Competition Associate

The opportunity for you: As a Competition Associate, you’ll play a key role in advising clients across the full spectrum of EU and UK competition law. You’ll be given space to grow, trusted with meaningful work, and supported by partners who are committed to your development and progression.

You will be involved in:

• Advising on merger control and foreign investment matters.
• Assisting with competition authority investigations and enforcement actions.
• Working on horizontal and vertical agreements, and unilateral conduct issues.
• Supporting clients during competition disputes, including follow‑on damages litigation.
• Providing strategic advice on compliance, sector inquiries, and market studies.
• Collaborating with colleagues across the firm on cross‑border and cross‑disciplinary matters.

You will also play an active role in business development—building your brand, strengthening client relationships, and contributing to the team’s ambitious growth trajectory.

Key Responsibilities:

• Managing and progressing client matters with appropriate partner supervision.
• Delivering clear, commercially focused competition law advice.
• Engaging directly with clients and maintaining strong professional relationships.
• Supporting merger filings, foreign investment notifications, and regulatory submissions.
• Contributing to strategic litigation and contentious competition matters.
• Participating in business development initiatives and sector‑focused projects.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• UK‑qualified solicitor (or equivalent EU qualification), ideally with 2–4 years PQE in competition law.
• Experience across EU and UK competition law frameworks.
• Strong analytical skills and excellent written/oral communication.
• Good commercial awareness and client‑facing confidence.
• A commitment to ongoing professional growth and business development.
• Strong academic background.
• Good financial and matter management skills.

Desirable:

• Exposure to merger control, foreign investment, and public enforcement matters.
• Experience advising clients in tech, life sciences, financial services, media, or regulated sectors.

We recognise that not all candidates at this level will have experience across every area of competition law. We value initiative and enthusiasm, and the team will fully support your development in any less‑familiar areas.

Benefits:

• Hybrid working (Offering the opportunity to work remotely, while maintaining a social boundary by working from our award‑winning offices for 3 days a week).
• Holiday (Our basic annual holiday entitlement starts at 25 days, with a further discretionary day of paid leave in December. You may also purchase up to five extra days each year (pro rata).
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity leave (After one‑year service, you are entitled to up to 26 weeks leave full pay if you or your partner give birth or adopt a child).

Along with these there are many more benefits we offer, with the addition of a comprehensive flexible benefits package available.

Our Culture: Nurturing a diverse, inclusive culture allows all of our talent to flourish, sparks creativity and powers innovation. We continue to build a team that exemplifies inclusivity and reflects the firm’s core values: creative, excellence, integrity, responsible, respect and team. We value and celebrate the differences in who we are, what we have experienced and how we think, so all candidates will be treated fairly regardless of age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender identity, marital status, neurodiversity, pregnancy, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio‑economic background.

The Way We Work: At Taylor Wessing, we never settle for average. We’re creative thinkers, problem solvers and continuous learners who excel at what we do and believe our best work is still ahead of us. We are a firm that’s large enough for you to achieve your ambitions, but connected enough to be a true community.

Taylor Wessing: Taylor Wessing is a global law firm that serves the world’s most innovative people and businesses. Deeply embedded within our sectors, we work closely together with our clients to crack complex problems, enabling ideas and aspirations to thrive. Together we challenge expectation and create extraordinary results. By shaping the conversation in our sectors, we enable our clients to unlock growth, protect innovation and accelerate ambition.