Associate

The Team

We are a leading employment practice and provide advice on the full range of employment issues advising (i) employers from the financial services, sports, corporate, media, retail, education, visitor attractions and charity sectors and (ii) individual senior executives. We also provide safeguarding and education advice to our schools, charity and sports sector clients in particular. We pride ourselves on excellent client service and on providing pragmatic, swift solutions, which come off the fence.

Scope

This role will report to one or more Partners and will work within the Employment team which sits within a wider Commercial Department alongside the Corporate, Banking & Financial Services, IP & Commercial and Charities & Communities teams. The successful candidate will provide employment advice to employer clients from a wide variety of sectors, including the financial services, education (including higher education), media, visitor attractions and sports sectors. This covers general advisory work as well as employment tribunal and high court litigation, particularly team moves and employee competition disputes. In addition, they will also provide advice to senior executives and will also be involved in the safeguarding work the team does within the education and sports sectors in particular.

We are looking for someone who can, albeit with supervision, run with matters with a good degree of autonomy. The employment team also undertakes a lot of marketing and business development activity so the successful applicant must be enthusiastic about writing articles, delivering presentations and attending networking events.

Responsibilities

• Advising employers on drafting of contracts, policies and procedures;
• Advising employers on day to day issues, such a disciplinary and grievances and smaller redundancy procedures;
• Advising, within a team, on bigger projects, such as larger collective redundancy consultations;
• Advising on Employment Tribunal litigation and being responsible for the day to day running of Employment Tribunal claims;
• Working with partners on high court employee competition disputes;
• Advising senior executives, including partners, on entry into new jobs, on issues during employment and on their leaving employment (for example, on negotiating terms or advising on the enforceability of restrictive covenants);
• Providing support to the team's commercial and corporate teams (for example, in relation to employment due diligence or the TUPE provisions within sale or outsourcing agreements);
• Writing articles for the team's blog (on a rostered basis), speaking at client training and attending client and intermediary networking events.

Skills and Experience

• High level of technical knowledge across the employment work performed by the team;
• Efficient communication skills and the ability to communicate advice to the person receiving it;
• The ability to deal with many matters at any one time;
• The organisation skills to keep files in order and to move transactions to completion effectively;
• Enthusiasm and strong team working skills.

Education and Qualifications

• Minimum 2.1 degree and a training contract undertaken in a mid-sized or city firm.

Special aspects

Happy to talk flexible working. The firm are able to consider candidates working a 0.8 FTE. The normal hours of work are 9.30am – 5.30pm but it is essential to be committed, flexible and prepared to work beyond the normal office hours when necessary and in response to client demand.

Farrer & Co operates an agile working framework under which members of the firm are expected to spend at least 40% of their working hours in the office. This is a minimum expectation: individuals may elect or be asked or expected to work more frequently in the office, depending on circumstance.

Farrer & Co is an equal opportunity employer which welcomes applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We look to employ the best candidates regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, social or economic background, religion, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other protected characteristic.

We are keen to ensure candidates have the best interview experience possible. If you require any adjustments during the interview or application process, please let the recruitment team know.

Comments

Farrer & Co conducts a pre-employment screening which includes a Criminal History Background and Credit Check for successful candidates.