement it.

The Ideal Candidate

Due to our growth and strategy, we are open-minded about the qualification level of the candidates we see: we are most interested in what you think you can bring to the role and the team, and whether we are the right fit for you. Amongst the qualities we most value are:

• Ambition to develop technical and tactical skills as part of a strong and growing team
• Ability to manage a large caseload including complex and high value disputes
• Very good client handling skills
• Strong technical skills and experience
• Willingness to report to and work with disputes lawyers in different locations and to travel as required with the role

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,900 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Rome, Singapore, Argentina Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, 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