Associate

About the job

The opportunity

We are looking for a Junior or Mid-level Corporate Associate to join our highly ambitious and fast growing International Corporate Group in Dubai.

This is a broad and varied corporate role, offering exposure to high-quality cross-border work and the opportunity to develop within a dynamic international team.

The firm

Bird & Bird opens a world of possible for lawyers and professionals everywhere. Working for a leading international law firm like Bird & Bird means working alongside people who are truly collegiate in the way they work with everyone. We work as one global team, with over 70% of work involving people from across the firm. And that’s only increasing! It is this common purpose and shared approach that make it a more productive and collaborative place to work.

Your firm. Your future.

The team

Our International Corporate Group offers a full range of specialist corporate legal services including M&A, private equity/venture capital and joint ventures. We offer the full remit of corporate expertise to a wide range of clients from technology-focused start-ups to established multinational blue chips, on an array of domestic and international transactions.

Our 33 international offices have their own professionals providing local expertise and support. Collaborative across the network, the team is focused on driving efficiency, adding value, and profitable growth.

What you'll do

The roleholder will work with an exciting list of global and regional companies on all aspects of their businesses. The roleholder will be a part of the team advising on international corporate transactions, entry strategies for foreign business, corporate secretarial work for international clients and ongoing employment advisory.

All our work in corporate has a strong link to our key sectors to ensure that our clients receive legal advice relevant to their industry, such as technology and communications, IT, media, entertainment and sport, energy and utilities, life sciences and retail and consumer. In addition, much of our work is cross-border and there is a great opportunity to work with many of our other 33 offices.

About you

The successful candidate will have the following:

• Excellent academic achievement.
• Experience of leading on corporate transactions gained within a comparable environment and at an appropriate level.
• Ability to apply legal skills in a practical and commercial manner.
• A desire to be working for a truly international firm.
• Ability to build and maintain constructive relationships with individuals at different levels of seniority and from different cultures.

In addition, we expect candidates to demonstrate:

• Flexibility, supporting a broad range of corporate transactions, like M&A, general corporate advisory, set-up related work and employment.
• The ability to manage aspects of complex matters/transactions and clients.
• Knowledge of key areas of the law by providing clear, precise, practical advice.
• The ability to use initiative and a confidence built upon solid success and achievements.
• The ability to liaise effectively with lawyers from within the Group and also to liaise and coordinate with lawyers from other disciplines and jurisdictions as required.
• Delegation and supervisory skills where appropriate.
• Interest in working in a challenging, team-based environment.
• The willingness and ability to support business development activity, creating and maintaining strong client relationships and identifying new business opportunities.
• A commitment regularly to update their own technical expertise and to achieve continuous improvement and development.
• The ability to contribute to the general upkeep of the Group (either by training, precedents, or know-how generally).

The main responsibilities of this role are outlined above; however, this description is not exhaustive, and the job holder may be required to undertake additional duties from time to time to ensure the smooth running of the department. The role may require some working outside our normal working hours of 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.