Employment Lawyer - Director/Partner

Apply locations Birmingham posted on Posted 3 Days Ago job requisition id JR100185

About the Freeths Employment Team

The Employment Team is led by Rena Magdani who is ranked in Band 1 in Chambers & Partners and is recognised as a Leader in the Field by Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500. The Team comprises over 45 employment specialists across the country.

We provide a specialist employment law and HR advisory service to a range of companies from PLCs to SMEs. This includes advice on disciplinary and grievance matters, unfair dismissal, discrimination, TUPE, whistleblowing, redundancy, restructures and strategic advice to senior management teams and boards. We also advise senior executives and professionals in all aspects of the employment relationship. We have established a reputation for providing timely responses and pragmatic, cost-effective solutions.

A number of our highly regarded teams are ranked in the top tier for employment in the Legal 500 and Top Ranked by Chambers & Partners and many of our employment lawyers are ranked as recommended lawyers / leading individuals in these publications.

We trust our people to work flexibly in the way that works best for them, their teams and our clients. Our firm is set up to ensure everyone’s voice is heard, and mutual respect is shown by all. We’re widely recognised for our inclusive attitude and diversity, winning ‘Firm of the Year’ at the UK Diversity Legal Awards and we have achieved Silver in the Investors in People Award. If you’re looking for a forward-thinking workplace come and be part of the Freeths’ success story.

The role

We are seeking a Director or Partner Level employment lawyer to join our friendly and dynamic team. You will have a good following or referral network with the ambition and skills to help lead and grow the team. The team continues to experience rapid growth, so this role would suit someone who is looking to get involved in business development and shaping the future strategy of the team.

Some examples of our recent work include:

• Managing the delivery of all the employment and HR needs of one of the biggest supermarket retailers in the UK with a work force of approximately 30,000 people.
• Providing employment advice and HR support to a national employer with 16,000 employees, operating 40 hospitals, 114 fitness and wellbeing centres, medical centres and workplace wellbeing facilities.
• Advising a national recruitment business on the employment status of 3,000 drivers, a result of the developing ‘gig-economy’ cases.
• Advising a company dealing with contentious exits from their organisation involving allegations of discrimination and concluding settlement of potential claims.
• Advising a multi-site organisation on all aspects of employee relations when setting up in the UK, including TUPE, redundancy, performance management, national living wage and diversity.
• Successfully defending a County Council (including the advocacy) in a 7 day sex discrimination and unfair dismissal claim and successfully claiming substantial costs against the Claimant.
• Successfully defending a rail company in a tribunal claim brought on behalf of 600 employees alleging a failure to inform and consult under TUPE. The case and a potential liability of £3.5 million was disposed by successfully arguing that the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim.
• Providing bespoke training to a number of organisations. This ranges from technical legal updates to in-depth practical training on key employment skills such as managing disciplinary and grievance hearings.
• Advising a global technology company on a redundancy and restructuring programme which involved the outsourcing of a number of its operations to India.
• Successfully defending a PLC client (including the advocacy) in a 12-day tribunal case, including whistleblowing, unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal.

Smart. Bold. Together. We Are Freeths.

Become part of the team at Freeths.

Do we sound like a match? If you’re someone who cares deeply, communicates openly and collaborates effectively, then we’d love to have you join our diverse, inclusive team.

About Us

We’re 1000+ Freethinkers, striving to create a better place. We’re committed to living our values – smart, bold, together – and making a positive change at every touchpoint for our colleagues, clients and communities. We’ve built our law firm on solid foundations of integrity, entrepreneurialism and expertise. This has helped us grow into one of the largest full-service law firms in the UK, with 13 offices and over 1000 colleagues, and counting.

1. Think Ambition: We’ve built our law firm on solid foundations of integrity, entrepreneurialism and expertise. This has helped us grow into one of the largest full-service law firms in the UK, with 13 offices and over 1,000 colleagues, and counting. Matching individual ambition and our firm’s ambition matters. That’s why we develop our people by making sure every one of our team feels connected through a clear progression pathway and leadership support. It’s helped us to grow an award-winning reputation in the eyes of our clients and competitors that each and every one of the Freeths team works hard to uphold in everything we do.

2. Think Recognition: Sharing success matters to us. We love to showcase excellent work across the firm and celebrate our people through our employee awards. We recognise our teams work hard together to deliver the best solutions for our clients. That’s why great work is well rewarded - our rewards and benefits are among the best in the business.

3. Think Together: Our people are at the heart of what makes Freeths such a great place to be. We’re a firm where people care about each other and employee wellbeing is high on the agenda. Our firm is set up to ensure everyone’s voice is heard, and mutual respect is shown by all. We understand that differences add strength, which means we maintain a diverse culture where everyone has the freedom to be themselves and thrive.

We're committed to championing diversity and building an inclusive culture. We want to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people, regardless of their background. We welcome applications from everybody, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds.

We celebrate difference, encourage diversity of thought and are dedicated to continually challenging our processes to maintain fairness, equity and transparency. If you require additional support at any stage of the recruitment process due to a disability or a health condition, please do not hesitate to contact recruitmentfreeths@freeths.co.uk and we will be happy to discuss.