Associate - Corporate

The Vacancy

[Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] is currently seeking an Associate (Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive) to join our Corporate Team in Southampton.

More About Us

Formed via a merger in 2020, [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] is a leading law firm with an aim to be the best law firm to work for regionally. We are a career firm, providing access to high-quality work, long-term career opportunities and an environment built on the premise of being “human first” in everything we do. We are featured in The Times’ Best Law Firms 2026 list, and consistently achieve recognition for the quality of our services in the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, including specific recognition for our Corporate Team. We are now 450 people, including 280 lawyers and 58 Partners, with offices across the South-East and London.

More About the Corporate Team

Our specialist Corporate Team has received recognition in both the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners for their expertise and the quality of service they provide their clients. Our team works with a wide range of clients, predominantly ambitious entrepreneurs and mid-market enterprises, helping them to grow, develop, and succeed by navigating them through the complex legal challenges they may face. Our team focuses on developing a deep understanding of their client's business and commercial objectives, ensuring they receive tailored and dedicated advice about their matter, whether this is in relation to supporting them with corporate acquisitions, disposals, restructuring, mergers, fundraisings, shareholder and partnership agreements or general company law advice and corporate advisory requirements.

Day to Day

As an Associate, you will work on a wide variety of matters, supporting numerous lawyers in the team whilst managing your own caseload, taking the lead on transactions and client matters suited to your level of experience. You will also support the Partners on more complex, higher-value instructions with plenty of scope to take on the day-to-day responsibilities of these matters under supervision. Additionally, our Associates play an important role in supporting the less-experienced members of the team as appropriate, including Newly Qualified Solicitors, Trainees and Paralegals. This position will offer you an excellent opportunity for further professional growth and development. You will receive extensive mentoring and support from the Partners in the team as you carve out your reputation as an expert in this area and progress towards a position of greater responsibility within the team. You will be encouraged to play an active role in the marketing and business development activities of the team, as well as having a say in the longer-term strategic aims of the department. Intense targets and unsustainable working practices often go hand in hand with being a Corporate lawyer, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We believe that working in a friendly, supportive team that emphasizes work/life balance is possible whilst still attracting and delivering work of outstanding quality, and achieving professional growth and development.

What We Look For

• A qualified Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive with prior Corporate law experience.
• We do not tend to use PQE as the sole measure of experience, but we estimate this position would suit somebody between 3-5PQE.
• You will be calm under pressure, adopt a naturally proactive approach to your work, and have the ability to adapt to changing priorities at short notice.
• You will have experience in, or a keen interest to be involved in, marketing and business development activities.
• We are human-first in everything we do and seek people who share this trait. You will therefore have great communication skills, a passion for helping clients achieve their goals and the ability to think creatively.
• Whilst this position is offered full-time, we offer a split of working from home and in the office, we are a flexible team and are open to considering alternative working patterns.

Who We Are

We are [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal], a top regional career law firm with a simple mission – to make a difference. We support our clients and the communities we help through providing outstanding legal services with empathy and expertise. A full service law firm, we support these core client groups: Individuals & Families, Entrepreneurial Businesses & Organisations and Personal/Catastrophic Injury & Medical Negligence. We are passionate about making a difference to our people, their careers and care deeply about their experience at work. [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] aims to be recognised as the best career law firm to work for. This means that we care as much about your career as you do. So whether you join us early in your career, in one of our outstanding business support functions or are continuing an already rich career in law, you’ll find [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] a great place to further build your experience. With numerous top-tier rankings in law, exceptional quality of work and named a Times Top 100 best law firm to work for, we have big plans. We are seeking passionate, human-focused individuals like you as we continue to grow. With over 450 dedicated professionals including 70 Partners and 272 Lawyers, [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] offers substantial opportunity for further advancement and personal development.

What We Can Offer

Our culture is open, diverse and inclusive and we look for likeminded individuals who recognise that it’s this individuality that allows us to be truly different to other firms. Everything we do is underpinned by the [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] Way, which is a set of values and principles to ensure consistency of experience no matter which team you work within. As a true career firm, we seek to reward the great work our people undertake with continued personal development opportunities. We have big plans for growth, and we see that this creates extensive opportunity for our people as we move towards our long-term ambitions. In most of our roles, we are also open to supporting hybrid, flexible working and different work patterns. What you do outside of work is as important as your time inside of work – and we want to strike the right balance for both the individual and the firm. We also offer great benefits including 28 days’ annual leave, private medical insurance, income protection, life assurance, firmwide bonus scheme and a generous pension scheme. If you’re seeking to join a firm that seeks to provide a personal and highly engaging place to work – we are confident that you’ll find this at [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal].

Contact

If you would like to learn more about this opportunity before applying, please contact Brandon Duchesne, Talent Acquisition Manager, for an informal conversation - [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal].