Competition Associate

WHO WE ARE //

Slaughter and May is a leading international law firm, recognised throughout the business community for its exceptional legal service, commercial awareness and commitment to clients. We advise across a broad spectrum of legal matters including high-profile, ground-breaking and complex transactions, contentious matters and all aspects of risk. We deliver innovative and bespoke solutions to our clients, domestically and internationally. We provide clear legal advice that spans the globe whilst tackling the cultural nuances between jurisdictions. Our lawyers understand how to coordinate and manage matters in the jurisdictions most relevant to our clients.

We have a leading competition practice, as well as an extensive corporate, financial institutions, commercial and financing practice. We also have strong practices in disputes and investigations, intellectual property, financial regulation, tax, real estate and pensions and employment. The firm is organised into Groups, which undertake a broad spread of work and thereby encourage lawyers to work on an extensive range of matters.

Whilst our work is generally challenging and sophisticated, we still aim to give associates as much responsibility and client contact as they are ready for. Junior associates may take the lead on either the matter as a whole or a smaller part of it. We recognise that all individuals benefit from developing at their own pace, so our associates’ progress and workload are continually monitored and reviewed with their mentoring partner.

At Slaughter and May, with over 1,500 partners and staff worldwide, everyone\’s contribution is valued, and we all enjoy an open, friendly and supportive environment. We have an underlying sense of pride in who we are and what we do, and our inclusive culture gives rise to a unique diversity of thinking, which is critical to our success and helps maintain our position as a true market leader. To support our employees in achieving their professional development objectives, we offer an unrivalled variety of learning and development opportunities to everyone, as well as a highly competitive salary.

ROLE OVERVIEW //

Our Competition practice has a reputation for being one of the world’s leading, ‘go-to’ competition law practices, and our associates have regular involvement in much of the leading edge work in this space. We handle cartel and other antitrust investigations and many high profile cases, including advising Google in relation to various competition investigations around the world; the European and international merger control aspects of major deals (such as Facebook’s acquisition of Kustomer and IAG’s acquisition of Air Europa); and multijurisdictional follow-on litigation.

The Group handles a variety of work types across the competition and regulatory fields. In contrast to many other firms, we encourage associates to maintain a broad caseload (across both contentious and non contentious matters) rather than overspecialising. As a general guide, we would expect about 50% of your workload to relate to merger control matters, with the remaining 50% comprising a mixture of cartel investigations, abuse of dominance matters, state aid, public procurement, regulatory and other contentious matters. In our experience, this leads to greater involvement in clients\’ broader business interests, and deeper, more fruitful relationships with them, which stand the test of time.

As one of our Competition associates, you can expect to be working with a number of partners in the group at any one time, giving you the opportunity to build relationships across the whole team. Depending on the scale and complexity of any given project, you may find yourself operating as the single associate on a matter or working as part of a larger team. You will also have the opportunity to develop contacts outside the immediate team; for example, our Competition associates regularly work alongside Corporate, Disputes and Investigations and Intellectual Property lawyers, providing clients with unparalleled integration when it comes to legal advice.

With the Competition Group operating out of our London, Brussels and Hong Kong offices, there are often international secondment opportunities available to associates, all of whom are encouraged to spend time working at one of our other offices at the appropriate time.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES //

The key responsibilities of this role are set out below and there may be others which are not listed.

• Drafting, reviewing and amending the legal and commercial aspects of documentation
• Advising on a range of competition law and commercial issues
• Developing professional relationships with clients
• Supporting the wider team in developing business and raising the profile of the firm
• Managing/supervising the work of others including trainees

CANDIDATE PROFILE //

Candidates for this position must have:

• Appropriate level qualification (0-4 PQE, preferably developed in a City or leading international firm, but we will consider all applicants)
• Ability to draft, advise and negotiate in relation to complex transactions
• First rate legal/commercial knowledge
• Strong academic background and a demonstrable high level of intellectual analysis
• Excellent client relationship skills
• Excellent efficiency and transaction management skills
• Ability to develop and work in a fast paced, intellectually challenging environment
• Resilient under pressure with the ability to manage multiple deadlines
• High level of professionalism and integrity
• Exposure across a range of high value commercial and corporate transactions or similar (e.g. advising companies in regulated sectors such as telecoms, energy, broadcasting etc.)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING //

We run extensive legal and skills training programmes to support all our associates at every stage of their career. This includes training focused on competition law and practice as well as more general legal training and business skills training.

The annual legal training programme for associates offers over twenty courses. Courses are delivered by partners, associates, support lawyers and sometimes external speakers which ensures that they are founded on deep experience and are focused on the requirements of modern City practitioners. The topics covered are broad and courses generally include both presentations and interactive workshops. They aim to give the associates a real-life overview of how a transaction might run from start to finish e.g. what strategies the other side might employ and what the market norms are at the time, as well as looking at the detail of the transaction documents.

There is a programme of interactive roundtables for our senior associates and this covers interesting and relevant topics in more depth.

We also have the Associate Business Skills (ABS) training programme for junior associates which focuses on the key business skills our junior lawyers need to succeed in their careers. The ABS programme takes place twice per year; in the spring and in the autumn. Themes include creating credibility, building effective relationships, management essentials and building your expertise. Associate (Competition, London) – Permanent Firm-wide talks and events We hold general interest sessions throughout the year, which are open to everyone at the firm. Recent topics have included mental health and wellbeing, mobile phone security and artificial intelligence.

OUR NETWORK OF NETWORKS //

The firm has ten diversity networks run by employees and supported by partners. Collectively, they form a Network of Networks, and our aim is to foster a spirit of inclusion, both amongst the networks and the firm more widely. We work collaboratively to create a more open minded and inclusive work environment. We strive to make people feel comfortable about bringing their authentic selves to work. Each network offers an informal support mechanism for employees with shared backgrounds, perspectives or interests and hosts a number of exciting formal and informal events throughout the year, which are open to everyone. They’re a great way to meet new people in the firm, as well as to celebrate difference and learn about a variety of experiences and perspectives