Employment Practice Development Lawyer in Belfast

Join to apply for the Employment Practice Development Lawyer role at Pinsent Masons. We are excited to share a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Practice Development Lawyer to join our Employment team. We are happy to consider applicants for any of our UK offices, excluding London.

Why this role is special: You’ll work closely with our lawyers and directly with clients to deliver cutting‑edge know‑how, training and legal products. You’ll help shape and deliver strategic knowledge initiatives that make a real difference to our clients and our practice. You’ll have the opportunity to innovate, lead, and influence how we deliver value to clients. You’ll be part of a close‑knit, collaborative PDL community across the firm.

Background to the role: We have an enthusiastic and experienced Employment PDL team and are looking to add to our team to prepare for the significant amount of legal change coming our way in future years. The successful candidate will report to Sue Gilchrist, lead Employment PDL with a secondary line to Kate Dodd, partner. This is a client‑facing, solutions‑focused role that sits at the heart of our knowledge strategy and our client relationships. The firmwide PDL team is a close community across all practice areas and locations, ensuring that knowledge and best practice is shared across the firm’s international network.

Detail of the Role: We are looking for an enthusiastic, technically able, commercially astute, well‑organised, and self‑motivated Practice Development Lawyer. Candidates should have comprehensive knowledge of UK employment law and should have strong client‑facing experience across a range of employment law matters.

• Leading collaboration closely with partners, legal directors, and senior stakeholders across the employment practice on strategic developments;
• Driving innovation by identifying and deploying new or alternative practices, products and resources that deliver measurable value to clients;
• Overseeing horizon scanning and providing strategic insight into key legal and market developments, ensuring timely dissemination to clients and internal teams;
• Assessing and advising on the implications of legal and regulatory changes, including their impact on transactions, disputes, and client risk profiles;
• Managing the development and quality assurance of technical and commercial resources, including precedents, guidance notes and toolkits with a focus on ensuring clarity, consistency, and visual effectiveness;
• Working with the firm’s BD and PR teams to contribute regularly to external media and Pinsent Masons’ Out‑Law website;
• Curating and delivering a robust current awareness programme, including newsletters, alerts and thought leadership content, tailored to client and sector needs;
• Strategically overseeing the production and maintenance of precedents, standard forms, practice notes and knowledge materials, including digital and intranet content;
• Leading/preparing responses to public consultations on legal and policy developments;
• Providing expert analysis on legal and policy developments to global colleagues and clients, ensuring commercial relevance and clarity;
• Managing maintenance of the Team’s knowledge databases, ensuring accessibility, accuracy and strategic alignment;
• Working with the firm’s Central Knowledge and Research teams to ensure best use of resources and technology;
• Initiating and leading strategic knowledge projects, including scoping, prioritisation, and implementation — in collaboration with partner and lawyer teams;
• Designing and delivering training programmes for the team, including bespoke sessions for senior lawyers and leadership teams;
• Overseeing the organisation of all training programmes for the group;
• Identifying and sourcing appropriate external training for lawyers;
• Design and delivery of training to key clients, including proactively identifying relevant topics aligned with client needs and market trends;
• Attending client and sector events, briefings and presentations;
• Championing innovation, identifying and launching new work streams, products, and resources that enhance client service and internal efficiency.

Relevant Experience: Previous experience working as an employment lawyer in a UK law firm, ideally for at least eight years. Client‑facing experience in a range of employment law areas. No previous PDL experience required.

Key Skills: Enthusiasm and a desire to drive positive change. Practical and flexible approach, with an ability to think and act strategically. Self‑starter – innovative, takes the initiative and follows through. Highly collaborative and able to work among a group of high‑performing peers. Creates confidence with partners and senior lawyers and forges co‑operative working relationships with colleagues. Strong communication and influencing skills and the ability to work effectively at all levels with clients, lawyers and support services. An interest in the future of legal services and innovative service delivery. Self‑driven with highly effective time management skills. Experience of and a passion for, training delivery. Approach and behaviours consistent with the firm’s purpose‑led approach and core values of being ‘approachable’, ‘bold’ and ‘connected’.

About The Firm: Pinsent Masons is a global 100‑law firm, with over 3,400 employees operating out of 26 locations across Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. We have a long‑standing reputation for delivering high‑quality legal advice rooted in a deep understanding of the sectors and geographies in which our clients operate. Our global reach ensures that we are well‑placed to advise on complex multi‑jurisdictional matters across a full range of legal disciplines. We champion change and promote progress to make business work better for people. Pinsent Masons has embedded a range of diversity and inclusion initiatives to create an environment in which its people can flourish. We operate an agile working scheme, which offers our employees flexibility in terms of where and how they work. We stand out for our innovative approach to service delivery. The firm has developed a number of in‑house legal technology and project management solutions, and a global Diversity and Inclusion consultancy, Brook Graham.

Awards: Pinsent Masons won the ‘Europe’s Most Innovative Law Firm’ at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Awards Europe 2023 and the ‘Best Talent and Inclusion’ award at The Lawyer Awards 2022. The firm is also named Diversity & Inclusion Firm of the Year 2023 by the Legal 500 Northern Powerhouse Awards. The firm has placed in the Top 10 Top Employers for Working Families for its 7th consecutive year.

At Pinsent Masons we value diversity and inclusion. We are committed to creating a better workplace where all our talent can succeed and feel like they belong. We want to attract, retain and develop people at all levels and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates whatever your ethnicity, religion, age, physical or mental disability/long‑term condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or any other characteristics protected by local law in the jurisdictions in which we operate.