Associate Lawyer – Risk and Compliance – Firm-Wide

Vacancy details

We have an exciting opportunity available for a qualified Lawyer to join our Risk and Compliance team. Reporting to the Director of Risk and the COLP you will be a vital member of our established risk team.

We offer a culture that provides you with the trust and autonomy to manage your own work workload and engage with our fee earning teams to help them manage their regulatory and legal obligations.

This is a rewarding opportunity offers:

• Private Healthcare
• Income Protection
• Hybrid working
• Life Assurance
• Company Pension Scheme
• 26 days annual leave + bank holidays (rising to 29 days after 2 years)
• Additional Christmas leave
• And more

We work flexibly and you’ll be empowered to work where you do your best work, balancing your individual needs with the need for us to engage as teams and deliver excellent service.

Most of our people choose to work in a hybrid fashion, working from home and attending our offices as required. Our offices are in Bristol, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton, and Taunton.

Role: Associate
Location: Firm Wide
Hours: Full-Time
Term: Permanent
Vacancy Reference: 1198-LBL

Who we are

You’ll be joining a national law firm that enjoys a strong reputation, made possible by our exceptional people – each chosen for their industry knowledge and passion for their field. We want to help you to reach your full potential, love the work you do and deliver the best results for your clients. It’s our goal to make you feel great about working with us, and we work hard to cultivate a culture that makes it easy for you to stay with us for many years.

We work flexibly and you’ll be empowered to work where you do your best work, balancing your individual needs with the need for us to engage as teams and deliver excellent client service.

Most of our people choose to work in a hybrid fashion, working from home and attending our offices on occasion. Our offices are in Bristol, Birmingham,  Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton, and Taunton.

Day to day, you’ll be successful in this role by:

Based within an established team and reporting to the Director of Risk and Compliance/COLP, the key elements of your role will include:

• Liaising with our fee earning teams to support them in their compliance and regulatory responsibilities. This may include follow up to audit outputs, root cause analysis if things go wrong and training where a need is identified.
• Managing conflict escalations and queries from the Client and Matter Inception team and the firm.
• Responsibility for risk team input into client and supplier contract reviews and preparation of tenders.
• Wider experience of managing client and supplier contract review process would be an advantage.
• Assisting with internal investigations and SRA engagement.
• Providing training across the firm, to include induction training for new joiners and additional training firm-wide and as required, as a result of any identified issues/training needs or as a result of any changes in practice or regulation.
• Supporting the Audit & Risk Committee with its rolling agenda and assisting in reporting to the Board at least annually on the Committee’s activities.
• Assisting with annual Practising Certificate renewal process.
• Responsibility for maintaining and updating policies, e.g ABC, Modern Slavery and CFA.
• Supporting the work to achieve annual accreditation against the Law Society’s legal practice quality mark, Lexcel.
• Ensure Standard Operating Procedures remain current and implement revisions as necessary.
• Supporting on change committee meetings: managing outputs, assisting with the agenda and progressing initiatives.
• Assisting the Director of Risk and Compliance with additional reporting, analysis, advice, project work and other ad hoc responsibilities as required.

You will need to keep abreast of any changes and developments in relevant regulations and accreditation processes and we will look to you to identify improvements in our auditing processes and advise us accordingly.

There will be times when you may need to raise issues directly with the partners, lawyers and other staff involved. You will need confidence, tact and perseverance to achieve your goals., There will be be an element of travel to our various offices. As part of a relatively small team, you may also need to assist others or work on additional tasks in line with the overall responsibilities of the Risk Management function.

This role is right for you if:

You will be someone who likes getting things done well and done right. Meticulous in your approach, you will balance a need for accuracy with a robust view of the bigger picture – identifying and prioritising tasks to meet the needs of the business while maintaining high ethical standards.

You will have the judgement and flexibility to understand what is important and the influencing skills to bring about behavioural changes where required.

You will have strong organisational and management skills, with the ability to assimilate large amounts of data and spot themes and patterns. You should be good at presenting that data in accessible, plain English reports with supporting visual aids where appropriate.

What we can offer you:

A career at Clarke Willmott will feel different to other law firms. We thrive on our individual differences and diversity because as a team, we are united by our shared values and mutual respect. Working with us you will feel empowered, valued and free to be yourself in a safe and supportive environment.

Our mission is to help you realise your full potential whilst maintaining a positive work-life balance. We provide a comprehensive learning and development programme and a range of wellbeing initiatives to support your career journey.

There’s no doubt we expect the best from our people and even the occasional extra mile. In return, your dedication and commitment to the continued success of the firm will be rewarded with a comprehensive range of flexible benefits.

Listen to what a few members of our team have to say about what life here at Clarke Willmott is really like, to see if it’s the right fit for you.

Apply

If you would like to apply for this vacancy, please send us your CV and covering letter using the form below.

(If you have any difficulties with the form, you can email your application to us at careers@clarkewillmott.com)

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