Regulatory Disputes Associate

Osborne Clarke; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Osborne Clarke is seeking an Associate for the Regulatory Disputes team to advise on regulatory investigations, enforcement and compliance across high‑impact matters for major clients. The role covers health and safety, ABC, FTPF, Modern Slavery and related advisory work, including internal investigations and due diligence.

Successful candidates will contribute to a nationwide team, handling complex, multi‑jurisdictional matters and providing concise, commercially grounded guidance under

Qualifications

• Experience in regulatory investigations and enforcement work.
• Advising on regulatory frameworks and compliance matters.
• Preparation for regulatory interviews, inspections or hearings.

Responsibilities

• Advise on Health and Safety, ABC, FTPF, Modern Slavery and related regulatory regimes.
• Support internal investigations, regulatory inquiries and due diligence.
• Assist with enforcement proceedings, witness interviews and disclosure management.
• Collaborate with cross‑office teams to deliver integrated regulatory risk solutions.

Job description

Role profile

We are seeking an Associate to join our highly regarded Regulatory Disputes team, with a primary focus on regulatory investigations, enforcement and compliance across complex, high-impact matters for leading businesses.

The successful candidate will play a key role in working on health and safety advice, investigations, corporate due diligence and inquests whilst being able to support on broader regulatory investigations and compliance work (including corporate due diligence and advice work on non-contentious compliance frameworks (including Anti-Bribery & Corruption (ABC), Failure to Prevent Fraud (FTPF), Modern Slavery), and guiding clients through internal investigations (across a range of areas), inquiries, enforcement, and related contentious processes.

The Work

The team acts across the full lifecycle of regulatory risk, advising on preventative compliance, internal and external investigations, engagement with regulators, and—where needed—robust representation in enforcement and related proceedings.

The key focus of this role is on advising and supporting clients on the following areas:

• Health and Safety – non-contentious advisory support to clients across a range of health and safety, building safety and fire safety topics including legal duties and standard advice, training and policy support; crisis/ contentious support following incidents or regulatory investigations including internal investigations, regulator engagement, witness interviews, managing disclosure requests, interviews under caution and prosecutions and related court hearing; and due diligence support. The team deals with a large number of inquests and has provided non core participant support in a number of inquiries in addition to a large amount of detailed advisory work on health and safety topics and a handful of health and safety enforcement matters each year.
• ABC, FTPF and Modern Slavery – advising on policies, procedures and risk assessments as well as working on related investigations (advising on investigation strategy, responding to regulatory information requests, preparing clients and witnesses for interviews, managing document reviews and disclosure, and coordinating with technical experts and in-house teams) and due diligence support.

The successful candidate will be comfortable navigating evolving regulatory frameworks and providing concise, commercially grounded guidance under time pressure.

Experience across our other specialisms— healthcare/ life sciences regulation, product and consumer regulation, digital regulation and/or environmental litigation—would be beneficial, including both advisory and contentious mandates, but is not essential. In these areas, our practice supports clients with compliance, risk assessments, regulator engagement, and complex contentious matters, and we operate seamlessly across multi-disciplinary and cross-office teams to deliver integrated solutions.

The Team

Our Regulatory Disputes team sits within our Disputes & Risk practice and is nationally led, working cross-office with a collaborative culture and clear opportunities for responsibility and client exposure. We pride ourselves on a supportive, high-performing environment that values initiative, business development contributions, and strong client care.

Illustrative Work Examples

• Working with a partner and trainee on a week-long inquest for a production company involved in the death of an on-screen participant in a TV production being filmed abroad.
• Working with an Associate Director and a trainee on a complex inquest and related investigation/ risk advice for a private healthcare services client
• Leading on a number of corporate due diligence reports each month, alongside other associates and under the supervision of a more senior colleague on health and safety and ABC due diligence
• Drafting witness evidence on a regulatory challenge as part of a statutory appeal as a potential pre-cursor to a judicial review (related to a refusal to consider an application for a regulatory approval – for a client operating in a health and safety/ product adjacent area)
• Working in a team supporting more senior colleagues in internal investigation interviews and associated work on redactions and disclosure on an investigation related to toxic culture allegations in a large US business.
• Supporting a senior associate in providing building safety compliance advice and looking for opportunities to secure Building Safety Regulator enforcement instructions from clients in the Real Estate space.
• Supporting more senior colleagues to prepare multi-jurisdictional anti-bribery and fraud risk assessments for significant multi-national clients, and assisting the client in implementing changes to mitigate those risks.
• Supporting more senior colleagues to provide training to clients on the new Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act and other broader Directors Duties advice.
• Supporting a team to provide strategic multi-jurisdictional compliance advice for an international retail client, covering a number of compliance risks. Tasks included instructions to other jurisdictions, collating advice, drafting advice in relation to overall strategy and specific risks.
• Working with clients in key regulated sectors, including energy and utilities, transport, real estate/retail, technology/media, and life sciences and healthcare, reflecting our sector-led approach to regulatory risk.

Technical Skills and Experience

We are looking for an Associate with demonstrable experience in relevant areas of regulatory compliance and investigations, ideally including: regulatory investigations and enforcement, inquests/ inquiries, internal investigations; advising on regulatory frameworks; and preparing for or attending regulatory interviews, inspections, or hearings. The focus areas are Health and Safety, Anti-Bribery & Corruption (ABC), Failure to Prevent Fraud (FTPF), Modern Slavery and Healthcare Regulation although candidates without experience in all areas will be considered. Experience of parallel civil, criminal, or public law issues is advantageous but not essential.

Exposure to one or more of our complementary areas — healthcare/ life sciences regulation, product regulation and consumer protection, digital regulation, and environmental litigation — is beneficial but not a requirement. While prior experience in these areas is not essential, the successful candidate will be expected to support work across them as business needs arise and must therefore be flexible and adaptable. Candidates who can demonstrate strong analytical skills, excellent drafting, confident client handling, and a proactive, solutions-led mindset will thrive in this role.

Your Career Development

Like all our lawyers, you will benefit from a structured and award-winning career development programme, offering clear expectations at each level, early client exposure and responsibility, thorough assessment and feedback, robust technical and skills training tailored to your development, and reward based on contribution and potential.

Salary and Benefits

We offer a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package commensurate with experience and market. Further details can be provided during the application process.

About Us

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations*. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success.

At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

*Services in India are provided by a relationship firm