With nearly 5,000 staff, including 2,800 lawyers, Herbert Smith Freehills is one of the largest, fully-integrated law firms in the world and is the leading firm in Asia Pacific.

We advise many of the largest and most ambitious organisations across all major regions of the world. Our reputation for providing outstanding legal expertise is thoroughly deserved: we are globally pre-eminent in all forms of dispute resolution and an international leader in corporate and finance. We are one of the world's top-ranked energy and resources firms. We offer our clients a top-tier capability across a single global platform with a distinctive focus on industry sectors and an un-paralleled depth of expertise.

Join us, and you will work with inspiring people, many of whom are leaders in their fields. You will be faced with demanding and intellectually stimulating work that will require more than just technical ability. You will need to have a sense of the bigger picture, the ability to cut to the heart of the matter and a gift for developing exceptional working relationships. With more than 20 offices across the globe in fast-growing markets like China, Indonesia and Russia and established centres like the UK, Europe, the US and Australia, we can offer you the international opportunities that only a leading global practice can provide.

We recognise that the success of our business and our clients relies on the skills, knowledge and ideas of all our people. Our environment is one in which high performance is expected, in return, we will provide you with rewards and opportunities tailored to your personal and professional goals.

  **Please note that this role is located in Belfast only.**

We have a team of highly capable lawyers and legal assistants in Belfast. Our decision to open an office in Belfast in April 2011 was driven by a wish to further enhance what is already a pre-eminent global dispute resolution practice.
 

Our disputes practice in Belfast focuses on the documentary analysis critical to the investigation of matters and cases. In 2012, we expanded our offering to include corporate, funds and real estate work. Our corporate and funds practices support with due diligence and other aspects of projects/transactions. Our real estate practice conducts asset management and volume portfolio due diligence work. We are now also beginning to develop a finance capability.
 

Our offering in Belfast further enhances the quality and efficiency of our service and price competitiveness to clients.

Our Respond team members are part-time permanent employees of the Belfast office who work on a flexible basis while developing their legal careers with us.  All Respond employees have minimum contracted hours of 7.5 hours per week, although are expected to work more hours than this, often on short notice, as and when required. Please see the Respond Charter, Project Life Cycle and FAQ's documents for further information.

Legal Assistants are part of our legal team, working closely with Team Leaders, Senior Solicitors, Trainees and Legal Assistants.

Teams of Senior Solicitors, Solicitors, Trainees and Legal Assistants report to Team Leaders (who will in turn report to the Practice Group Lead or Quality Manager).

-   Conducting document review, due diligence or other practice area-specific fee-earning work  (there will be target average daily chargeable hours)

-   Providing general support to the Team Leaders, Senior Solicitors and Solicitors

-   Maintaining an up-to-date knowledge of relevant areas of law to the Belfast office's practice

-   Ensuring compliance with financial disciplines on matters (e.g. daily time-recording)

Essential

-   Law graduate (2:1 or above) or a post-graduate qualification in law with a minimum of 3 A levels (ideally B grades and above)

-   Ability to review, analyse and organise documentary and factual evidence

-   Excellent attention to detail; aims to get it right first time

-   Aptitude for learning (and becoming proficient in) the use of software and IT applications, and using search terms intelligently to navigate large databases / document management systems

Desirable

-   6 months to a year’s work experience in an office based environment

-   Fluency in a second language with an ability to translate legal documents into English

-   Western European languages an advantage, but other languages (e.g. Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Korean or Russian) especially desirable

-   Self-motivated with an ability to concentrate for extended periods of time

-   Resilient and persistent in order to achieve results – goes the extra mile

-   Demonstrates a high level of organisation through prioritising workload and consistently meeting deadlines

-   Communicates proactively to ensure the relevant individuals in the team are kept informed of progress on tasks

-   Promotes & sells the services of the Belfast office to internal clients, including by the delivery of consistently high-quality work and a positive approach to building internal relationships

-   Works effectively with all colleagues to complete tasks

-   Demonstrates the ability to build relationships

-   Communicates in a clear, concise and structured way with the ability to adapt style where necessary

-   Risk management: understands the need for compliance with the firm's policies, procedures and rules. Identifies and evaluates risks, consulting and taking appropriate action. Holds the firm's reputation as paramount at all times

-   Contributes to the firm (e.g. corporate responsibility or social activities) supporting the development of a diverse and innovative culture and making it an enjoyable place to work