Paralegal - Commercial Litigation: Education Specialist in Birmingham

It is the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams; together we win. As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do! We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves from how you dress, to how, when and where you work – we focus on outputs.

Our Commercial Litigation team is a high performing team with members based in Birmingham, London, Nottingham, Leicester and Lincoln. The team includes specialists in a variety of areas, such as energy education, corporate disputes, image protection and international disputes. We are currently investing in and building our Education litigation offering which is headed up by Nicola Bradfield, who has joined us from Coventry University where she acted as in house counsel for a number of years. Our specialist Education litigation team works closely with the wider Education sector group which sees its mission as helping to build the colleges and universities of the future. The Education litigation team deal with all sorts of disputes that involve education establishments, from judicial reviews to student claims for discrimination, to FOI Act disputes.

Our Education litigation team are on the lookout for an innovative and ambitious Paralegal to help support the team’s development. Your work will involve assisting the partners and solicitors specialising in resolving disputes in the Education sector. You will have lots of contact with clients, be involved in supporting some ground‑breaking and market‑leading initiatives and be part of a friendly, fun and collaborative team who will support you to develop and grow your own profile.

What you will be doing:

• Working with Universities, Colleges and Education sector bodies.
• Work closely with other teams across the firm, particularly the core Education team.
• Working as part of a wider team that has a depth and breadth of experience and expertise across most industry sectors.
• Helping to build and grow the Education practice.
• Assist on a range of projects.
• Liaising with clients in a professional manner.
• Working to strict deadlines.
• Help support the training initiatives run by the team.

What you will need:

• Enthusiasm and be a hardworking paralegal.
• A solid ability to prioritise workload and cope with changing demands.
• Confident interpersonal skills and the ability to work well with repeat clients and as a team.
• The ability to support partners on urgent matters.
• Good technical knowledge.
• An interest in being involved in marketing activities including attending networking events and you will have the opportunity to write articles for professional journals.

Key competencies you will need:

• The ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• A genuine interest in the sector with a passion for supporting educational institutions.
• A high degree of initiative and the ability to cope in a demanding environment.
• Excellent organisational and prioritising skills.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to build rapport with colleagues and clients alike.
• The ability to develop the knowledge and expertise of the team, as well as yourself.

Benefits, Agile Working and Additional information:

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work. We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it. We have the following hubs across the UK: Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Sheffield, Stratford upon Avon & Tunbridge Wells.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.