Senior Employment Lawyer - Leading National Firm - London
We are working exclusively with one of the most highly regarded employer-side employment teams in London to identify up to four Senior Associates or Legal Directors. This is an urgent and ongoing search driven by genuine growth in workload the team is expanding its capacity to handle an increasing volume of high-value incoming instructions, not backfilling departures. We are actively building a comparison set and want to hear from strong candidates now.
The Team
This is a substantial London employment practice of approximately 40 lawyers, sitting within a larger national offering but hiring exclusively for London. The work is exclusively employer-side and skewed heavily toward contentious matters — roughly 50–60% of the caseload is employment tribunal litigation, with a further 30–40% covering employment advisory, sensitive investigations and regulatory advice at board level.
The team works with clients on contentious and non-contentious matters, including both strategic and business-as-usual advice for large financial institutions and clients in the insurance industry. The firm is regularly instructed on complex employment work relating to industrial relations and internal investigations, and offers additional expertise in regulatory employment matters including the SMCR. The group acts for clients across a range of sectors including financial services, technology and retail, with a notable emphasis on employment tribunal litigation, particularly defending employers in whistleblowing and discrimination cases. The client base includes some of the most recognisable names in global finance, technology, healthcare and insurance major international banks, global tech businesses, leading insurers and professional services firms with long-standing relationships and high-stakes, reputationally sensitive instructions as the norm.
The firm holds a Band 2 ranking in Chambers UK for employment, reflecting consistent recognition for the quality and complexity of its work. Many team members join from Magic Circle backgrounds, and the team is characterised by strong retention and long-standing client relationships built over many years.
Why These Roles?
The tribunal litigation here is genuinely complex multi-day, strategically significant cases involving whistleblowing, discrimination, unfair dismissal and other sensitive matters, often with regulatory dimensions and parallel proceedings. Associates carry real ownership of cases, from initial advice through to advocacy, with meaningful responsibility from an early stage.
On the advisory and investigations side, the work involves board-level engagement, financial services regulatory matters including SMCR, and sensitive internal investigations often conducted alongside leading US law firms. This is not transactional employment support; it is high-stakes, sophisticated work for clients who expect the highest levels of commercial judgment and discretion.
The culture is described as genuinely flat and collaborative, with minimal ego and strong internal cohesion. The team invests in developing its people, and partnership progression is merit-based with no quota system recent promotions to partner reflect active investment in the team's long-term growth. The hours target is realistic (1,440 hours for Senior Associate level, 1,320 for Legal Director), with actual utilisation managed to avoid excessive overwork.
Compensation sits at £135,000–£165,000 base, with a transparent, three-component bonus structure covering chargeable hours performance, discretionary contribution, and a firm performance uplift. Hybrid working is supported with three days in the office per week.
What They Are Looking For
The team is targeting lawyers at 5+ PQE, though strong candidates at 4 PQE with solid tribunal experience will be considered. The non-negotiables are clear: substantive employment tribunal litigation experience, the ability to manage complex multi-day cases independently, and England & Wales qualification.
Beyond the technical profile, the ideal candidate will be commercially astute, client-facing, and collaborative someone who genuinely wants to be part of a team, mentor more junior colleagues, and contribute to the long-term development of the practice. Strong academics are important to this team. The ideal background is a large commercial or Magic Circle firm, or a boutique employment practice with a strong employer-side litigation focus. Candidates currently in private practice are preferred, though exceptional profiles from in-house roles will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Candidates must be qualified in England & Wales. Common law-qualified candidates without E&W qualification will not be considered.
This is a live and urgent search with up to four roles to fill. If you are a senior employment litigator with genuine tribunal depth and are open to a confidential conversation, please get in touch directly. We are happy to discuss the full details of the roles and the team.