"very approachable and easy to work with.." – Chambers & Partners

We are seeking an Associate to join our highly regarded Regulatory Disputes team in Bristol, focusing particularly on health and safety work but with the willingness to provide support to the wider team when needed.

The practice has seen significant growth over the last 5 years and the role will provide a varied workload across the market's most important and innovative matters.

The work

The team works in three main areas of regulatory law - health and safety, consumer and product regulation and public procurement.

Our health & safety team's work involves defending large corporate businesses and other organisations in relation to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, associated health and safety regulations, the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007 and other legislation regulated by local authorities, the Health and Safety Executive and the police predominantly.  We also provides high quality advice to clients on health and safety compliance, due diligence support and training.

In relation to product regulation and consumer protection, we help our clients bring products to market, advise on product safety and compliance, and trading and consumer protection laws. We provide advice on research and development, production requirements, labelling, product composition and safety as well as contentious advice when things go wrong – advising on risk assessments, investigations by regulators,  product recalls and withdrawal.

Our regulated procurement lawyers advise on all aspects of UK, European Member State and international regulated public and utilities procurement law.  Our specialist procurement lawyers advise both contracting authorities, utilities and suppliers on all aspects of regulated procurement law.  As well as advising on compliance and tender procedures, our team is involved in the leading  contentious procurement matters in the UK  and European courts.

The regulatory disputes team has deep sector expertise, particularly across the energy and utilities, real estate/ retail, transport & automotive, life sciences/ healthcare and technology/media sectors.

To find out more about the practice, please see the link below.

https://www.osborneclarke.com/services/regulatory-and-compliance/

The team

The regulatory disputes team is led nationally by Tier 1 Chambers ranked partner Catherine Wolfenden and sits within OC's disputes and risk practice group.  The team has two other partners – Mary Lawrence leads the health and safety practice (Bristol based) and Katie Vickery leads the product and consumer practice (London based).

The team works cross office and has 12 lawyers overall. Additionally the team is made up of a Legal Director, three Associate Directors, three Senior Associates, a paralegal and a trainee.

There is a very collegiate atmosphere in the team and team members are encouraged to work together and take responsibility for business development ideas and client care.  A number of the team work part time and flexible/ agile working is encouraged.

Work examples

• In health and safety, we act for RWE in relation to the high profile Didcot power station collapse in 2016 which is still under investigation, we act for Vue cinemas following a death involving a cinema seat and we are supporting Starbucks following a serious incident in a store lift. Our advisory work ranges from supporting hospital PFIs in managing fire safety risks (and examining the cladding adequacy post Grenfell), train leasing businesses on their approach to risk assessment and an electricity distribution business on their procedure for responding to serious incidents. 

• Our work in consumer and product regulation has included supporting new brands entering the UK market including the exciting US footwear brand (All Birds). We act for several FMCG and food & beverage businesses providing advice on new product development and compliance requirements., Recent contentious work has included supporting a national connected products manufacturer on a safety issue and recall. 

• In our regulated procurement practice: we advised Nutricia Medical on 15 public procurement issues in 2018, including several under the new NHS New Operating Model; represented Siemens Mobility after its award of a £1.5 billion-plus contract for new London Underground trains was challenged; and we advised the University of Bristol on its procurement of a development partner for its £300 million Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, one of the largest current procurement projects of its kind.

Technical skills and experience

You will have gained regulatory experience at a firm with an established regulatory practice (ideally with significant health and safety credentials). You will also have ideally gained specific legal experience on health and safety legislation and will have had  experience in criminal investigations and procedure (including PACE interviews), trials and inquest.

Due to the demands of the role we are looking for an Associate lawyer, however we would consider candidates with more or less experience.

Your career development

Like all our lawyers, you will benefit from our multi-award winning career development programme. At each stage of your career this provides you with:

• clear expectations of your role and what it takes to progress;
• high quality clients and work, with early responsibility and client exposure;
• thorough assessment and individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues;
• robust technical training with early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you; and
• reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.

Salary and benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits.

For more information or to apply

At Osborne Clarke we welcome direct applications - if you would like any further information about the role, or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Emily Webb in the Recruitment team on 0117 917 3072 or [email protected].

At Osborne Clarke, we are known for our open and inclusive culture. We believe that by investing in the diversity and wellbeing of our people, we create an environment where everyone can thrive to be the best that they can be. This means recognising that our people have lives and commitments outside of work. We have invested in connected working for our people and, where possible, we will accommodate flexible working for all our roles.