Managing Lawyer, Helix

Dentons; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Dentons Helix – Employment in Glasgow seeks an experienced employment lawyer to join as a Managing Lawyer in the Employment Litigation team. The role emphasizes supervision, legal quality, and efficient client service for a portfolio of major clients.

The Managing Lawyer will oversee lawyers, manage capacity, and ensure high-quality delivery while remaining involved in high-risk matters and client governance. Collaboration with Helix operations is essential.

Qualifications

• Be a qualified lawyer with significant employment law experience.
• Have strong Employment Tribunal litigation experience, including unfair dismissal and discrimination claims.
• Have experience supervising and developing other lawyers.
• Be comfortable overseeing multiple matters and lawyers simultaneously, rather than focusing solely on their own caseload.
• Demonstrate strong judgement and be able to identify when matters require senior or Partner escalation.
• Have strong client-management and communication skills.
• Understand the commercial considerations involved in delivering legal services at scale.
• Be comfortable working with technology and interested in improving how legal work is delivered.
• Drive the effective adoption of AI across the team, ensuring it is used appropriately to improve efficiency, consistency and quality of legal delivery while maintaining appropriate legal oversight.

Responsibilities

• Legal supervision and quality: Supervise employment litigation matters across the team, providing appropriate review, challenge and sign-off.
• Portfolio and case oversight: Maintain visibility of the claims within the team's portfolio, ensuring every matter has appropriate ownership and supervision, key deadlines and risks are understood, and cases are progressing appropriately.
• Work allocation and capacity: Allocate and rebalance work across the team based on complexity, capacity and experience.
• Team management and development: Provide day-to-day leadership and support to lawyers, including coaching, feedback and development.
• Complex litigation: Personally lead or support complex, strategically important or high-risk employment matters where Managing Lawyer involvement is appropriate.
• Client delivery: Develop a strong understanding of client requirements, playbooks and risk appetite.
• Operational delivery: Work closely with Helix operational colleagues to manage workflows, capacity, reporting and service performance and resolve delivery issues quickly.
• Continuous improvement: Identify opportunities to improve how employment litigation is delivered, including standardisation, templates, playbooks, process improvement, technology and appropriate use of AI.
• Commercial management: Support scoping and pricing of new matters and portfolios, monitor delivery against agreed fees/budgets and support billing and financial management of client accounts.
• Growth: Support pitches, pilots and new client opportunities and help transition new employment litigation portfolios into the Helix delivery model.

Skills

Employment law

Team leadership

Client relationship management

AI in legal delivery

Education

Qualified lawyer (Solicitor/Barrister)

Job description

Select how often (in days) to receive an alert: Create Alert

Department/Division: Dentons Helix – Employment

Duration:Permanent

Reports to: Group Managing Lawyer / Helix Leadership

Reference number:10869

The Role

We are looking for an experienced employment lawyer to join Dentons Helix as a Managing Lawyer within our Employment Litigation team.

Helix delivers employment litigation services for a portfolio of major clients, combining high-quality legal advice with efficient processes, technology and alternative delivery models.

The Managing Lawyer plays a key role in the day-to-day delivery of these services including improvement on ways of working and streamlining processes

The role is responsible for supervising lawyers and their caseloads, maintaining legal quality, managing capacity and ensuring matters are delivered efficiently and at the appropriate level of seniority.

The Managing Lawyer will retain involvement in complex or higher-risk matters and provide escalation support to the team, but the role is primarily one of legal supervision and client relationship and portfolio management rather than carrying out a full individual caseload.

Key Responsibilities

• Legal supervision and quality: Supervise employment litigation matters across the team, providing appropriate review, challenge and sign-off. Act as an escalation point for complex, sensitive or higher-risk matters and ensure consistent legal standards across the portfolio.
• Portfolio and case oversight: Maintain visibility of the claims within the team's portfolio, ensuring every matter has appropriate ownership and supervision, key deadlines and risks are understood, and cases are progressing appropriately.
• Work allocation and capacity: Allocate and rebalance work across the team based on complexity, capacity and experience. Ensure work is undertaken at the lowest appropriate level of seniority, while maintaining appropriate supervision.
• Team management and development: Provide day-to-day leadership and support to lawyers, including coaching, feedback and development. Support junior lawyers in developing their litigation skills and independence.
• Complex litigation: Personally lead or support complex, strategically important or high-risk employment matters where Managing Lawyer involvement is appropriate.
• Client delivery: Develop a strong understanding of client requirements, playbooks and risk appetite. Support client relationships and governance meetings and ensure agreed service levels and ways of working are consistently followed.
• Operational delivery: Work closely with Helix operational colleagues to manage workflows, capacity, reporting and service performance and resolve delivery issues quickly.
• Continuous improvement: Identify opportunities to improve how employment litigation is delivered, including standardisation, templates, playbooks, process improvement, technology and appropriate use of AI.
• Commercial management: Support scoping and pricing of new matters and portfolios, monitor delivery against agreed fees/budgets and support billing and financial management of client accounts.
• Growth: Support pitches, pilots and new client opportunities and help transition new employment litigation portfolios into the Helix delivery model.

Required experience, skills, and attributes

We would expect the successful candidate to:

• Be a qualified lawyer with significant employment law experience.
• Have strong Employment Tribunal litigation experience, including unfair dismissal and discrimination claims.
• Have experience supervising and developing other lawyers.
• Be comfortable overseeing multiple matters and lawyers simultaneously, rather than focusing solely on their own caseload.
• Demonstrate strong judgement and be able to identify when matters require senior or Partner escalation.
• Have strong client-management and communication skills.
• Understand the commercial considerations involved in delivering legal services at scale.
• Be comfortable working with technology and interested in improving how legal work is delivered.
• Drive the effective adoption of AI across the team, ensuring it is used appropriately to improve efficiency, consistency and quality of legal delivery while maintaining appropriate legal oversight.

Firm Profile

Across more than 80 countries, Dentons helps you grow, protect, operate and finance your organisation by providing uniquely global and deeply local legal solutions. Polycentric, purpose-driven and committed to inclusion, diversity, equity and sustainability, we focus on what matters most to you. www.dentons.com

Inclusion and Diversity

We are committed to building an inclusive culture here at Dentons where our people can thrive, regardless of their background or circumstance. As well as being the right thing to do, it makes good business sense too. A richness of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives helps us best serve our clients and the communities in which we operate. You can find out more about inclusion and diversity at Dentons here: Inclusion and Diversity

Dentons is committed to providing equal opportunities for all. We welcome applications from everyone including of any age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, neurotype, disability, or with parental or caring responsibilities. We are also “Happy to Talk Flexible Working” and welcome conversations about flexible working arrangements.

Dentons is a Disability Confident employer. Candidates with a disability may choose to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme. We will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role. Where application volumes are high, we may offer interviews to those who best meet the minimum criteria, consistent with our approach for all candidates.

During the application process, all applicants have the opportunity to tell us about any adjustments or support they require so they are able to perform at their best. Any information you share with us during the application process is treated in confidence.