Senior Associate, Employment

We are seeking a Senior Associate to join our premier Employment, Industrial Relations and Safety team based in Perth.

In this role you will work closely with leading Partners and undertake a range of work that supports and advises blue chip clients across multiple sectors on employment law, industrial relations, and safety matters. The team provides employment law advice on workforce strategy, enterprise bargaining, industrial disputes, industrial action, advice and representation in relation to employment and industrial relations disputes (including general protections, unfair dismissals, bargaining disputes), employment aspects of large-scale M&A and projects transactions, advice on compliance (including in relation to employment, anti-discrimination, safety and payroll issues), interface with industrial and safety regulators, including investigations and prosecutions, and all types of Fair Work Commission and Court proceedings.

You will be responsible for running matters and supervising and developing team members. You will also play an important role in developing further business opportunities with existing and new clients.

It’s an exciting opportunity to continue to develop your experience and be a part of a high-performing and collaborative local, national and global team.

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Have demonstrable experience in delivering advice on a range of employment law and industrial relations matters from a leading top tier private practice, government, or in-house environment;

• An excellent academic record, strong communication and teamwork skills;

• Take an active role in the team's strategic business development objectives;

• Strong skills and experience in providing strategic advice on workforce strategy, enterprise bargaining, industrial disputes, industrial action, regulatory and compliance advice and all types of Fair Work Commission and Court proceedings (advocacy skills are desirable but not essential) , employment aspects of large-scale M&A transactions;

• A hunger to learn and develop, and maintain a market-leading practice.

The Employment, Industrial Relations and Safety (EIRS) team in Australia provides specialist expertise on all legal matters impacting on the employment relationship. Advising employers on a range of litigious, advisory and transactional matters, the team's expertise includes: employment, industrial relations, discrimination and equal opportunity, work health and safety, crisis management, incident response, board and executive matters and workplace training.

Our sector expertise covers a wide range of industries, including mining, energy, banking and finance, aviation, retail, manufacturing, construction, transport, maritime, charities and the public sector. Our global team includes recognised preeminent and leading lawyers in Australia as well as almost 200 lawyers across offices in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

Herbert Smith Freehills' EIRS group is ranked as a Band 1 Labour and Employment & Workplace Health and Safety Firm (Legal 500 2021) and ranked a Band 1 Employment Firm (Chambers Asia Pacific 2020).

Herbert Smith Freehills is proud to be awarded Most Innovative International Law Firm, Asia Pacific (Financial Times Awards 2019 & 2020) and Winner of the Minds Count Annual Award for Best Mental Wellbeing Initiative 2019.

What we offer:

• The opportunity to partner with prestigious clients based in Australia and globally on some of the largest, most strategic and most complex matters, and develop deep expertise across a range of sectors, as well as opportunities to collaborate on cross-border matters with our global network. We also encourage your involvement in our various networks, pro-bono legal offerings, learning and development initiatives and innovation groups such as the Digital Law Group and our Alternative Legal Services (ALT) practice group.

• At Herbert Smith Freehills we value flexibility. For most roles, we work an average of 60% of the time in the office, taking into consideration individual, team, client and learning needs.

• To continue to support our staff working from home as a part of Agile 60, we offer an allowance for home office furniture as well as IT equipment.

• We recognise that the success of our business and our clients relies on the skills, knowledge and ideas of all our people. We are dedicated to creating an exceptional experience for our clients and we value empathy, simplicity and commerciality.

• We aim to support our people through their career and life milestones. We offer 26 weeks paid parental leave, which includes superannuation on both paid and unpaid parental leave up to 52 weeks. Our policy applies to parents regardless of gender, subject to six months of continuous employment at HSF.

• At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.

• People join us to develop their careers and themselves. To support this we provide contemporary tailored learning programs, regular career conversations and a culture of feedback.

• To view our benefits in Australia, please copy this link into your browser - https://sites-herbertsmithfreehills.vuturevx.com/20/21553/landing-pages/benefits-in-australia.pdf

At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.

We understand that you have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create a working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which you can perform at your best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across your life.