Associate - Education

Hill Dickinson LLP; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Hill Dickinson LLP in the Education team invites applications from a solicitor to join a growing national practice with clients across schools, FE institutions and universities. The role offers substantial client responsibility while being part of a supportive team environment.

The candidate should have solid education-sector experience, the ability to manage a caseload and provide commercial advice, and be willing to travel between offices. Flexible working can be discussed.

Qualifications

• Qualified solicitor with experience in education sector.
• Experience supporting an education team.
• Ability to manage a caseload and provide commercial advice.
• Willingness to travel to clients and other offices.
• Flexible with hours and able to work outside normal hours.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Advising on development and application of statutory policies.
• Advising on equality law requirements in SEN and 2014 regime.
• Supporting clients with complaints, process management and outcomes.
• Advice on academy trust regulation including funding agreements and notices to improve.
• Advice on decisions to exclude pupils/students and related processes.
• Admissions advice including oversubscription criteria and Schools Adjudicator representations.
• Providing advice on Freedom of Information and Data Protection requests.
• Governance advice for maintained schools and academy trusts; drafting documents.
• Commercial contract reviews and advice; procurement advice.

Skills

Education team experience

Caseload management

Transactional support experience

Organisational skills

Communication skills

Teamwork and independence

Guidelines adherence

Client needs understanding

Travel willingness

Flexibility

Commercial advice

Education

Qualified Solicitor (NQ – 3 years PQE)

Job description

Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham or Newcastle

Education

Full time

Permanent

Job role: Associate

Hours : Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 17:30 (37.5 hours per week)

At Hill Dickinson, flexibility is an established part of our culture. Our commitment to supporting colleagues to balance their work and home lives has previously been awarded. We are happy to consider flexible working opportunities and welcome conversations about individual requirements throughout the recruitment process.

Team: Education

Location: Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds or Newcastle

Role overview

Introduction to the role:

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our successful and rapidly growing Education team.

The role offers the opportunity to work alongside Luke Green and Joe Orme-Paul who have developed our leading education practice with clients across the sector including schools, further education institutions and universities with a national reach. You will be given plenty of client responsibility and exposure but at the same time be part of a supportive team environment.

Introduction to the team:

Our dedicated team of lawyer’s support a range of educational institutions with on various of regulatory and compliance issues. The Education team sits alongside our Employment practice with strong collaboration between lawyers to deliver client service excellence and a complete package of essential legal services.

Key responsibilities:

• Advising on the development and application of statutory policies
• Advising on the requirements of equality law, particularly in the context of special educational needs and Children and Families Act 2014 regime
• Supporting clients with complaints, process management and outcomes
• Advice and support with academy trust regulation including funding agreements, notices to improve, the application of the Academy Trust Handbook and
• Advice and support on decisions to exclude pupils/students, process and outcome
• Admissions advice including oversubscription criteria development, local disputes and representations before the Schools Adjudicator
• Providing advice and support on Freedom of Information and Data Protection requests
• Governance advice for maintained schools and academy trusts, including drafting documents and liaising with the Department for Education
• Commercial Contract reviews and advices
• Procurement advice
• Academy transactional work
• Conducting sector focussed litigation, including Judicial Review, SEND Tribunal, and County Court proceedings.

What are we looking for:

• Qualified Solicitor (preferably NQ – 3 years PQE)
• Demonstrable experience in supporting an education team.
• The ability and experience of managing a caseload providing sound commercial advice.
• Transactional support experience.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise tasks and work under pressure.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• The ability to work as part of a team and independently.
• Adheres to guidelines and procedures.
• An understanding of clients’ needs and expectations.
• Travel to clients and other offices.
• Flexibility in approach and a willingness to work outside normal office hours, if required.

At Hill Dickinson, we encourage you to submit an application and if successful, we can help you develop along the way.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Hill Dickinson is committed to providing fairness and equal opportunity for all regardless of age, gender, gender identity, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital or transgender status, nationality, religion or belief.

We understand that our power as a firm comes from empowering our people and that it is only by encouraging and enabling individuals to be themselves at work that we can truly benefit from their rich and varied strengths.

Hill Dickinson is an equal opportunities employer. All applications received by the firm will be considered based on their merit alone and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals regardless of background and from all routes to qualification, with both the SRA and CILEx.

Disability Support

We are a Disability Confident employer, which means if there is anything that we can do to make your visit easier, so you are able to perform at your best, please let us know. You can contact the HR team at [e-mail] should you require any adjustments to the application or interview process.

At Hill Dickinson, we welcome applications from individuals that are looking to return to the law as well as all routes to qualification, with both the SRA and CILEx.

All successful candidates will be subject to our standard pre-employment screening, including a basic criminal record check via Disclosure and Barring Service. Any offer of employment made is conditional upon completion of all checks.

Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.

Dependent on experience

Hours

Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 17:30 (37.5 hours per week)