Advocate

Job Code: 29882/CB

Practice Area: Connected Services

Recruitment Partner: Claire Bowden

Office: Birmingham

We are one of Europe's most innovative Law firms as voted by the Financial Times.

We have won numerous awards, including being independently ranked as 1 of the top employers for working families, as well as being in the top 2 law firms for employee satisfaction.

With offices nationwide and overseas, we are growing and are looking for top talent to come on board and be part of our success.

Relationships:
Responsible to: Head of Advocacy, Barrister Liaison with: Barrister, Advocacy Team, Partners and Fee Earners, Clients
Main function of job:

This is an in-house advocate role within a top 20 national law firm. The advocate will conduct, inter alia, all interlocutory hearings, applications, disposal hearings and costs and case management hearings for the insurance and litigation departments of the firm. As well as representing insurers at court the role will involve reporting to the client in line with internal procedures along with some written advocacy work.

The firms' national advocacy team is managed by an employed barrister and organised by their clerking team.

Your line manager in London, also an employed barrister, leads the Advocacy team's commercial litigation and International Disputes/ Arbitration offering. Further, your line manager is also responsible for conducting business development in the commercial setting across the firm's (international) offices as well as with prospective clients in the Asia Pacific markets. It is envisaged that, in time, you may have opportunity to assist in such work/ business development, subject to successful completion of your probationary period as well as line manager approval.

Person specification:

A successful candidate will preferably have previous advocacy experience in civil and general commercial litigation, however this is not essential and extensive training can be provided.

Any successful candidate will be expected to have the commercial awareness, confidence and ability to seek out, secure and retain new clients from within the firm and beyond.

This role requires personality as well as advocacy skills. Language skills are a desirable feature of any application but not necessary.

All candidates are expected to have achieved at least a 2.1 at undergraduate level and a Very Competent for the BVC/BPTC.

Main Duties:
Representing clients in court on instruction from fee earners Drafting legal documents on instruction from earners Displaying time management skills so as to fully prepare for all instructed matters Liaising with fee earners, both before and after hearings Managing relations with fee earners so as to ensure the future growth of the team
The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your evolving role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at DWF

Nurturing talent is very important to us. We are committed to equal opportunities in all areas of work and business. We want people to achieve their best, which will positively impact on our clients and communities in which we live and work. At DWF we empower people to be themselves within an inclusive and supportive environment, enabling everyone to achieve their full potential in line with their abilities and career aspirations.

Disability Support

As an inclusive employer, DWF wants to see every candidate performing at their best. Please log in to Clear Talents at to tell us what reasonable adjustments you may need and to discover how we might improve your recruitment experience, examples of reasonable adjustments could include: additional time for exercises, a hearing induction loop, a request for information in an alternative format. DWF are committed to an ongoing programme of improvements to provide access to all.

To apply, please click 'apply now' and provide the job reference number: 29882/CB.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email Claire Bowden on .

No agency CVs will be accepted unless formally instructed on this specific role by the Recruitment Team.

Salary: . Date posted: 21/07/2017