The Employment Pensions & Benefits Team are seeking an Employment Solicitor of approximately 3-5 years PQE to join the Cardiff team in early 2008 to assist on fee earning work.

If you are interested or know of a suitable applicant who may be of interest please send an up to date CV and covering letter detailing your interest and suitability to the recruitment team at recruitment@morgan-cole.com, clearly stating the reference number 52/07 for the opportunity.

Flexible or part-time work options will be considered.

All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

JOB PURPOSE:

To provide Clients with high quality legal advice and services, including representation at the Employment Tribunals (all over England and Wales)

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

·        To provide clients with high quality legal advice and services, including representation at Employment Tribunals (England and Wales) i.e. advocacy at preliminary hearings, pre hearing reviews and full trials.  Advises, guides and assists clients in all aspects of Employment Law, including re-organisations/redundancy, TUPE, maternity, race/sex/disability discrimination, unfair/wrongful dismissal, breach of contract etc.

·        To ensure the profitability of the firm is maintained through regular billing and development of client relationships.

·        Together with the designated team leader, assists in co-ordinating the administrative and marketing functions.

·        Directly supervises less experienced solicitors and other legal staff, ensuring that their work is appropriate and their development needs are addressed. Allocate/delegate work to them and supervise work carried out on the files.

·        Provision of advice on Employment Law which can often be specialised/complex
·        Drafting Documentation using precedents and creating precedents where none exist etc.
·        Negotiating settlements in dispute resolution requiring a high level of inter-personal skill as well as specialised knowledge and judgement.
·        Representation at Employment Tribunals.  Advocacy at preliminary hearings, pre hearing reviews and full trials.  The post holder is expected to use their legal and communication skills to present the most persuasive argument on behalf of the Client and achieve the desired successful outcome.  The use of Counsel is limited in this position, unless the case is extremely complex or for cost reasons the Client demand the use of Counsel.
·        Assisting with marketing.
The post holder is expected to maintain a relationship with clients in support of main contact Partners. 
·       

4. DIMENSIONS

·        Responsible for supervising and mentoring more junior staff.

·        Work to achieve set targets - an individual target and a Team target.

·        Undertake marketing activities - Employment Clubs, Business Breakfast clubs, ACAS training sessions, Client seminars, attending marketing activities.

·        Attend regular meetings and actively involved in all marketing matters.

5. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

PAL (AKR)
 
Solicitor (Post Holder)
            
Trainee   Legal Assistant Newly Qualified Solicitor

INTERNAL CONTACTS:
        
 Finance, IT, HR

 EXTERNAL CONTACTS:

 Clients, Solicitors, ACAS Officers, Tribunal Staff, HR Directors, MDs/Chief Executives, Personnel Officers.

6. PLANNING AND ORGANISING

·        Deal on a daily basis with disciplinary matters and dismissals, which are usually time critical.

·          Increasing amount of work on equal pay claims

·        Some employment work has a quick turn around, e.g. one off advice on a disciplinary issue.  Others can involve months, sometimes years to bring matters to conclusion, e.g. complex Tribunal litigation, involving Senior Company Directors.  A recent case took 18 months to resolve.

·        Advising Clients on large-scale reorganisations/redundancies, can take months,

·        Standard unfair dismissal complaints in Employment Tribunals generally take up to 6 months to complete. Other cases involving discrimination generally take longer in some cases 12-18 months.  The post-holder is obviously required by law to comply with Tribunal time limits for filing claims, defences, further and better particulars and exchanging statements etc.

7. CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING

·        Certain areas of the work involves relatively routine enquiries.  However, some of the work is non-routine.  Typically, this will involve amending precedents to suit complexities of transactions as well as a proportion of original drafting.  This can involve devising new methods of HR planning and assisting Clients in internal dispute resolution.

·        An understanding of the culture of the Client organisation is critical, when advising on best solutions for the Client and this is not a job where just legal resolutions are utilised.  Social and cultural aspects also have to be carefully considered.

·        As employment law is fast changing, the post-holder constantly has to be up to date and research new cases and changes in both domestic and European legislation.
·        As employment law is fast changing, the post-holder constantly has to be up to date and research new cases and changes in both domestic and European legislation.

8. FREEDOMS AND CONSTRAINTS 

·        Guidance and support is available from the Team Leader.

·        The post-holder is expected to report outcomes and developments on important cases with the Team Leader at the weekly Team meeting.

·        The post-holder is expected to assist with the PAL and Team Leaders cases when they are away from the office.

9. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

·        The post-holder is likely to require at least 2 years post-qualification experience, with a strong employment background and Employment Tribunal advocacy experience.  They must have strong negotiating skills to deal with mediation of cases.  Being a team player is essential, as is the ability to work consistently to a high standard, under pressure.  Good Client and inter-personal skills are essential and the post-holder must have good motivational skills to achieve the goals of the Team.

·        They must have marketing skills and the ability to deliver seminars and training to clients and be prepared to regularly speak at the Employment Forums.

·        Hay Evaluation training is a benefit for use with Clients, but is not essential.

10. KEY CHALLENGES

·        Keeping abreast of changes in employment law.

·        Having capacity to deal with divergent Client and work types within strict deadlines to constantly high professional and commercial standard, with a minimum of supervision.

·        Motivating other members of the Team to achieve financial targets and professional development targets and maintaining profitability of the firm.

·        Developing new work and providing coaching to newly appointed solicitor.

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