Senior Associate

at  Lewis Silkin LLP

PQE:

5 years +
Term:

Permanent
Working hours:

Full-time
Department:
Corporate
Location:

Belfast
The firm
Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.
With offices in London, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.
Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.
The department
We currently have corporate teams across London, Wales and Northern Ireland. Through those teams, we deliver transactional advice and support of the highest quality backed up by our experts in key practice areas including data and privacy, tax, intellectual property, employment and real estate. This is borne out by our legal directory ratings, the testimony of our clients and by the fact our clients tend to stay with us.

Our experts advise on the full range of corporate services:

• Mergers and Acquisitions – share and asset sales and purchases for corporates, buyout transactions and due diligence. Our clients range from UK, European and US listed multinational organisations, through to UK and international funds, to owner-managed businesses in sectors from financial services to advertising. Our long experience acting for clients in the media and technology industries gives us an unrivalled expertise in these sectors.
• Corporate finance – venture capital and private equity investments, pre-IPO fundraising, investment agreements. We act for numerous companies and investors from business angels and venture funds to private equity, as well as for investee companies and management/founders.
• Joint ventures – contractual structures, corporate and LLP vehicles, and tax efficient structuring. Joint ventures often provide the appropriate solution and structure for a specific business venture. We help in the choice of the appropriate joint venture vehicle and deal with its tax efficient structuring and associated funding.
• General corporate advice – insolvency and corporate recovery, statutory and regulatory compliance, shareholders’ and partnerships agreements and constitutional agreements. This includes advising individuals on the best corporate vehicle for their business; keeping them up to date with recent changes in law and practice; and the right course of action to take should their business encounter financial difficulties.
• Debt – loans and security and general financial advice. We advise both borrowers and lenders on appropriate finance structures, together with providing general advice on day to day financial matters.
• Commercial tax – tax efficient structuring and reorganisations. Underpinning all of our transactional work is the support of our tax colleagues. Getting the tax right is fundamental to any corporate activity. Our tax experts are well versed in structuring corporate acquisitions and disposals, private equity transactions and debt structuring. They also regularly advise on issues from transfer pricing to LTIPs.

Responsibilities

• The role we are looking for is in our Northern Ireland team, which focuses on M&A work, investment, corporate governance with a particular expertise in intellectual property and tech law particularly in the vibrant start-up community in NI.
• The successful individual will be a key part of a hard-working, friendly and supportive team; therefore, the ideal candidate will be a strong team player and have experience working in a high performing and collaborative environment.
• Our associates are encouraged to run their own transactions (with guidance on hand as and when necessary) and to develop their legal knowledge.
• They will be someone who is interested in innovation and tech, people and their businesses.
• The ideal candidate would have significant prior experience in respect of the majority of the below and would be confident to run transactions with partner support:
• the M&A process;
• the venture capital and/or private equity investment process;
• general corporate advisory work such as share issues, share buy-backs and internal re-organisations;
• producing shareholder agreements and bespoke articles of association;
• legal due diligence, including collating reports and advising on solutions;
• the disclosure process and reviewing disclosure letters or schedules;
• drafting the typical ancillary documents on an acquisition or disposal;
• handling calls with clients without supervision; and
• an understanding of IP will be an advantage..
• The role (as with the team) enjoy hybrid working (with a minimum of 2 days in the office required).

Additional information
At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.

• The role we are looking for is in our Northern Ireland team, which focuses on M&A work, investment, corporate governance with a particular expertise in intellectual property and tech law particularly in the vibrant start-up community in NI.
• The successful individual will be a key part of a hard-working, friendly and supportive team; therefore, the ideal candidate will be a strong team player and have experience working in a high performing and collaborative environment.
• Our associates are encouraged to run their own transactions (with guidance on hand as and when necessary) and to develop their legal knowledge.
• They will be someone who is interested in innovation and tech, people and their businesses.
• The ideal candidate would have significant prior experience in respect of the majority of the below and would be confident to run transactions with partner support:
• the M&A process;
• the venture capital and/or private equity investment process;
• general corporate advisory work such as share issues, share buy-backs and internal re-organisations;
• producing shareholder agreements and bespoke articles of association;
• legal due diligence, including collating reports and advising on solutions;
• the disclosure process and reviewing disclosure letters or schedules;
• drafting the typical ancillary documents on an acquisition or disposal;
• handling calls with clients without supervision; and
• an understanding of IP will be an advantage..
• The role (as with the team) enjoy hybrid working (with a minimum of 2 days in the office required)