Bevan Brittan is a UK-Top 100 commercial law firm
providing a comprehensive range of legal services from offices in
Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and London.
The firm advises businesses across construction, energy
& resource management, higher education and financial services,
complementing the firm's market leadership within housing, local
government and health & social care.
We currently employ over 600 people, including over 90
Partners, and our award-winning teams provide construction,
commercial, corporate, property, regulatory, employment and
litigation (commercial and clinical negligence) legal advice.
Bevan Brittan is named among 'The Times Best Law Firms
2024' and has recently either won or been shortlisted for a number
of prestigious awards.
We are driven by our 4 values: Relationships, Results,
Reputation and Responsible. These give us a sense of purpose and
ensure we always work collaboratively with clients and colleagues,
continually improve, make the right choices and act with integrity.
Bevan Brittan is an equal opportunities employer and
welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.
The Team
Our Employment, Pensions and Immigration team continues
to be a market leader, going from strength to strength across a
range of sectors. Our year on year growth means that we work with a
fantastic portfolio of clients, many of which are household names.
The team operates on a truly national basis, providing
our lawyers with the opportunity to work with a variety of
colleagues and clients. Acting mainly for employers, our roster of
clients includes national and multi-national organisations, and we
support them to improve their employment practices and manage
workforce issues, as well as defending employment claims and seeking
to mitigate risks for clients.
Bevan Brittan has strong recognition in the independent
legal directories - Chambers & Partners and Legal 500. In both
guides we are consistently ranked in the top tier for our practices
across the UK, with multiple individuals recognised as leading lawyers.
This is a team that knows and understands the reality
of the sector which means their advice and management of matters
is effective, focused and strategic but human in its approach -Legal 500, 2023
The Role
We are looking for an Associate/Senior Associate
(4+PQE) to join us, who will be ideally well placed to be assigned
to one of our regional locations including Birmingham, Bristol or
Leeds. We operate a very flexible hybrid working model.
As a member of the national employment practice the
primary focus of your role will be working in the following sectors:
commercial services, higher education, financial services and
housing. The wider team also has an outstanding reputation in the
health and care sectors, supporting and advising the NHS, voluntary
and independent health and care providers as well as local/central
government markets. There may be opportunities to work in some of
these areas too.
Bevan Brittan is proud of its full service offering and
embedded multi-disciplinary team approach to supporting our clients.
Building relationships, both externally with our clients and across
our internal teams, is key. The depth and breadth of the markets in
which we operate will provide the opportunity and flexibility to
work on novel and complex employment law issues across both
contentious and non-contentious matters.
With your skill and expertise, it is envisaged that you would:
Manage your own caseload across both contentious and
non-contentious work areas
Work with and support a number of our partner leads
and colleagues across all four of our offices
Provide management and supervisory support to junior colleagues
Support on training and client relationship management
You would be supervising and advising on employee
relations matters including internal
disciplinary/grievance/capability processes, reviewing policies and
procedures and contracts, advising on equalities obligations,
conduct of and/or support on Employment Tribunals, advising on TUPE
processes including inputting into drafting of commercial agreements
as well as delivering training on a broad range of employment issues
and supporting business development.
With approximately 100 new litigation instructions
every year, our Employment team's litigation experience is second to
none. Whether in the Tribunal, the EAT, the Court of Appeal or the
High Court you will have the chance to be involved in
ground-breaking employment litigation.
What we are looking for from you
The successful candidate will be involved in providing
sound, commercial employment advice and would have the following
skill set/experience:
Supervision of junior colleagues
A broad range of contentious and non-contentious
employment experience, ideally gained across one or more of our
key markets, including financial services, general commercial,
higher education, and housing
Case management of complex ET claims
Advising on employee relations issues including
settlement negotiations
Reviewing/drafting policies
Contractual and policy advice
Senior exits
Advising on restructures/redundancy processes and
TUPE issues
Undertaking transactional due diligence, often as
part of a wider corporate or commercial transaction
Some advocacy experience desirable but not essential
Good client management skills and an interest in
business development
We offer a structured career pathway to meet both your
and our needs.
Work-life balance
Where possible, we want to offer all Bevan Brittan
people flexibility to work their week in a way that suits them - we
operate a hybrid working model based on the needs of our clients,
teams and that of the individual. Our core business hours are 9am -
5:15pm Monday to Friday, however we are open to individuals working
more flexibly around those times and would welcome a conversation
with you if you have any questions.
We offer a substantial benefits package to all
employees including:
A minimum of 25 days holiday (plus the option to buy
up to an additional 5 days)
Discretionary bonus scheme
Generous pension scheme
Private medical insurance through Vitality
Biennial private health assessment through Nuffield Health
Life assurance
Access to Employee Assistance Programme
Cycle to work scheme
Responsible business
To us, being a responsible business is second nature; a
core part of Bevan Brittan's identity, running through our culture
and embodied by the clients we serve. We want to demonstrate our
commitment to these causes through actions rather than words;
colleagues from across the firm are already heavily involved, living
and breathing the four pillars of our Responsible Business strategy:
Community Engagement -Each lawyer has the opportunity to undertake pro bono
legal work for local charities and not-for-profit organisations.
We also play an active role through our local office communities,
in 2023 we fundraised and donated a total of £100,000 to our four
regional office charities, with each charity receiving £25,000 to
help fund their vital services.
Environmental Sustainability- Bevan Brittan is proudly a carbon neutral firm. We
have achieved the UN's Climate Neutral Now accreditation and our
environmental sustainability plan is focused on achieving our net
zero carbon target.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion- We have a strong and vibrant diversity programme
that gives colleagues across the firm an opportunity to take part,
led by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and
supported by our Ambassadors, who drive engagement in our strategy
and raise awareness across the firm.
Wellbeing -We are proud of our open culture, where colleagues
feel empowered to speak openly about physical and mental health
issues and to seek out support when needed. We have trained 21
colleagues across the firm as Mental Health First Aiders and
established a programme of initiatives including our informal
'coffee with' scheme.
Collectively, these four pillars ensure we look after
our colleagues' wellbeing; offer an environment in which all can
progress on merit, regardless of personal circumstances or
background; give something back to the communities in which we work;
and protect the environment.