Family Solicitor Associate

Law Staff Legal Recruitment Ltd; City Of London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 105,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Professional development

Collaborative culture

Job summary

Law Staff Legal Recruitment Ltd is seeking a Family Associate in London for a 1–4 year PQE with experience in both children and finance work. The role offers a collaborative culture and strong development opportunities within a top-tier family team.

The successful candidate will handle complex private family matters, including cross-border litigation and financial remedy work, while supporting partners and engaging in business development in a reputable firm environment.

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with 1–4 years' PQE in private family disputes.
• Experience in contested children and financial remedy matters.
• Strong communication, commercial awareness, and client handling.
• Able to work in a collaborative, professional law firm setting.

Responsibilities

• Handle enquiries, accept instructions, set retainers and provide cost estimates.
• Provide high-quality legal advice across family matters.
• Litigate private children cases, prepare statements, briefs, and hearings.
• Manage cross-border children litigation with international contacts.
• Prepare financial remedy documents and attend hearings, including FDRs.
• Support partners with cases and maintain orderly files with notes.
• Draft bills, ensure compliance with SRA Code, contribute to BD activities.

Skills

1–4 years PQE

Children law experience

Finance law experience

Cross-border litigation

Networking / business development

Tools

Capitalise

Quantum

Job description

Are you a Family Associate looking to join a Times' Best Law Firm and an award-winning family team, offering complex high-net-worth work, a genuinely collaborative culture and strong opportunities for development? This is an excellent opportunity for a 1–4 year PQE Associate with both children and finance experience to join a highly regarded team acting for private clients on complex family disputes.

About the Firm:

• A full-service, top-ranked firm named one of The Times' Best Law Firms (2020–2026), based in Lincoln's Inn at the heart of legal London.
• Well known for its private wealth, property and family law practices, alongside specialist offerings including Art, Heritage Law, Company & Commercial and Charity Law.
• Acts for private individuals, businesses, trusts, charities and other organisations, each given dedicated partner and team attention.
• An award-winning family team, recognised as 'Financial Remedy Team of the Year' at the LexisNexis Family Law Awards 2024 and 'Family Team of the Year' at the Chambers UK Awards, Winter 2025.

Family Associate — Position Overview:

The firm is looking to appoint a dynamic and ambitious 1–4 year PQE Associate with experience in both children and finance work. Working within a supportive, collaborative environment under the supervision of a Partner or Senior Associate, the successful candidate will provide trusted, highly effective legal advice to families across a range of complex matters.

Key Responsibilities of the Family Associate:

• Dealing with enquiries from potential new clients and assessing whether cases are suitable to be taken on, accepting instructions, arranging retainers and providing cost estimates.
• Providing high-quality specialist legal advice across all matters within the department's expertise.
• Conducting private children law litigation, including case preparation, witness statements, drafting instructions to experts, briefing counsel and preparing for contested hearings under the Family Procedure Rules.
• Conducting cross-border children litigation, including working with lawyers in other jurisdictions, liaising with ICACU and the Legal Aid Agency, and responding flexibly to an urgent and unpredictable workload.
• Conducting financial remedy litigation, including Forms E, Questionnaires, ES1, ES2, draft orders and witness statements, and preparing for FDRs and interim applications.
• Supporting Partners and Senior Associates on client cases and maintaining full, orderly files with comprehensive attendance notes and accurate time recording.
• Invoicing clients by way of narrative bills and concluding cases in accordance with the firm's procedures, ensuring full compliance with the SRA Code of Conduct.
• Taking part in the department's marketing and business development activities, including articles, podcasts and attendance at seminars and conferences.

Requirements of the Family Associate:

• A qualified lawyer with 1–4 years' PQE, currently an Associate in a reputable firm servicing complex and/or high-net-worth family disputes.
• Experience of contested family law cases and court proceedings, as well as non-court dispute resolution methods.
• Solutions-focused and highly numerate, comfortable with complex financial and children work.
• Able to convey complex legal issues clearly and simply, with a good sense of commercial reality.
• Well-connected professionally, able to influence at all levels and adept at networking and business development.
• A high level of familiarity with family team software, for example Capitalise and Quantum.
• Excellent analysis, interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to take the initiative and contribute to strategic decisions.

The Benefits for the Family Associate role:

• Competitive Salary
• Complex, high-net-worth family law work
• A genuinely collaborative culture with little hierarchy
• A dedicated partner and team structure
• Strong opportunities for development
• A supportive working environment
• And more