Careers

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 2023' 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

We have an opportunity for a Senior Associate or Legal Director to join our Information Law & Privacy Team. Our specialist team advises clients from all sectors on all aspects of information law and, due to an increase in workload, we are looking to grow the team. The management of information and data privacy is an increasingly important issue for clients and the legal and reputational issues are complex and intricate.

Working in a specialist team allows our lawyers to focus entirely on this area of law, ensuring we can provide the best quality advice to clients. We work with a large number of public sector clients, (Local Authorities; Central Government Bodies; Registered Housing Providers; Third Sector/Charities and a number of Higher Education bodies/Universities) alongside providing regular advice to a range of clients, in the firms other focus markets including financial services; commercial services/corporates and independent/digital health providers.

The role

You will work with clients and advise them on a wide range of information law, data protection and privacy queries. Alongside working directly with clients, our team also works closely with a range of other internal departments to provide information law input. Alongside taking a senior role in the management and delivery of advice, the role would involve providing supervision for junior members of the team.

The role would suit a candidate interested in taking on responsibility for business development and raising the profile of the team, which in turn will provide opportunities for career progression to partner level. This is an incredibly exciting area of law and we are looking for lawyers who want to work with us to grow the team further. With privacy a real growth area we consider that for the right candidate there would real opportunities for career progression.

What we are looking for from you

We are looking for a senior lawyer who is able to demonstrate experience in advising on a wide range of information law and privacy issues. The ideal candidate will be technically strong and able to both work on and lead on complex and high profile matters.

The role ideally requires experience of all aspects of information law including GDPR, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. The team also advises on wider rights of access including the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations. The successful candidate will be able to provide sound, commercial advice on the following areas:

• Data Protection
• Commercial Data Protection issues, including the drafting of commercial agreements, privacy notices and other GDPR documentation
• Advising on lawful basis
• Cross border GDPR issues
• Subject Access Requests
• Data breach advice and cyber security issues
• Information sharing
• GDPR compliance
• Compensation claims
• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Environmental Information Regulations
• Common law duty of confidence
• Liaising with the Information Commissioner and Information Law Tribunal matters
• Policies and Protocols in relation to the above

We are open to considering candidates from a range of backgrounds including other private practice firms, local authorities / other public sector organisations and those working in-house for commercial organisations.

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 2022 we fundraised and donated a total of £80,000 to our four regional office charities, with each charity receiving £20,000 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.