Employment Solicitor in Plymouth

Full time, Permanent, based in our Plymouth office, with opportunities for remote work. Following significant growth over the last few years, and with a desire to grow significantly bigger across the firm in the future, we are recruiting for a Solicitor to join our specialist Employment team.

The Employment team

Our Employment team specialises in providing clear, commercially-focused advice to employers across a wide range of sectors. We work with businesses of all sizes – from growing SMEs to multi-national organisations – helping them navigate complex workplace issues and reduce risk. Our approach is practical, solution-driven, and always tailored to the unique circumstances of each client. The team advises on all aspects of employment law, including:

• Contracts of employment and service agreements
• HR policies and procedures
• Workplace disputes and disciplinary issues
• Redundancy and restructuring
• Settlement agreements and negotiated exits
• TUPE and employment aspects of business transactions
• Equality, diversity and discrimination matters

Main responsibilities and duties of the job

The successful candidate will have a strong background in employment law and a clear understanding of the challenges employers face. You’ll be responsible for managing your own caseload, offering day-to-day HR and employment law support to employer clients, as well as advising on more complex matters such as redundancies, restructures, and TUPE transfers. You’ll work closely with clients to develop practical solutions, often providing strategic advice to senior management and HR professionals. A confident communicator, you’ll be comfortable representing clients in negotiations and through the Tribunal process, as well as assisting with day to day advice to employers. The role also offers opportunities to contribute to client training, business development, and the wider growth of the team. While you’ll work independently on your own matters, you’ll also play a valuable part in a collaborative and supportive team.

The team and the work

Ian Grimshaw, Head of the Employment team had this to say about the team and the work that they do: Acting solely for businesses, our client base continues to diversify and now includes household names, multinationals, and leading businesses across various sectors. While based in Devon, we provide top-tier legal support on a national scale, making our practice truly unique in the region. The nature of our work is varied and may be handled individually or collaboratively, depending on the complexity of the case and the client’s needs. We are committed to ongoing professional development to ensure our team stays up to date with the latest changes in employment law and industry practices. There are no limits to this—our team is encouraged to actively engage in forums and marketing initiatives to raise their profile and that of the firm within the wider market. We understand the competitive nature of employment law and maintain a strong focus on delivering exceptional client service. Our advice is always practical, precise, and delivered on time and on budget.

If you’re looking to take the next step in your employment law career, working with high-calibre clients in a supportive and ambitious team, we’d love to hear from you.

About you

We do not set upper or lower limits of PQE for any of our vacancies. We have however given an indicative PQE as an approximate guide for applicants as to the expectations of the role, which for this role would likely be 2-4 years PQE.

• Qualified Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive in England & Wales
• Well-developed professional and interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) and legal technical skills
• Ability to work in a team environment and develop relationships across the business
• Ability to demonstrate a deep understanding of the technical issues that are key to our clients
• Recognises and seizes opportunities for the firm, including repeat business
• Builds and develops own network of internal and external contacts
• Awareness of business development initiatives in the team and identifies ways to contribute
• Good knowledge of PC applications, including MS Office

About us

We’re a firm of Solicitors in Plymouth who passionately believe in providing our clients with the very best client experience and service. We work with clients across the City, throughout the South West, and nationally too. We’re a law firm that punches well above our weight and our client list would be the envy of a lot of larger firms nationwide. We put a very significant emphasis on providing our clients with exceptional client service and experience, and are keen for our lawyers to use their experience, knowledge and expertise to provide an outstanding quality of work as well. We currently have the highest average score and by far the most Google Reviews of any law firm in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and the majority of Dorset. Our Corporate and Business Law, Employment Law, Commercial Property and Litigation teams together provide companies and organisations with a comprehensive and joined-up approach to all of their legal requirements.

For individuals and families needing legal support, we understand that visiting, talking to and trusting in a lawyer can be a daunting experience. As a result, we tailor our approach to ensure that the needs of our clients are catered to and that we balance professional advice and assistance with a friendly atmosphere.

Salary & benefits

We offer a highly competitive salary, 5 weeks holiday per year, a health cash back plan, death in service benefit, a healthy bonus scheme and enhanced maternity/paternity pay. Outside of work, we organise various events for our people throughout the year and live and work in undoubtedly one of the most beautiful parts of the country. We also think that it’s one of the best places to bring up a young family. It’s vitally important to us that our people can maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and well-being and we’re very happy to talk about opportunities for flexible/remote working, full-time or part-time working patterns. This really is a two-way relationship. Our clients benefit from your hard work, your expertise, commitment and experience. In return, you’ll be an important and valued member of the firm, and we’ll do whatever we can to make sure that you have access to the resources that both you and your family need to thrive.

Our values

Everything that we do at Nash & Co Solicitors, is done with these values in mind:

• Be Fair – we do not expect you to work ‘silly hours’, in fact we discourage it. In our view, work is part of our lives, not all of it.
• Be Kind – we are committed to being kind to both clients and our people. This helps to create an environment where our people produce their best work, and our clients return time and again. We should always be supportive, compassionate and act thoughtfully.
• Be Transparent – we should always be transparent about costs, timescales, and the work that we do for clients. We should be in regular contact with our clients, keeping things understandable and avoiding legal jargon wherever possible.
• Be Honest – if something goes wrong, or circumstances change, we should always communicate this with our clients as soon as possible.
• Be Brilliant – We should constantly challenge ourselves to be better, think bigger and work to find creative solutions to clients’ challenges.

Diversity and inclusion

At Nash & Co Solicitors, diversity and inclusion naturally underpins how we as a firm live our values and everything we do. We believe that everyone has a voice, and that everyone’s voice counts. We know that the rich diversity across our firm makes us stronger, more innovative and creative, which helps us to better serve our clients and communities. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment and culture across our firm, where everyone can feel comfortable coming to work. Diversity of perspective, thought, background and culture combine to make us one of the top law firms in the area; and because of this, we actively seek to build balanced teams. We welcome the unique contribution that you will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.

Our environmental and community commitments

We have a range of long-term environmental commitments, particularly with ocean-based charities and organisations - the Ocean Conservation Trust, the National Marine Aquarium, Surfers Against Sewage, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Plymouth is known as Britain’s Ocean City, and we want to do our bit to help look after the seas and rivers that surround us. We’re also running our own rewilding and tree planting scheme in our grounds and the adjacent public park, to encourage wildlife to thrive.

Here at Nash & Co we have always believed in doing whatever we can to help and support our local community, and this will always be an important part of the firm. From buying Christmas presents for young carers across Plymouth to paying for our staff to enter half marathons, 10k and 5k events. From doing beach cleans and street cleans to cycling the equivalent of Plymouth to the South of France and organising bake sales and charity quizzes etc. Supporting our community is something that we’re all really passionate about and more than happy to do.

We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That’s why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for both hybrid and remote working. In the event that we make an offer to you, and where relevant, we may conduct pre-engagement screening checks. These may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the UK, any criminal records, and work-related references.