Associate / Senior Associate

Job content

Hill Dickinson LLP is a leading and award-winning international commercial law firm with offices in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Leeds, Piraeus, Singapore, Monaco and Hong Kong. With more than 840 people including 175 partners and legal directors , the firm delivers advice and strategic guidance spanning the full legal spectrum, from non-contentious advisory and transactional work, to all forms of commercial litigation.

Hill Dickinson acts as a trusted adviser to a wide portfolio of clients across a wide range of specialist sectors: from transport and logistics and international trade, through to retail, insurance, marine, health, education, manufacturing, public sector and banking and financial services.

Job Role:Senior Associate – Commercial Solicitor

Hours:37.5 hours (open to discuss flexible working)

Department:Commercial, TMT & IP Team

Location:Manchester / Liverpool or Leeds

Role Overview

What’s in it for you

We have an extremely busy and fast moving non-contentious commercial practice within the firm and are looking to grow resource at the mid-tier level to service these requirements.

We are looking for an Associate/Senior Associate with commensurate experience. They will be a trusted member of the Team reporting to the Team Leader/Partner Mark Fitzgibbon. Mark has been with the firm since 2010 and is primarily based in Manchester but works across all UK offices.

Our client base spans a broad spectrum of sectors –, the private sector (spanning all types of goods and services sectors), the public sector (NHS / health clients, local government clients, higher education clients and utility clients) and the third sector (charities, not for profits, CICs, housing trusts etc) which makes for a very varied and rewarding mix of work.

Introduction to the team

The team comprises of 2 Partners, 1 Legal Director,, 3 Associates, 1 Trainee; located across Manchester, Liverpool and London, covering a wide breadth of purely non-contentious commercial work. Mark Fitzgibbon runs a successful specialist public procurement practice while also heading the private sector commercial team. In our London office, Mark Weston leads a very eclectic practice including FinTech and tech start-up clients. The team has IP expertise and Information Governance experts.

Individually we all have a broad range of experience across general commercial drafting, negotiation and advisory work. We cover a range of commercial supply-chain situations and advise on tactical structuring and positioning, contract drafting and negotiation; acting as a single cross-office team, with a single combined budget (individual targets being aggregated into our overall team budget annually). We have monthly team meetings, annual and ad hoc social events, training and BD related planning activities.

During the pandemic, while our offices have been largely closed down, everyone has worked remotely which has been extremely effective; this has involved regular (three times a week) half hour Teams catch up meetings to assess work loads and share news, plus a weekly social teams meeting on a Thursday evening which involves either a quiz or a “virtual pub” visit. Currently all team members are starting to work back in offices at least some of the week, but this is currently flexible.

Key Responsibilities

• To handle an array of commercial supply-chain contracts, distribution terms and conditions (sale and purchase), franchise, agency, contract manufacturing as typical examples; which would include strategic planning advice, drafting appropriate documentation/ contracts and negotiating the same on behalf of clients.
• Providing “trusted advisor” commercial advisory services to clients which may or may not develop into specific documentary exercises.
• Participate in supporting regular due diligence exercises undertaken by our Corporate Teams based in Manchester, Liverpool and London.
• Experience of working as part of a larger “project” delivery team spanning multiple disciplines (this could include regen, infrastructure, telecoms, etc).
• Experience of providing advice on the application of the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 to a variety of commercial contracting scenarios.
• Experience of providing advice on general intellectual property law from a practical perspective (recognising where it is generated/exits, how it is licensed and exploited, etc).
• To support the Team Leader by providing non-contentious legal advice in connection with public procurement advisory work for a range of public sector clients (a depth of experience and interest in this subject matter is necessary for this role).
• To provide regular training and update sessions and articles to clients, prospective clients (and for internal colleague consumption) on areas of expertise.
  

Essential

What we are looking for

• Law degree (or equivalent)
• Demonstrates understanding and recognition of associated issues relating to legislation of: Consumer, Data Protection Compliance, Unfair Terms and IP application in practical situations in commercial context.
• Good level of general commercial awareness and attention to detail
• Driven to create workable solutions for the commercial issues in the best interest of the clients.
• Good level of experience of drafting and negotiating commercial contracts and documentation in private practice.
• Demonstrates an understanding of clients’ needs and expectations.
• Some experience of advising clients on general commercial matters.
• Excellence in service delivery and quality of services provided through technical and service excellence.
• Ability to work as part of a team and independently.
• Mentoring/training experience in bringing along junior members of the team.
• Time management skills showing ability to prioritise tasks.
• Excellent legal and commercial research skills.
• Ability to play a proactive part in business development activity individually and collectively.
• Adherence to guidelines and procedures.
  

Desirable

• A proven track record of involvement in effective business development activity (including, without limitation, providing legal update and training sessions and producing interesting on-point articles to clients and prospective clients).
• Ability to build and maintain professional working relationships, network and work collaboratively both internally and externally.
• Excellence in persuading and influencing.
• Ability to remain an effective communicator under pressure.
• Good listening skills and willingness to receive and act on feedback.
• Experience and drive to mentor and bring on junior talent.
  

Benefits

What’s on offer for you

Here are some examples of what’s on offer for you from our benefits package.

• 25 days annual leave
• Birthday privilege day
• Christmas shutdown
• Holiday buy and sell and carryover scheme
• Charity volunteering days
• Smart working
• Private medical insurance
• Permanent health insurance
• Health cash plan
• Maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental leave, special leave
• Life assurance
• Annual travel season ticket loan
• Dress for your day policy
• Training opportunities
  

Mission – Who We Are And Our Approach

We act as trusted advisors to our clients, providing commercial solutions in their specialist markets for their strategic success.

20:20 Vision – where we want to be

We want to grow a sustainable and profitable business, with a positive and inspiring culture, which places us as a top 40 law firm.

People Strategy

To create a firm we are proud of and a culture that reflects our values to deliver our ambitions of growth.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

• To foster an environment of fairness, equality and respect for all regardless of age, gender, gender identity, professional skills or status, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital or transgender status, nationality, religion or belief and to create an inclusive culture that is representative of all sections of society.
  

Partnerships

We work in Partnership with the following;

• Stonewall
• Working Families
• The Black Solicitors Network
• Aspiring Solicitors
• The Race Fairness Commitment
  

Values

TrustWe understand that trust is fundamental to how we do business, it empowers our colleagues, builds loyalty and inspires creativity.

Respect: We will maintain the highest standards of professionalism and integrity so that we foster a climate of mutual trust and confidence amongst our colleagues.

Innovation: We will embrace change, utilise our technologies and modernise our approach to business and people management.

Collaboration: We will work together and integrate across teams and in doing so share our expertise and knowledge for the benefit of the firm and our clients.

We will make reasonable adjustments to help you perform at your best. Please contact the Hill Dickinson Recruitment Team and tell us what adjustments you need to submit an application for a vacancy, or if you require reasonable adjustment should you be invited to interview.

At Hill Dickinson, we welcome applications from individuals that are looking to return to the law.

All successful candidates will be subject to our standard pre-employment screening, including a basic criminal record check via Disclosure and Barring Service. Any offer of employment made is conditional upon completion of all checks.

Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.

Trust - Innovation - Collaboration - Respect