Professional Development Lawyer

Schillings is a multidisciplinary advisory firm with expertise in reputation, privacy and security.

We work with UK and international clients to successfully manage high-stakes opportunities and threats, using a unique combination of capabilities: legal; intelligence; communications; security and diplomacy.

We believe everyone has a right to fair treatment of their reputation, to a reasonable expectation of privacy and to feel safe.

Our experts sit within their specialist team but day-to-day work in multidisciplinary teams solving client problems. They are supported by our business services teams: Clients and Markets, HR, Finance, Risk and Compliance, IT and Client Services. 

Because we are a growth business, opportunities appear in all areas and at all levels.   We have the largest team of specialist media lawyers in the world, an expanding Intelligence & Investigations team, a growing Critical Risks unit, an evolving Digital Resilience practice, and a new communications agency – Schillings Communications – that will grow significantly in the next three years. 

Schillings is a collaborative, fun and welcoming place to work, with a positive culture, strong values and a developed service ethic.  We require commitment, diligence, agility and professionalism, and in return provide competitive packages and incredibly stimulating and interesting work.  We are committed to sharing learning and creating development opportunities so you can progress your career with us. Our people’s career trajectory and longevity at Schillings is a good example of this: a third of our people have been at the business for over five years. Join us and become part of our story.

Job Title: Professional Development Lawyer

Reporting to: Senior Professional Development Lawyer, Senior Legal Adviser

Job Purpose

The Professional Development Lawyer will play a crucial role in advancing the firm’s legal knowledge strategy and training initiatives. Working closely with the Senior Professional Development Lawyer, Senior Legal Adviser, and Learning & Development Manager, you will organise and deliver legal training, develop and maintain practical knowledge resources, and ensure that our lawyers remain at the forefront of our specialist practice areas. You will also play a key role in contributing to firmwide knowledge initiatives and upskilling new joiners, newly qualified solicitors and foreign qualified lawyers.

Role Accountabilities

Legal Expertise

• Develop, maintain and demonstrate an expert level of legal knowledge and experience in our core areas: litigation, defamation, privacy, confidence, harassment, DPA/GDPR and related areas.
• Monitor legal, legislative and regulatory developments in our core areas, communicating key changes to fee-earners timely and in a practical manner.
• Provide assistance to lawyers on complex legal research queries and act as a sounding board for niche or intricate legal issues.

Knowledge Management & Internal Resources

• Improve and maintain the firm’s knowledge repository, including precedents, templates and internal guidance.
• Collaborate with fee-earners to promote and encourage the use of knowledge systems and legal tech tools and ensure that the systems remain intuitive, accessible and embedded in daily practice.
• Draft legal team template documents and standard forms, as needed.
• Actively contribute to a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing across the legal team and wider firm.

Training & Development

• In collaboration with the Senior Professional Development Lawyer, design, deliver and co-ordinate legal training programmes that enhance technical excellence, regulatory compliance, and commercial awareness across all levels of the legal team and, where appropriate, across other disciplines.
• Support new legal team members by delivering induction sessions and ensuring access to core knowledge resources.
• Identify and evaluate external legal training providers and programmes to complement internal learning initiatives.
• In collaboration with the Learning & Development Manager, support Paralegals through SQE training and examinations, including guidance on preparation, access to resources, and tracking progress.
• Stay abreast of developments in legal and technical innovation, including AI, and drive forward related training and development initiatives to ensure fee-earners are equipped to use emerging technology effectively.

External Engagement & Resources

• Assist the Clients & Markets team with drafting articles and contributing to external resources, publications, briefings and presentations.
• Encourage and support fee-earners to contribute to the firm’s thought leadership and content strategy.

Regulatory & Compliance

• Support lawyers in meeting their CPD requirements (including the SRA and the requirements of foreign lawyers’ regulators), including maintaining accurate records and verifying attendance where required.
• Monitor and assess developments that may impact the firm and prepare guidance on any relevant legislative or regulatory changes.
• Work with the Compliance team to embed regulatory awareness into training and knowledge initiatives.

Legal Research Platforms, Subscriptions & Resources

• Manage subscriptions to legal research platforms and databases, ensuring access to core resources such as Lexis+, Westlaw, Practical Law and others as appropriate.
• Identify, recommend and implement (as necessary) other platforms that align with the firm’s practice areas and strategic priorities.
• Keep subscriptions and platform usage under regular review to ensure cost-effectiveness, relevance and user engagement.
• Identify and purchase textbooks and online subscriptions that support legal research and professional development.
• Act as a point of contact for platform training, troubleshooting and feedback collection.

Person specification

• Adaptable and comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change.
• Enthusiasm for developing knowledge systems.
• Self-starter with the desire and ability to continuously acquire, build upon and share knowledge.
• Collaborative team player with the ability to develop and work in a fast paced, intellectually rigorous environment.
• Demonstrates highest standards of professional and personal integrity.

Knowledge and Experience Required

• Experienced legal professional, with a minimum of 4 years’ PQE in reputation management, privacy, cyber litigation, employment litigation or commercial litigation.
• Proven ability to form and maintain highly effective working relationships with all team members and levels of seniority. Experience working in large cross-disciplinary teams beneficial.
• Ability to identify and define legal technical training needs and design the optimum content to meet those needs; able to write, prepare and deliver bespoke legal technical training content effectively.
• Demonstrated excellent written/drafting and oral communication skills; and the ability to convey information clearly and accurately.
• Strong project management skills, with a proven track record of being able to work under pressure with the ability to plan and prioritise work and deliver to tight or changing deadlines whilst maintaining excellent attention to detail.
• Strong commercial/business acumen with the ability to deliver creative and pragmatic solutions.
• Proven strong IT skills in MS Office packages.

Life at Schillings

Given our audacious (and successful) business strategy, it is not surprising that Schillings has a very strong culture. The atmosphere is highly collaborative and focused on excellence. We have worked hard over the years to develop a coaching culture and are remarkably non-hierarchical, especially given our roots as a law firm. Schillings has adopted a set of values to put at the heart of this change and they reflect the intention and tenor of our ambitious plans. They are: ‘Innovative; Bold; United; and Excellent’. Our client list speaks for the outstanding results that have been delivered over many years and the task now is to grow without losing any of the commitment to delivering for clients or the service ethos. Finding people who share our values and can thrive in this environment is key to our success.

It takes a unique mix of people to create something truly great. We appreciate that diversity of thought, background and culture creates the best environment to truly innovate, solve problems and achieve our goals. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds – if you are driven and want to achieve your best then we will give you the platform and support to succeed.

Please let us know if there are any extenuating circumstances we should consider, or any adjustments we may need to make to our selection process, when making your application.

Find our candidate privacy notice here, Candidate Privacy Notice (schillingspartners.com)