Associate Manchester, England
Job description
Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.
With offices in London, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.
Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.
You will form part of the market-leading and rapidly growing Digital, Creative and Commerce team.
The team covers a diverse and exciting range of work, including video games, technology, e-commerce/platform, consumer, sponsorship, talent agreements, data privacy, IP, franchising, distribution, agency, advertising, media and entertainment, media buying and sports.
The team is a fantastic, energetic and sociable group with an extremely impressive and varied client base, predominantly in the retail, technology, advertising and marketing, media, professional services, entertainment, video games and sport sectors.
We will provide a superb platform for you to help develop your knowledge, career and clients.
The primary focus of the role will be commercial work in media and entertainment, creative industries and the technology sector, although you would have opportunities to work across the breadth of our Digital, Commerce and Creative team and there will also be some advisory work. While you will cover a broad range of commercial work, the ideal candidate would be someone who really enjoys commercial contracts relating to the creation, acquisition and commercialisation of intellectual property and technology-related work and is not afraid to get stuck into the larger and more complex agreements when they come up, such as significant outsourcing transactions, games development deals, media production contracts as well as the lighter day-to-day agreements and advisory work. There is a huge range of tech-related work on offer, including agile software development contracts, SaaS agreements, software licences, mobile app contracts, crypto, AI and many other cutting-edge tech sub-sectors.
Preferentially, you would have experience of and an interest in the video games, media and entertainment and communications sectors and be enthusiastic about undertaking a range of billable work involving those sectors, including all associated development agreements, publishing agreements, production agreements, master services agreements and agreements involving advice on IP, data and consumer elements. This is not a requirement, but this role would offer a real opportunity for someone interested in these sectors.
Candidate profile
You should be c.2-6 years’ PQE with strong technical legal skills, excellent drafting skills and strong experience of the legal subjects described. You should expect to work hard yet have fun!
You should have solid experience from working in a medium or large private practice law firm or a niche commercial/technology/data/video games/media boutique or relevant media & entertainment practice.
You should have excellent analytical and communication skills and good attention to detail. You should be ambitious, proactive, enthusiastic, commercial, responsive and keen to deliver excellent client service and importantly be keen always to learn.
We would expect you to take the IAPP CIPP/E data exam (like most of our associates) as we believe that this is core to being a superb technology and commercial lawyer (but we won’t expect you to perform audits or more specialist data work, unless you wish to). Experience in consumer law and online safety would also be a plus.
We expect our Associates to contribute positively and proactively to business development, including for their own career development. The team markets extensively in its core sectors and you will be expected to play a significant role in thought leadership and client training as well as helping to develop and win work in core growth areas. You should be confident networking and be working towards developing your own pool of contacts. There would be plenty of opportunities to get involved with business development, especially in relation to the media and entertainment and technology sectors, including attending conferences, writing articles and delivering training sessions. This includes the video games industry among others, where we have a presence at most of the significant industry events.
You will also be expected to participate in and contribute to each of our frequent and highly regarded Digital, Commerce and Creative, IP and Data know how sessions, where there is a great opportunity for continued professional development.
Educational and professional qualifications required
- Qualified lawyer with a current UK practising certificate.
- Desire to learn.
- Tech savvy and enthusiasm for our sectors.
- Team player and a sense of fun!
At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.
