The opportunity

We are looking for a Paralegal for an initial 9 month contract to join our fast-growing team in Dublin. You will work across our IP,Commerical, Data Protection and Corporate teams on a mix of non-contentious and contentious work. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing firm and get a broad experience. There will be plenty of opportunities for career development within a fast growing team in Dublin including an opportunity to apply for our Trainee Solicitor program when you have passed your FE-1 exams.

The office

The Bird & Bird office in Ireland opened in June 2022. We now have 5 partners (commercial, litigation, IP, corporate, and data protection),14 associates and trainees, along with a range of business services people working in the office. We are building an employment practice.The growth of the office since it opened has been dynamic and above the firm's expectations. The firm and the office are determined to make the next steps in its growth trajectory.

The firm

Bird & Bird opens a world of possible for lawyers everywhere. Here you can advise major enterprises and high-growth businesses on matters that are often transformative in nature, alongside people who are truly collegiate in the way they work with everyone at Bird & Bird. We are one international firm, where over 70% of our work involves teams from across our firm. And that is only going to increase. It is this common purpose and shared approach that makes for a more productive, and collaborative place to work.

We have a stellar, global reputation for providing sophisticated, pragmatic advice to companies which are carving the world's digital future. We are interested in the world, current issues, and emerging trends. We use our sector understanding and legal expertise to unlock the issues and we take a commercial approach when applying the law.

What you'll do

• Provide quality support to all members of the department including partners and other fee-earners. The job holder will be required to be generally flexible with their working hours whenever the work requires, particularly when preparing for trials, appeals or other hearings.
• The role requires a good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel but training will be given where necessary. The workload is often unpredictable and variable with tight deadlines.

The main objective of the role:

• Provide high level paralegal support on matters being dealt with by partners and associates across departments.
• Monitoring numbers of trials and hearings being handled at any one time in the department and reporting to the department.
• To be the lead paralegal on various matters progressing towards trial or other hearings and, where requested by partners or associates, corresponding with the other side's legal team on practical matters on the lead up to trial/hearings.
• Work on drafting and preparing indices to bundles, organising documents and getting together bundles for use at trials, interim application hearings and other hearings (both in hard copying and electronic form) and, where necessary, working with and supervising trainees on such work.
• Assisting in the general preparation of documents for filing at court. To become familiar with the court's electronic filing system and to deal with such electronic filing as required.
• To become familiar with the Relativity database used by the firm in large disclosure exercises and to assist with disclosure in actions as required.
• To attend court for the handing down of judgments and to take notes at third party hearings, reporting back to partners and associates as required.
• Liaising regularly with counsel's clerks, judge's clerks and other external contacts to ensure the smooth running of matters being worked on by counsel and matters in trial or in other hearings.
• Archiving papers, files and bundles. Maintaining and updating archiving records and arranging for archived boxes to be recovered as required.
• To ensure that all work is proof-read before handing to fee-earners in order to provide them with accurate work at the soonest opportunity.
• To liaise with other Bird & Bird office functions such as Copy Room and office management whilst providing the support to partners and fee-earners.

About you

The successful candidate will have:

• Have some knowledge of court procedures or a willingness to learn the basics.
• Be able to demonstrate initiative and a proactive attitude.
• Have an appreciation of the need for attention to detail.
• Demonstrate excellent document management skills.
• Demonstrate an ability to stay calm in often demanding situations when the fee-earners are operating under pressure.
• Have excellent, proven organisational skills.
• Have a proven ability to deal with confidential
• Have a good working knowledge of Word, Outlook, and Excel.
• Be able to work as a strong team member.
• Be flexible regarding working hours.

Deadline for applications to be submitted - Tuesday 23rd July 12pm IST

The main responsibilities of this role are outlined above; however, this description is not exhaustive, and the job holder may be required to undertake additional duties from time to time to ensure the smooth running of the department.

Bird & Bird in Ireland operates a hybrid working environment. The current guideline is to attend the office at least 2 days per week.

Bird & Bird is committed to creating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive environment.

If you have any questons or require interview accommodations please contact us for a confidential chat at irelandrecruitment@twobirds.com