Solicitor / Associate 5+ PQE- Employment, Manchester

Job Introduction

The Employment and Pensions Group at DAC Beachcroft is over 90 strong with 17 Partners and a presence in London, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol. It’s a truly exciting time to be joining this thriving part of our business and we have an exciting opportunity in our Manchester team.

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 Fircroft Engineering Services.

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.

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.
• For more senior candidates, support the effective running of the team e.g. contributing to team meetings, reviewing reports and documents of more junior fee earners and providing guidance and feedback, assisting with the allocation of work.
• 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. Key skills
• We would expect the post holder to be a solicitor of 5 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 solicitor - ideally 5+ PQE
• 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. Work on multi-national issues or immigration experience is also welcomed.
• Good academic record, together with experience in a well-recognised firm.
• 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 behaviors at all times.
• Track record of business development is desirable.

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 and we welcome applications from every sector of the community. 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.

DAC Beachcroft