Employment Associate

Job title

Associate

Department

Employment

Our Purpose

To forge long-term relationships that have a positive impact on our people, our clients, our business partners, and our community.

Our Commitment to Our People

We do not think there is a magic formula to the Higgs culture. The key is to listen to and respect our people. If we take care of our people and our people take care of our clients, then everything we want as a firm will take care of itself. We are friendly and open to new ideas.

Our Core Values

Higgs core values are “CLEAR” – Care, Legacy, Excellence, Authenticity, Relationships

Role Purpose

To be an integral part of the employment team, assisting an experienced employment team in all aspects of the team’s workload.

Key Responsibilities

• Assisting the Head of Team, Legal Director, Principal Associates and Senior Associate in the employment team with a variety of complex employee relations and employment tribunal cases.
• Dealing with enquiries from clients about day-to-day HR management and employment law.
• Delivering bespoke training to clients in employee relations, best practice and risk avoidance.
• Building relationships with the firm’s clients, business partners and internal and external stakeholders with a view to building their own caseload.
• Working closely within the Business Services Department to assist on employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions, franchises and insolvencies.
• Involvement in the business development and promotion of the firm and team, in particular working alongside the team trainee to produce a monthly newsletter and contributing to seminars and webinars delivered by the team.

Person Specification

• A self-starter, motivated, engaging individual.
• Strong organisational and communication skills.
• A willingness to grow and develop their knowledge and experience.
• The proactive approach to clients.
• The ability to forge strong relationships with colleagues, clients and business partners. 

Technical Knowledge

Experience of employment law issues including unfair dismissal, redundancy, TUPE and discrimination.

 Advising on and drafting settlement agreements

• Advising on a breadth of employee relations issues
• Employment tribunal case management
• Drafting employment contracts, service agreements, employment policies and handbooks
• Supporting a corporate/commercial team on mergers and acquisitions, in particular pre-completion due diligence

What You Need to Know

Higgs offers hybrid working wherever possible. Our Higgs’ Best FIT (flexible, inclusive, together) principles are designed to ensure that people can complete their best work from the most appropriate location. If you are looking to work flexibly then let us know and we will do what we can to accommodate your request.

We encourage a ‘dress for your diary’ approach which means dressing in a manner appropriate for your schedule or the specific appointments you have on any given day.

Equal Opportunities

As charter signatories to The Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter, Higgs are committed to developing a diverse business by engaging with the widest pool of talent. We recognise this is an ongoing journey and regularly monitor our figures which can be viewed here.

People Driven. Legal Excellence.