Paralegal Belfast, Northern Ireland
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, 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.
The Employment, Immigration and Reward Division is one of the leading employment and immigration law practices in the UK and consistently top ranked by independent legal directories. With over 150 lawyers, Lewis Silkin’s employment and immigration team offers an unrivalled service supporting clients, including many of the world’s leading businesses, on their HR, employment and immigration law needs domestically and internationally.
The work of the team focuses on business immigration, but also covers a varied mix of other immigration and nationality work, for a wide range of clients. The lawyers undertake a significant amount of business development and knowledge-sharing including giving seminars, training the team and creating content for various channels and publications. There is a significant international element to the Division’s work, largely on account of its membership of the Ius Laboris international alliance of employment and immigration lawyers.
The overall objective is to provide fee-earning support to the immigration team, supporting associates and partners as requested on a day to day basis, with a view to ensuring that individual tasks are completed cost-effectively and at the appropriate level.
Key elements of the role are:
- Assisting with applications for the right to work in the UK under the Points Based System;
- Drafting checklists, application forms and cover letters;
- Checking that residence requirements are met to ensure compliance with immigration laws;
- Liaising with the UK Border Agency by e-mail or telephone to clarify and verify their requirements;
- Issuing COS for clients;
- Attending meetings with clients regarding their applications;
- Advising on and preparing UK visa applications for work and family reasons;
- Booking appointments with the Home Office and making payments of immigration charges and fees.
Abilities and desired qualities:
- Legal experience
- Good eye for detail
- Excellent organisational skills
- Ability to communicate at all levels
- Strong practical and analytical skills
- Ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure
- Enthusiasm
- Good team player
Candidate profile
Candidates will have excellent academics along with legal qualifications or previous legal experience. Candidates will also have IT, numeracy, practical and analytical skills, a clear communication style (both spoken and written), and above all, must be a team player with a passion to work with a fast-paced professional and friendly team.
The successful candidate must have excellent communication skills and enjoy working in an involved team environment. They must be highly organised and have a flexible nature, and a co-operative and willing attitude. Prior experience and knowledge of immigration work would be advantageous but not essential as training will be provided.
IT skills required:
- Competency in MS Office suite and Teams.
Educational and professional qualifications required:
- Educated to degree level or equivalent. Law related degree would be advantageous.
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.
