Associate / Senior Associate - Employment

**Vacancy details**:
Our Employment team is seeking an employment lawyer to work alongside Paula Squire, Partner in our Taunton office together with a senior associate and solicitor. The team holds the prestigious ranking of Band 1 for Employment in the South West (Legal 500 directory) with Paula listed as a recommended lawyer.

The national team is headed by Marc Long with support from five other partners and their teams. Our Employment team operates from Bristol, Taunton, Manchester, Southampton and Birmingham, providing a full range of services primarily to corporate clients.

Due to our commitment to hybrid working, we are open to hearing from individuals who may not be local to our Taunton office but were able to visit on a weekly / fortnightly basis to meet with the team/clients, if needed. The team offer a flexible approach to working.

**Role: Associate / Senior Associate**
**Location: Taunton**

**Hours: Full Time / Part Time**
**Term: Permanent**
**Vacancy Reference: 1329-LTN**

**Who we are**:
You’ll be joining a national law firm that enjoys a strong reputation, made possible by our exceptional people - each chosen for their industry knowledge and passion for their field. We want to help you to reach your full potential, love the work you do and deliver the best results for your clients. It’s our goal to make you feel great about working with us, and we work hard to cultivate a culture that makes it easy for you to stay with us for many years.

We work flexibly and you’ll be empowered to work where you do your best work, balancing your individual needs with the need for us to engage as teams and deliver excellent client service.

Most of our people choose to work in a hybrid fashion, working from home and attending our offices as the need arises..

**Day to day, you’ll be successful in this role by**:
You will be involved in a broad mix of contentious and non-contentious work primarily supporting our corporate employer clients, but we do act for some senior executives and claimants. Your time will be split between disputes and general advisory work with corporate support work too.

The contentious caseload can be complex with high value claims and, as such, you will have the opportunity to gain expertise on technically and strategically challenging matters.

You will have a significant influence on how you want your experience and expertise to develop and you will be strongly encouraged and supported to get involved in business development work, taking an active role in seminars and networking events, in addition to drafting articles for publication.

You will also benefit from the support and resources of the larger national team.

We want to invest in your career and help you to become a recognised expert in your own right, so you will have plenty of opportunity for one-to-one development and encouragement from the wider team. We will ensure that you are involved in a high level of client contact and responsibility.

It is an integral part of this role that you comply with information security and all firm policies and procedures.

**This role is right for you if**:
You will be a minimum of three years PQE. You will have good experience of handling a wide range of employment law and HR matters and working on Tribunal cases for employers. You will have prepared those cases from their inception through to final hearing. You will be experienced in managing and complying with directions, including detailed discovery exercises and witness statement preparation. You will have ready experience of advising clients on day to day employment issues, including disciplinary proceedings, grievances, redundancies and discrimination issues. You will have good experience of preparing contracts of employment, policies/handbooks and preparing and advising on settlement agreements. Some employment based data protection work is an advantage too.

You will be an excellent team player capable of working with our solicitors in providing commercial solutions to our clients’ issues. You will be interested in business development and growing the practice and supporting the partners to do so.

You will have developed solid drafting, research and advisory skills. Whether acting for claimants or respondents you will be able to demonstrate that your advice is practical and commercially minded, with excellent client care and organisational skills. If you have non-contentious/corporate support skills this would also be useful but guidance and support on these matters would be given to you over time.

**What we can offer you**:
A career at Clarke Willmott will feel different to other law firms. We thrive on our individual differences and diversity because as a team, we are united by our shared values and mutual respect. Working with us you will feel empowered, valued and free to be yourself in a safe and supportive environment.

Our mission is to help you realise your full potential whilst maintaining a positive work-life bala