Employment Law Associate​/FILEX​/Barrister

Employment Associate (5–8 PQE) – Reading

Our client is a leading mid-sized law firm with broad practice including a rated Employment Law department.

Their Employment team is seeking to appoint a talented 5–8 year PQE Associate to join their Reading office. This is a high‑visibility role supporting partners locally and across the wider national team, offering exceptional exposure, career development and a clear platform for progression.

The successful candidate will bring strong experience across both contentious and non‑contentious employment work, including capability and conduct matters, redundancy and restructuring, TUPE, whistleblowing, and trade union issues. You will also have a proven track record in running and defending employment tribunal litigation, negotiating settlements, and advising senior executives and employers.

This role offers significant client contact and business development responsibility. Our Reading team acts for a number of well‑known employers, with a particularly strong presence in the tech and education sectors.

• Advising employers and senior executives on a broad range of employment matters.
• Handling education‑sector work, including supporting independent schools with parent complaints, regulatory issues and SEND Tribunal matters.
• Delivering high‑quality fee‑earning work and contributing to the profitability of the Employment Team and wider Business Services Division.
• Supporting the strategic growth of the team in line with firm objectives.
• Maintaining excellent professional standards and ensuring compliance with all regulatory and ethical requirements.
• Acting as an ambassador for the firm and contributing to business development initiatives.

• Solicitor or barrister (or FILEX) with specialist employment law expertise.
• 5+ years’ post‑qualification experience.
• Demonstrable competence at Associate (mid‑level) standards.
• Strong business development experience and appetite for client‑facing work.
• Experience across both contentious and non‑contentious employment matters, ideally including education‑sector work.

They offer a hybrid agile working policy, enabling employees to work from home (or another UK location) for at least 50% of their time. Additional flexible working options may also be available.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a high calibre firm offering quality work and a collegiate working environment.