Senior Solicitor, Corporate/Funds – Digital Legal Delivery – UK REMOTE

About Herbert Smith Freehills

As one of the world’s leading law firms, we advise many of the largest and most ambitious organisations across all major regions of the globe. With over 5,000 people, including 3,100 lawyers and over 2,000 business services professionals, operating from our global network of offices across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North America, Herbert Smith Freehills is at the heart of the new global business landscape providing premium quality, full-service legal advice.

We recognise that the success of our business and our clients relies on the skills, knowledge and ideas of all our people. Our environment is one in which high performance is expected, in return, we will provide you with rewards and opportunities tailored to your personal and professional goals.

The Opportunity

DIGITAL LEGAL DELIVERY

Digital adaption is presenting businesses with efficiencies and opportunities at pace – Herbert Smith Freehills is no different. Continuing to support our clients with this rapid change, we have created a team of the best analytical legal minds with investments in cutting-edge technology and technologists in our Digital Legal Delivery (Digital) practice.

Bringing together legal, project management, process design and technology expertise, our Digital group supports businesses who need invention from their legal advisors. Leveraging experience to map the intersections where people and tech deliver results, this team supports businesses undergoing their own digitisation projects and those who seek disentanglement from the manual and inefficient processes in the delivery of legal services. Experienced at delivering large and complex legal services, we are experts in the delivery of data-intensive mandates. 

Imagining possibilities, HSF’s Digital Legal Delivery practice is implementing the best technology solutions today, while horizon scanning and experimenting with emerging technologies to understand their practical applications.

LEGAL

In Legal, we help shape how the firm delivers legal matters to clients. We have longstanding experience in thinking differently about law, and we are at the forefront of making legal services more efficient – particularly at scale.

We have a deep knowledge across a broad range of sectors, and a wealth of experience in delivering large and complex mandates. We are specialists in contract management, document review, volume claims and remediation, and due diligence.

Working collaboratively with colleagues from across the firm, we use our expertise in law, process design and technology to deliver solutions for our clients. Underpinned by our legal project management capability, we organise our collective effort as efficiently and seamlessly as possible. This ensures consistent delivery throughout and enables our clients to achieve efficiencies across their operations.

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY

In Legal Technology, we deploy the firm’s established technology efficiently and reliably across a range of client matters and projects.

We combine our expertise in document automation, custom development, eDiscovery and data analytics and client reporting – to work collaboratively across the firm on disputes, transactions and projects.

DIGITAL CHANGE

In Digital Change, we innovate, invest and push our firm’s boundaries when it comes to new uses of legal technology.

We experiment with technology and pilot tools to understand them deeply: their potential challenges and benefits, and how they can be used in our day-to-day work to provide better solutions for clients.

And we ensure we have the right internal governance when it comes to making decisions, so we can minimise risk, maximise our opportunities and provide consistency for our stakeholders.

ADVISORY

In Advisory, we bring deep expertise in legal operations and emerging technologies, working across any sector, alongside our teams or directly with clients.

We are trusted advisers to our clients on new ways of working as we scan the horizon, together.

Transactions – Funds

This role is for a solicitor in a team which specialises in providing legal services to investment funds clients. We are seeking an engaged team member – experience in Funds and/or Regulatory is preferred, but high calibre candidates with experience/training in a corporate/commercial firm who are willing to adapt and build up their knowledge and experience in a new legal area will also be considered.

Applicants for Senior Solicitor roles in relation to Funds will be expected to be capable of: delivering excellent legal service to our clients; assisting with project management; implementing quality processes; and utilising the latest technology to deliver excellent service to our clients.

Our transactional practice includes but is not limited to, all aspects of due diligence, M&A, capital markets, investment funds, corporate restructurings and regulatory matters. Candidates are likely to have developed strong general corporate/commercial legal practice, with an interest in investment funds work (or an interest in developing their knowledge in this area). Previous experience in investment funds work is desirable but not necessary – key criteria includes a willingness to adapt existing experience to a new legal area, and an enthusiasm for the role. The successful candidate will have access to our ‘Funds Academy’ where foundation funds training will be provided over a structured 6 week programme.

Our Funds team provide a wide range of legal services to major asset management clients and the funds managed by them, including implementation of complex restructurings, cross-jurisdictional regulatory projects, investment due diligence and day-to-day operational support. They regularly deal with a broad range of fund structures including private equity and hedge funds. You will be comfortable applying what you know to creative and varied projects and business-as-usual workstreams. This role requires an entrepreneurial mind-set and a flexible and responsive approach. You will conduct fee-earning work directly for clients as well as supervising teams within HSF’s global network.

You will have a deeply client-focused approach and be ready to apply that experience to our transactional practice where we work closely with internal clients (i.e. you will be confident and comfortable liaising with partners around the organisation) and you will often work directly with our external clients and their counterparties too.

The Role

Senior Solicitors are experienced qualified Solicitors, who supervise the work of our Solicitors, Trainees and Legal Analysts on a day-to-day basis. Senior Solicitors also play a proactive role supporting the senior team with strategic management and delivery of matters, as well as the development of our junior team. They are expected to be able to lead certain projects, escalating to Managers who will support as necessary. 

Senior Solicitors are likely to have a particular area of specialism within Corporate, Funds and/or Financial Services Regulatory, in which they are capable of delivering complex work, as well as being closely involved in developing processes and know-how for the wider team.

Key responsibilities

• Scoping and setting-up new matters and conducting fee earning work directly, as well as supervising and training teams.
• Supports with pricing at the outset of a matter and then assists in managing costs and billing throughout.
• Maintains an up-to-date knowledge of relevant areas of law, providing technical excellence in relation to one (or more) of the specialist areas of the corporate practice.
• Working with legal technology tools appropriate to the relevant matter (e.g. artificial intelligence tools for DD) and keeping up to date with technological advances.
• Assists with preparing pitch documents and likely to attend client presentations and assist more generally with business development.
• Liaising with clients and teams elsewhere in the firm as required on fee-earning or other projects.

The responsibilities outlined above cannot totally encompass or define all tasks that may be required of the post-holder. The outline of responsibilities given above may, therefore, vary from time to time without materially changing either the character or level of responsibility or grade.

To be eligible for this remote opportunity, candidates must not live in Northern Ireland and must live at least 100 miles outside of London.

Qualifications and skills

TECHNICAL

Essential

• Qualified solicitor or barrister in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, but Republic of Ireland or other common law jurisdictions will be considered. (If not qualified in England and Wales then willing to complete process to requalify as such, if required.)
• Minimum of 3 years’ PQE, the majority of which should be within Corporate (including Commercial and/or Funds), unless exceptional circumstances exist. If you do not meet the 3 years PQE requirement, but feel that exceptional circumstances are applicable to you, then you will be required to submit a supporting statement outlining why you are an exceptional candidate (including relevant skills and experience) – i.e. you have spent a significant amount of time undertaking Corporate work, during or prior to your training contract/qualification.
• Proven experience of supervising and supporting a legal team.

Closing date for applications is Monday 28th October at 12pm.

Team

Digital Legal Delivery

Working Pattern

Full time

Location

UK Remote

Contract type

Permanent Contract

Diversity & Inclusion

At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.

We understand that you have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create a working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which you can perform at your best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across your life.

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