Opportunities for lawyers

Please feel free to contact our Director of Human Resources if you are interested in a confidential, informal chat about potential fee earner opportunities at Sackers. 

If you are interested in applying for a position at Sackers, please send your CV to careers@sackers.com indicating the role in which you are interested.

You should expect to receive a reply within one week.

It is important to us that we select people who want to build a long term career with us.  Our selection process generally involves two interviews covering not only your reasons for wishing to join Sackers but also your technical knowledge and understanding of the law.  As part of the selection process you will also have the opportunity to meet other assistants and associates at Sackers to find out first hand what a career at Sackers is like.  Further information about our selection process will be available if you are invited for interview.

Please click here for information on current vacancies

Sackers is committed to developing confident, client focused lawyers and in order to do this the amount of direct client contact that you have will start almost immediately and will increase steadily over time.  It is important that our lawyers have a real understanding of the business context within which our clients are operating in order to be able to provide advice that is tailored to those circumstances.  Each client has a team of lawyers to work on their account.

We provide a full service for pension schemes including:

• General advisory work acting for either Trustees or employers
• M&A and private equity transactions
• Investment advice
• Litigation and dispute resolution
• Employment issues relating to pensions
• Regulatory matters

As leaders in our field we are often involved with cutting edge matters which require the ability to think creatively in order to deliver novel commercial solutions to our clients.

We have an excellent client list, acting for more than 20 of the FTSE 100.

We advise over 700 pension schemes in a wide range of industry sectors including the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

We advise more of the Top 100 pension funds than any other law firm.

We are consistently top ranked for our areas of expertise by the legal directories and have won numerous awards.

Our client list includes:

• UK public listed companies
• Non-UK companies
• UK public sector bodies
• National charities
• Private companies
• Professional firms
• Broadcasting authorities
• Independent trustees
• Trades unions
• Banks and building societies
• Insurance companies
• Multi-national companies
• Senior executives

Sackers has a 6-strong Know-how team.  This includes the Director of Professional Development (who is also a partner), three PSLs, a Know-how assistant (paralegal) and an administrator.  The team provides ad hoc Know-how support to client-facing fee earners as well as supporting a knowledge bank, precedents and extensive on line and library resources.

Pensions is a complex area of law and it is important that all our lawyers maintain a high level of knowledge and skills.  There is a comprehensive range of internal training which includes; weekly lunchtime training sessions for all lawyers, a monthly “bundle” meeting for assistants and associates and a junior lawyers’ training programme.  General skills training covers topics such as delegation, presentation skills, pitch training, financial management, business development skills, coaching etc.  There are bespoke development programmes for Associates and Salaried Partners.

We have what we call the “matrix” system of work allocation at Sackers.  This means that assistants and associates can work for anyone in the firm, rather than being divided into rigid work groups.  The matrix system therefore allows for greater flexibility and gives you the benefit of working for a good range of partners, on different client teams in different industry sectors.  This gives you a wealth of experience to draw on as you develop your own career.

The firm is divided into 7 groups, each led by a group leader.  The function of the group leader is to monitor workflow ensuring that lawyers are neither overloaded nor too quiet.  You will meet with your Group Leader on a monthly basis to discuss your overall work-levels and also your diet of work.  The chargeable hours target is 1400 hours per annum and monitoring of workloads by the Group Leaders enables work to be allocated where there is capacity. 

All lawyers are assigned a partner as a mentor. Your mentor is responsible for providing you with orientation, support and guidance on issues relating to your work and career progression.

The depth of our practice and high proportion of experienced lawyers within Sackers (our Partner/Assistant Associate ratio is about 1:1) means that if you encounter a novel situation there is bound to be expertise within the firm that you can draw on.  There is an open door, information-sharing culture and you are encouraged to discuss work issues with senior colleagues.

We encourage lawyers at all levels of the practice to get involved with business development in its many forms.  This might include client networking events, pitches, writing articles, speaking engagements or training workshops.

There are three formal levels for lawyers within the firm:

• Assistant solicitor
• Associate solicitor
• Partner

The firm will do its best to ensure that individuals have the opportunity to progress and develop their careers within the firm ie by having the opportunity to get involved with interesting/challenging work which is appropriate to your level of qualification and skill.

Pensions law is a technically demanding area of law so we set considerable store by a good academic track record.  Generally we would require good A level grades, a 2.1 degree from a good university, and sound grades in your GDL/LPC. 

As a specialist pensions practice we do not run our own trainee solicitor programme and are therefore interested in candidates who have completed their training contract at a quality firm where they will have gained good training and experience in a broad range of commercial disciplines.

We do not necessarily seek previous experience of pensions when recruiting at NQ level, but would want to see evidence of a good understanding of what pensions law is all about and why you think that you would like to pursue a career in pensions law. 

We also look for the following personal qualities:

• Enthusiasm for pensions law
• Commercial approach
• Eye for detail
• Clear and logical thinking
• Flexibility to suggest novel approaches
• Confidence to interact with clients
• Collegiate approach towards working with colleagues

We have a competitive benefits package that includes:

• Salaries comparable to top City firms
• Competitive bonus payments
• 30 days holiday per annum
• Private medical insurance
• Pension arrangements (5% matching employer contributions)
• Life assurance of 4 x salary
• Permanent Health Insurance
• World wide travel insurance
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Subsidised gym membership

You will also have:

• A good work life balance.  The chargeable hours target is 1400 hours per annum.  There is no long hours culture, although you may need to work outside core working hours in order to meet client or other business needs as in any City law firm.
• Social events.  There is a social committee that organises a range of social events for all staff throughout the year.  These include drinks, bowling, curry nights, cinema and theatre trips, summer and Christmas parties, wine tasting and sporting events. 
• A comparable level of infrastructure and business support that you would get at a top firm – ie good IT support and systems (including remote access facilities, blackberries, digital dictation etc), BD, HR, Finance, Facilities etc.
• The opportunity to get involved with a range of CSR activities that the firm supports or sponsors.

Please click here for information on current vacancies