Associate​/Senior Associate

The team you will join

Birketts’ Employment Team has experience in all areas of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters, representing clients from a broad range of public and private organisations as well as senior executives. We are proud to act for sector leading clients nationwide and some important and high‑profile businesses and institutions across a number of key sectors.

Ranked 1 tier in Chambers and Legal 500, you will join a highly successful Employment team who is seeing consistent and continuous growth, and which works and collaborates closely as a supportive team of colleagues. Our employment advice is supplemented by a well‑developed in‑house employment client training offering (known as Shaping Excellence), an immigration team, an employee incentives group and Resolve, which consists of an HR consultancy service, a workplace investigations service and a team of accredited mediators.

The successful candidate will play a critical role in providing expert legal advice and services to Birketts clients. To include:

• Advising on general employment issues ranging from grievances to disciplinaries to general contractual issues
• Drafting service agreements, contracts of employment, staff handbooks and settlement agreements
• Drafting and reviewing employment policies ranging from performance, sickness, and misconduct procedures to maternity and parental leave schemes.
• Transactional corporate support work
• Advising on wrongful and unfair dismissal
• Advising on redundancy and restructuring
• Advising on TUPE
• Advising on boardroom and senior leadership disputes and senior exits
• Employment litigation in the employment tribunal
• Advising on discrimination (including sex, race, disability and age)
• Trade union work for employers
• Advising employees on settlement agreements
• Assisting with training to clients

The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining and growing client relationships and contributing to the strategic direction and success of the firm in the South East market. This will include participating in networking events, conferences and other business development activities to promote the firm’s services.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Birketts has designed a 'Talent Management Framework' which provides a career structure that will help us develop, retain and reward talented people. As an Associate, we typically expect candidates to have between 3-6 years PQE.

Any information provided in relation to PQE should be used for guidance only and will not be determinative in the recruitment decision. Applicants will be considered on their individual.

Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. This role attracts a split of 60% office days and 40% working from home days per week.

We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application.

• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity,…