Fantastic Corporate PSL Role with an Elite Firm

The firm's corporate team cover a broad range of work, including private equity and venture capital, public and private M&A, corporate finance (including equity capital markets), partnerships and LLPs, corporate governance, joint ventures, reorganisations and restructurings, and general corporate advisory. Work mainly falls into three categories: transactional, advisory, and corporate support for other practice areas. The group is regularly involved in the largest and most complex cross-border M&A transactions.

The role
You will work with the practice's existing senior knowledge lawyer for the group and report formally to the firm's head of knowledge and the corporate and M&A practice group head. You will be involved in a broad range of duties, including:
* knowledge management. Maintaining the group's know-how resources. You will pro-actively source and encourage fee-earners to contribute know-how and precedent materials, review contributions and co-ordinate their input to the firm's know-how system;
* education and training. Providing support for the group's training programmes. You will assist with planning and organising the education and training programme, including identifying topics, preparing materials, coaching instructors, chairing training sessions and delivering training;
* precedents. Assisting with maintaining practice notes and standard forms. You will take part in revising and updating existing precedents and guidance notes and co-ordinate their input into the firm's know-how system;
* internal counsel function. Providing advice and support to fee-earners on specific points of law. You will use your specialist knowledge and experience to help fee-earners to locate relevant know-how and apply that knowledge to their individual situations;
* research. Conducting research into specific areas of law relevant to the group. Whilst fee-earners are expected to conduct their own research relating to transactions, you will conduct research on topics that are relevant to the group generally and may be asked to assist fee-earners with research on more complex topics;
* current awareness. Assisting with preparing newsletters and bulletins from the group. You will work with the head of knowledge, the group's existing senior knowledge lawyer and the firm's marketing department to produce weekly and monthly news updates, client-focussed briefings and updates on specific news items, including identifying and contributing content;
* legal submissions. You will assist partners and fee-earners with drafting submissions to legal journals, directories and commentaries on current topics of interest;
* deal tracking. Monitoring deal activity within the department. You will work with the group's knowledge & research officer to conduct deal debriefs with fee-earners, to extract and record relevant deal data and to create presentations and mailshots to demonstrate the firm's awareness of market practice; and
* document automation. Supporting the creation, maintenance and management of precedents, templates and forms generated by the firm's document automation tools. You will work with the group's existing senior knowledge lawyer and the firm's lawtech group to identify precedents for automation, implement precedent automation and encourage the use of document automation through the group.
This job description encompasses the main duties of the role and is by no means exhaustive. It is anticipated that duties may vary from time to time according to the needs of the practice area. The firm views its knowledge lawyers as critical and integral members of its practice areas and will support anyone who wishes to engage in initiatives and projects beyond the activities described above.

About You
You will:
* be a qualified lawyer with a strong background in corporate law and in English law generally with a minimum 5 years' PQE;
* have a depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for the law and its application, including a willingness to explore the technical aspects of black-letter law;
* be confident in understanding the commercial context in which the firm and its fee-earners work and prepared to apply technical knowledge to that context;
* be dynamic and self-motivated and committed to providing high-quality, technical legal support to fee-earners;
* demonstrate attention to detail and the ability to work with complicated and unfamiliar concepts;
* be highly computer-literate and have an aptitude for working with technology, including at least a basic working knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint;
* be personable and able to quickly gain the confidence of fee-earners at all levels within the group and in other practice groups across the firm; and
* demonstrate qualities that fit with a cohesive, supportive and friendly team, the collegiality of which is viewed by the partners as central to its success.
This will not be a passive role. The corporate and M&A knowledge team is a core function of the firm's corporate practice and engages in numerous practice group-specific projects and responsibilities, as well as a number of firm-wide initiatives and working groups. This is an exciting role with room for growth and personal development and the opportunity to engage with a friendly, intelligent and motivated team known for its commercial and technical excellence.