Legal Specialist (English) in Ipswich

Main information

• Term type: Permanent
• Department: Business Services
• Location: Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge, Chelmsford

About us

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals and over 600 staff based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face. Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 6th best law firm to work at in 2026.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 45% of our partnership.

The team you will join

You will be a key part of two teams both the Firm’s IT team and the Corporate Services Division (CSD) of lawyers. You will be the liaison and link between the two but essentially embedded in the CSD to help them with the digitisation of their varied work types. The CSD has seven different Practice Groups (PGs) within it namely core Corporate, Commercial and IP, Employment, Immigration, Charities, Banking and Tax. The lawyers in each of these PGs are seeking to enhance their productivity and outputs with intelligent and smart use of AI and tech solutions.

The work you will be doing

We are seeking a dynamic and knowledgeable Legal Technology Specialist to join our IT team to liaise with the CSD (per the description above). The ideal candidate will have a strong legal background, having worked previously as a corporate or commercial or employment lawyer or PSL AND will be passionate about leveraging technology to enhance legal processes, legal research, legal content and improve efficiency.

This role involves working closely with legal teams to understand their needs, demonstrating the capabilities of various tools, and ensuring optimal use of technology within the Corporate Services Division. You will be responsible for:

• Technology Integration: Assist lawyers in utilising technology to streamline their workflows, including document management systems, document reviews, document drafting, case management software, artificial intelligence, and process automation tools.
• Process Improvement: Identify opportunities for process improvements and implement solutions to enhance productivity and efficiency within legal teams. Use LEAN principles such as defining value, mapping the value stream and creating flow. Striving for excellence by regularly reviewing and refining workflows to achieve the highest possible quality and efficiency.
• Training and Support: Working with the Learning and Development team to provide lawyers with training, guidance, and support on advanced features of legal technology tools, ensuring they are fully equipped to maximise their use.
• Evangelism: Inspire legal teams to further embrace new ways of working to improve client outcomes. Promote the use of legal technology within legal teams, running demos and workshops to showcase the benefits of legal tech.
• Face-to-Face Interaction: Spend the majority of time working directly with lawyers to understand their challenges and provide tailored process and technological solutions.
• Project and Change Management: Manage process and technology-related change within legal teams, working in an agile way, to ensure timely delivery of value to legal teams. Lead change management initiatives within legal teams to ensure the smooth adoption of new technologies and processes.
• Cross-Functional Work: Collaborate with the Learning and Development and Technology teams to ensure comprehensive support and training for lawyers while staying current on technology advances and available tools, ensuring alignment with the firm's overall data and technology strategy.
• Reporting and Prioritisation: Providing regular updates to the Head of Legal Process Engineering, IT Director, Head of Corporate Services Division and Partners (where appropriate), collaborating with the division’s Technology Steering Group to prioritise work based on the needs of the respective legal teams.
• Liaising with the firm’s pricing experts: on leveraging the value proposition from improved legal workflow efficiencies.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

What we are looking for

• Legal Background: Experience as a lawyer (corporate, commercial or employment preferred) with a strong understanding of legal processes, research and workflows, in particular a working knowledge of the processes involved in corporate and commercial transactions and corporate advisory work.
• Technical Proficiency: Proficient in understanding and using AI and legal technology tools and software, able to demonstrate and train others on their use. The firm already uses some tools for document automation, title analysis, reporting, and electronic signing and is looking to deploy existing and additional tools that can help improve both the firm’s efficiency and client experience.
• Analytical Skills: Strong analytical skills to identify process inefficiencies and propose practical solutions, including proficiency in data analysis and visualisation tools.
• Communication Skills: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with lawyers, partners and technology teams, including effective communication with clients, developers, and organisation leaders.
• Project Management: Experience in managing projects and delivering results within set timelines. Familiarity with Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban would be desirable, but we can provide training and support to develop these skills.
• Adaptability: Ability to adapt to new technologies and stay updated on industry trends.
• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: Ability to assess options, make informed decisions, and find solutions to complex problems.

Hybrid Working

Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. This role attracts a split of 60% to 80% office days and 40% to 20% working from home days per week depending on the project being worked on and will require some interoffice travel to meet and work with colleagues in different offices from time to time.

We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application.

Benefits

As a Birketts colleague, you will be eligible to receive a wide range of benefits:

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award
• 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid CSR Day
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Dress for your Day Policy

You can find out more on our website:

Inclusivity and Culture

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

At Birketts, we recognise the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal profession and recruitment. We welcome innovation and understand that candidates may use AI tools to support their job applications. However, we expect all applicants to use AI responsibly and ethically.

Our expectations regarding AI use in applications:

• Your application should reflect your own voice, experiences, and insights. AI may assist in structuring or refining your responses, but it must not replace your personal input.
• Do not use AI to misrepresent your qualifications, experiences, or skills. Any form of exaggeration or fabrication may result in rejection from the process.
• If you have used AI tools to assist with your application, be prepared to discuss how and why you used them during the interview process.
• Do not submit content generated by AI tools that may include personal or sensitive data not intended for public disclosure.
• AI-generated content should be reviewed and edited by you to ensure accuracy, relevance, and alignment with the role and our firm’s values.

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment practices. The use of AI should enhance, not compromise, your application. We encourage candidates to demonstrate critical thinking, commercial awareness, and a genuine interest in our firm.

If you have any questions about our expectations or the use of AI in your application, please contact our Talent Acquisition Team via talent@birketts.co.uk