Solicitor

DMH Stallard; Guildford; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Job summary

DMH Stallard is seeking a 3-5 PQE solicitor to join its London Dispute Resolution Family Group, based in Guildford. The role focuses on a wide variety of family law matters including divorce, financial disputes, and pre-nuptial agreements, working alongside Partners and Associates.

You will be responsible for developing client relationships, managing your own caseload, and contributing to the group’s financial targets while delivering cost-effective service.

Qualifications

• Experience in divorce and matrimonial disputes; familiarity with Children Act and related law.
• Ability to manage time to meet client and internal deadlines.
• Strong client care focus with ability to handle diverse clients and objectives.

Responsibilities

• Participate in and support the Dispute Resolution (Family) Group to assist senior lawyers.
• Attend and contribute to internal training and group meetings.
• Develop technical expertise and stay updated on family law developments.
• Maintain awareness of the family law market and relevant case law.
• Manage own caseload, targets, and billing within supervision.
• Assist with marketing or business development activities when appropriate.

Skills

Divorce knowledge

Matrimonial finance disputes

Client care

Time management

Communication skills

Education

Qualified solicitor (3-5 PQE)

Tools

Outlook

Word

Case management software

Job description

DMH Stallard provides a comprehensive range of commercial, dispute resolution and litigation, employment, cyber security and cyber-crime, corporate, intellectual property, real estate and technology, media and telecoms advice to both businesses and individuals. Our clients, our people and our professional networks are the keys to our success.. With offices in London and across the region, including Brighton, Gatwick, Guildford, Horsham, and Hassocks - we’re proud to have grown to around 410 people.

Culture really matters to us. In our most recent staff survey, 99.6% of our people said DMH is a great place to work, with 90% feeling they have a strong work-life balance, and 93.9% expressing confidence in the leadership team.

We’re committed to building a genuinely inclusive and supportive workplace. Our Women in Law group meets quarterly, and we’re actively working toward gender balance at all levels. We already exceed the industry average, with 40% of our partners being women compared to the sector average at 29%.

We actively invest in learning and development at all career stages. Our mentoring programme is available to all partners, and we are preparing to launch an internal mentoring programme to support progression right up to partnership. We also recognise that work-life balance is essential to long-term success and wellbeing, and we promote hybrid working arrangements to help our people perform at their best inside and outside of work.

We’re also especially proud to achieve gold accreditation from Investors in People, which reflects our strong commitment to people development and leadership.

The department

We are looking for a solicitor to join the London Dispute Resolution Family Group based in our Guildford office. DMH Stallard's family law team has recently been recognised in both the Chambers High Net Worth Guide and Legal 500, while the firm was named Family Law Firm of the year at the ePrivateClient Excellence Awards 2025. Group Head, Samantha Jago has also been shortlisted for Resolution Solicitor of the year and for Outstanding Lawyer of the year at the 2026 Surrey Law Society Awards.

We are ideally looking for an 3-5 PQE solicitor to take on a wide variety of work to support the continued development of the practice. You will work as an effective member of the Dispute Resolution (Family) group working along side Partners and Associates in the Group.

The individual is expected to develop good working relationships with clients and other team members.

To be responsible under supervision for own caseload of work and own fee targets.

Achieve the targets as defined by the Group Head/Head of Department, including contribution, hours and fees.

Responsibilities and duties

• To participate and contribute to the Dispute Resolution Family Group to ensure an effective working environment, supporting Associates and Partners on more complex matters as appropriate.
• Attend the internal training programme and other relevant technical training to ensure that skills and knowledge remain up-to-date.
• To attend and contribute to group meetings.
• Continuously develop their own technical expertise.
• Maintain awareness of the legal market specifically relating to family law.
• Work as part of the Dispute Resolution (Family) Group dealing with, but not limited to divorce; financial disputes; matrimonial arbitration/mediation; pre-nuptial agreements; custody agreements; wills & trusts disputes etc.
• Any other legal work, as requested by the senior fee-earners in the group.
• To be responsible for ensuring achievement of own key financial targets, including fees, contribution and payment of debts and disbursements.
• Maintaining accurate data on case manager and the firm’s intranet.
• To monitor own performance in relation to the number of live files, file closures, file openings, billing, time recording and to take appropriate action to ensure targets are met.
• Scope all matters appropriately, including use of budget templates, delivering work on time and on budget and understand the necessity of streamlining and efficiency in delivery a cost-effective service to clients on lower value matters.
• To be responsible for the delivery of the service to the client, ensuring that the highest standards of client care are maintained so that clients use DMHS again and recommend the firm to others.
• To assist with marketing and business development initiatives such as writing for e-newsletters or attending seminars.

Other information

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required

• Some previous experience of divorce; matrimonial finance disputes; pre-nuptial agreements; Children Act; matrimonial arbitration/mediation; cohabitation disputes etc.
• Knowledge of general family related legislation and relevant case law.
• Able to effectively manage their time to achieve client and internal deadlines.
• Understanding the importance of client care with an ability to deal with a wide range of clients with differing objectives including being able to understand pragmatic solutions for the client.
• Able to work within a team and provide support to Associates and Partners as appropriate.
• Confident Excel skills sufficient to enable the reviewing of relevant matters.
• Competent IT skills including Outlook, Word, Digital Dictation and case manager.
• Ability to draft documentation, with attention to detail.
• Understanding of the strategy and vision of the firm.
• Communicate effectively with clients, in writing, over the telephone and in meetings.
• Convey technical legal information in an effective and accessible way.
• 25 days holiday (of which 3.5 are taken during the Christmas period), plus Birthday holiday, plus Bank Holidays.