Solicitor

Are you ready to chart your own career path? At SJP we need talented individuals like yourself to support our evolving culture. If you’re seeking an employer that is passionate about excellence, innovation and autonomy, SJP could be the place for you.

At a glance:

Location: Cirencester preferred, open to considering London

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Employment Type: Permanent

Seniority: Mid-Senior Level

Who We Are

People have always been at the heart of St. James’s Place, we value long-term relationships and we are a home for people who care about the future – financially, environmentally and socially. These core values have enabled us to become a leading FTSE 100 Wealth Management company.

The role:

As a Solicitor within the Legal Team, your role is to help the business to achieve its corporate objectives by effectively managing and mitigating legal risk and by providing legal advice which is accessible, timely and cost effective and which adds real value to the business.

You’ll work with Heads of Legal to ensure that the St. James’s Place Group complies with all legal requirements and maintains good relationships with its regulators.

What you'll be doing:

• You’ll provide guidance and assistance to the St. James’s Place Partnership on relevant legal issues.
• provide legal advice and support generally to key contact client departments, the Field Management Team and the Administration Centres.
• Support Heads of Legal and Senior Solicitors in the Legal team with their work with their key contact departments.
• Provide legal support to the business and Partnership via the Legal Helpline, responding directly to queries where appropriate and redirecting queries to lawyers in the Legal Department where particular specialist advice is required.
• Ensure the business is aware of legal developments which will affect it, and of the steps needed to respond to those developments, in a timely manner.
• To ensure that the Department’s standard forms, precedents and know how are up to date.
• To keep the relevant Head of Legal updated on emerging key risks/issues and propose legal solutions for their consideration/approval, where necessary.
• Use your knowledge and experience to provide guidance to junior members of the Legal team where appropriate.
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities and explain why certain legal provisions and positions must be maintained to appropriately protect the business, whilst showing flexibility and finding pragmatic commercially-focused solutions where appropriate, escalating matters where appropriate.

Essential Criteria:

• Degree qualified with appropriate legal qualification (eg SQE).
• Significant post-qualification legal experience, both in private practice and in-house.
• legal experience across a broad range of legal issues in order to provide appropriate support to the business.
• Effective upward communication of advice to senior business leaders and boards on key legal risks/liabilities.
• Ability to develop strong and trusted relationships with colleagues across the business.
• Ability to provide legal advice in a commercial context and in a manner that is easy for the teams to digest, understand and apply to facilitate key/strategic decision making.
• strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities in order to be able to understand and explain complex legal structures and contracts.
• Being risk sensitive, but not risk averse, developing an understanding of the tolerance to risk within the business.
• Ability to prioritise and effectively manage a varied and busy workload to meet deadlines and broader goals of the business.
• Ability to recognise when and where specialist input may be required and to escalate matters to the relevant Head of Legal when appropriate.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills.

Flexible Working

We know that everyone works best in different ways, at different times and in different environments. We value all of our employees and appreciate that everyone is different, and at different stages within their career. Recognising this, we have introduced a hybrid working policy to provide greater flexibility for part-time work, job-sharing, remote working, and flexibility on hours. Our people are encouraged to work in a flexible way that suits their lifestyle, so please ask the question and start a conversation!

Research tells us that applicants (especially those from underrepresented groups) can be put off from applying for a role if they do not meet all the criteria or have been on an extended career-break. If you think you would be a good match for this role and can demonstrate some transferable experience please apply, regardless of whether you tick every box.

Why work for us?

Our Rewards

In addition to an attractive salary and eligibility to participate in the discretionary annual bonus opportunities, you will also receive an excellent benefit package including:

• Non-Contributory Pension – 10% (increasing with length of service) with further pension matching
• Meaningful protection benefits with real value, such as 10X life cover, PHI, and critical illness.
• Best in class terms and conditions including 6 months paid maternity and paternity leave.
• Private Medical and Dental Insurance
• 28 days holiday entitlement plus bank holidays (based on full-time equivalent) with the option to buy an additional up to 5 days
• Discretionary bonus scheme dependent on company and personal performance, varied by level
• Not applicable to fixed term contracts (standard uplift applies in lieu of the protection benefits)

Our Culture

Our culture is the glue that binds us together - It’s one of our biggest assets and one of the biggest reasons for our success. It’s underpinned by core values of doing the right thing, being the best version of ourselves and investing in long term relationships.

We want to embrace diverse backgrounds and experiences to connect with clients, solve problems and innovate. We raise our voice on the things that matter to us and drive change from the front. Contributing to our inclusive culture is vital, ensuring a space for everyone to be their authentic self, no compromises.

In all we do, we consider how our work affects the communities in which we belong. Over 96% of our group employees are involved in supporting our communities through financial education, charitable giving and volunteering. Over 80% of all our employees and Partners donate each month to our Charitable Foundation, which is now the 3rd largest corporate charity in UK.

SJP are delighted to have signed The Armed Forces Covenant, and we are active members of LGBT Great, 30% club, The Diversity Project, Disability Confident and more! Find out more: https://www.sjp.co.uk/careers/life-at-sjp

Our Awards:

We understand it’s important to be proud of the company you work for, that’s why we’re proud to share with you some of our recent awards:

• Wealth Manager of the Year – Growth Investor Awards 2021
• Best Wealth Manager – Shares Awards 2021
• Championing LGBTQ Inclusion - Financial Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards 2020
• Top 75 Employer - Social Mobility Foundation Employer Index 2021

To find out more visit: https://www.sjp.co.uk/about-us/our-awards-and-recognition

How To Apply

To apply for this role please click on the Apply button below.

We occasionally close vacancies early due to high volumes of applications. We would therefore recommend you complete your application prior to the closing date which is for guidance only.

Careers at SJP | St. James’s Place Careers

What's in it for you?

We reward you for the work you do, whether that’s through our discretionary annual bonus scheme that reflects both personal and company performance, competitive annual leave allowance (28 days plus bank holidays, with the option to purchase an additional 5 days), or online rewards platform with a variety of discounts.

We also have benefits to support whatever stage of life you are in, including:

• Competitive parental leave (26 weeks full pay)
• Private medical insurance (optional taxable benefit)
• 10% non-contributory pension (increasing with length of service)

Reasonable Adjustments

We're an equal opportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive for all, if you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stage please let us know by emailing us at [email protected]

What's next?

If you're excited about this role and believe you have the skills and experience we're looking for, we'd love to hear from you! Please submit an application by clicking ‘apply’ below and our team will be in touch.

As a business regulated by the FCA we would advise you to familiarise yourself with the conduct regulations and in particular consumer duty obligations prior to an interview with SJP.