Senior Associate (Disputes)

Practice Group / Department:

Job Description

We're Norton Rose Fulbright - a global law firm with over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide. We provide the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. At Norton Rose Fulbright, our strategy and our culture are closely entwined. We know that our expansion will mean little unless it is underpinned by truly global collaboration and we understand that pioneering work only takes place when our people have room to move and think beyond boundaries. As well as the relevant skills and experience, we're looking for people who are innovative, commercial and value the work that they do. 

Norton Rose Fulbright is renowned as one of the few firms with a truly global platform and has one of the largest and highest-rated disputes practices in the world. Our global dispute resolution team works on some of the most exciting, complex, high-value and sensitive multi-jurisdictional disputes within a genuine "one team" environment.

We have a growing team of Disputes aligned Associates in our Newcastle Office servicing a broad range of clients around the globe on domestic and cross-border mandates, international arbitrations and investigations and enforcement for clients across all the key industry sectors including financial institutions; energy, infrastructure and resources; transport; technology; life sciences and healthcare; and consumer markets.

We are presently looking to grow our capacity to service our clients’ domestic needs in the County Court of England and Wales. The work is varied and includes both volume claims work, assisted by a dedicated Claims Team, and higher value disputes work which involves a high degree of co-ordination with our London and international teams.

The Role

This role would offer a broad range of high-quality work including in the following areas:

• A wide variety of consumer claims brought, in the main, by litigants in person against clients across many of our industry sectors (including contractual claims, Consumer Credit Act claims, Consumer Rights Act claims, etc.);
• Regulatory advice to clients including airlines and financial institutions;
• Debt recovery and insolvency proceedings;
• Data breach claims;
• Claims involving fraud; and
• Supervision of volume claims work carried out by the Claims Team.

In this role you would work very closely with client in-house legal teams, building strong relationships and becoming a key point of contact for much of those clients’ day to day needs in the areas listed above. You would conduct disputes primarily in the County Court but also in the High Court (including the Commercial Court).

You would be responsible for managing a portfolio of higher-value litigation, whilst also assisting with the supervision of lower-value claims. You would be supported by experienced Partners, Counsels and Associates.

Key Skills and Experience

• You will have at least 5-8 years' PQE experience in litigation. (Candidates with higher or lower PQE than this range will be considered).
• You will be highly experienced in managing litigation on a day-to-day basis and have a strong track record of delivering results for clients.
• You will have experience of mentoring and supervising juniors.
• You will have excellent drafting abilities, both in drafting legal documents and advice to clients, to ensure they meet the highest standards of quality and precision.
• You will be adept at dealing with both client legal teams and with litigants in person.
• You will have up-to-date knowledge of the various costs regimes applying to fast, intermediate and multi track claims.
• You will have enthusiasm, a strong academic background, and a commitment to develop and share technical skills.
• You will have strong and demonstrable client care skills and the ability to work collaboratively as part of an effective team.
• You will have a keen interest in business development and leveraging GenAI to meet client needs.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. 
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.