The Department

Protecting the interests of families lies at the heart of what we do. Whether it is providing the right advice to help manage relationships or assisting high net worth family governance across generations, cultures, and changing family dynamics, our multi-faceted and flexible approach allows us to provide support around wider concerns. Our family lawyers help unlock what can initially appear to be entrenched positions and facilitate a more comprehensive resolution of challenges that families may face, preventing those concerns subsequently turning into disputes.

We are adept at anticipating and meeting the needs of individuals and families in their wider personal and business lives. Our team of specialist family lawyers can assist with reputation management, tax, immigration, trusts, wills, and education as well as matters involving property, art and other luxury assets. We work closely with third party professionals, including therapists, clinical specialists, financial advisers, and cyber security experts to achieve better outcomes for our clients.

Where relationships break down, we understand how this not only affects a family but also third parties, including corporations and trustees, many of whom are international. Our ability to unpick the intricacies of cross-border relationship breakdown and work with lawyers and advisors in other countries ensures that difficult matters are dealt with smoothly.

We appreciate the complexity that wealth brings and assist our high net worth clients and their families through all life stages. We are innovators, leveraging new technologies and utilising non-traditional methods to deliver the best outcome to our clients. We are robust in our advice and tenacious in our approach. We handle every matter with the utmost discretion, a given in any situation, but even more so because many of our clients are high-profile and often in the public eye.

We take a strategic approach to the issues and aspirations that families have and support them in resolving issues constructively and away from the court arena, offering in-house mediation and early neutral evaluation. We encourage parents to put children at the centre of their decision making. With the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, we are the first firm to partner with a therapeutic organisation to find better ways of resolving disputes that involve children. We believe in building families too, and support parents undergoing assisted reproduction and surrogacy arrangements.

Duties and Responsibilities

The role will involve advising on:

• Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements.
• Cohabitation agreements.
• Divorce and dissolution of civil partnerships.
• Financial remedies on divorce/dissolution, including dealing with family businesses, complex trust structures and international issues.
• Disputes concerning the arrangements for children, including applications for leave to remove.
• Relationship breakdown of unmarried couples, including cohabitee disputes under TLATA 1996 and applications for financial relief on behalf of a child under Schedule 1 Children Act 1989.
• Domestic abuse, including applications for non-molestation orders and occupation orders, and issues concerning coercive control.
• Surrogacy and assisted reproduction.

Skills/Experience

• The ideal candidate will be working in a highly regarded family law practice with 2-4 years PQE.
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment for a varied group of Partners.
• Strong case management experience and first hand exposure to high net-worth private clients.
• Strong technical knowledge and analytical skills.
• An ability to deal with clients in a sensitive, professional and competent way.
• Commercial and driven with an interest in business development and marketing activities.
• Excellent attention to detail, listening skills and organisational skills.
• Ability to effectively manage own workload.
• Ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels and develop strong relationships both with clients and colleagues across the firm.
• Personable and confident, with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Resilient and calm under pressure.
• Demonstrates a pragmatic and flexible approach with the ability to think laterally.
• Proactive and takes initiative.

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.

About The Mishcon de Reya Group

The Mishcon de Reya Group is an independent, international professional services business with law at its heart, employing over 1450 people with over 650 lawyers. It includes the law firm Mishcon de Reya LLP and a collection of leading consultancy businesses that complement the firm's legal services.

Mishcon de Reya LLP is based in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore and Hong Kong (through its association with Karas So LLP). The firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply. Its work is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, spanning seven core practice areas: Corporate; Dispute Resolution; Employment; Impact; Innovation; Private; and Real Estate.

The Mishcon de Reya Group includes consultancy businesses MDR Discover, MDR Mayfair (in London, Singapore and Dubai), MDR ONE, MDRi (in Hong Kong) and MDRx. The Group also includes MDR Lab, which invests in the most promising early stage legaltech companies as well as the Mishcon Academy, its in-house place of learning and platform for thought leadership.

Earlier this year, the Group announced its first strategic acquisition in the alternative legal services market, flexible legal resourcing business Flex Legal. It also acquired a majority stake in Somos, a global group actions management business.

We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk about flexible working.

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