Commercial Disputes (Media & Information Law) Associate in Barbican

This is a team that has a glowing reputation for commercial litigation. Due to continued growth, we have an exciting new opportunity for a Commercial litigator, with experience in media and information disputes, including reputation and crisis management to join our well regarded and successful Commercial Disputes team at Associate level. This opportunity is available on a permanent, full-time basis and we're open to considering candidates wishing to be based in any of our three UK offices (London, Reading and Bristol).

The practice Our market-leading media and information law team, which sits within our broader Commercial Disputes team, acts for a wide range of clients on a variety of disputes and provides strategic crisis management advice. The team is one of the very few practices to have genuine experience acting for both claimants and defendants across the full spectrum of reputation-related work. We are regularly instructed by major corporate clients, fast-growth businesses and high net worth individuals to solve complex reputational problems, often at speed and under pressure.

The role You will work within the Commercial Disputes team, undertaking a genuinely mixed practice:

• Acting at all stages of high-quality complex commercial disputes for UK and international clients.
• Advising clients on reputational issues and crisis management, from pre-publication media issues and handling investigations, to major, business-critical crises.
• Advising clients on online reputational issues, including notice and takedown/intermediary liability.
• Acting for publishers and broadcasters on information law issues, including defamation and privacy.
• Acting for data controllers in data protection complaints and claims, and advising on contentious data subject access requests.
• Advising clients on cyber incident response, and follow-on litigation or regulatory issues.

You will work closely with Partners and other senior lawyers, but will also be given early responsibility and client exposure appropriate to your level of experience. The role will suit someone who enjoys fast-paced, high-profile work and is comfortable dealing with urgent situations and sensitive matters. Wants to develop and maintain a mixed practice across both media/information law and general commercial disputes. Values working as part of a collaborative, supportive and ambitious team, with exposure to market-leading clients and complex work.

Technical skills and experience We are looking for a strong commercial litigator with specific experience and interest in media and information law. In particular, you will:

• Be a qualified solicitor in England & Wales.
• Have solid experience of High Court commercial litigation, including case management, hearing preparation, disclosure, drafting witness evidence, trial preparation and alternative dispute resolution.
• Have demonstrable experience in media and information law – for example defamation, misuse of private information, breach of confidence, data protection disputes or reputation management.
• Experience of acting on both claimant and defendant side will be an advantage, but is not essential.
• Ideally have experience of urgent applications, injunctive relief and/or interim remedies in media, privacy or commercial disputes and investigations.
• Ideally have experience of advising on online content issues, including removal/takedown, platform and intermediary liability, or social media-related disputes, or be able to demonstrate a strong interest and aptitude in these areas.
• Ideally have some experience of cyber incident response.
• Demonstrate strong analytical skills, sound judgement and an ability to provide clear, commercial advice to sophisticated clients.
• Enjoy contributing to business development initiatives and growing your own network.

Due to the nature of the work and the structure of the team, we are primarily looking for an Associate who is looking to progress, although we will consider candidates with more or less experience where they can demonstrate the right skills and fit.

Your career development Like all our lawyers, you will benefit from our multi-award winning career development programme. At each stage of your career this provides you with:

• Clear expectations of your role and what it takes to progress.
• High quality clients and work, with early responsibility and client exposure.
• Thorough assessment and individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues.
• Robust technical training with early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you.
• Reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.

Salary and benefits We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits.

Our recruitment process We welcome direct applications for our opportunities - if you would like any further information about this role or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Angharad Jenkins on [email protected] Please note we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making. We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.

About Us Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success. At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.