We're currently recruiting for an immigration legal associate to join our growing immigration team. This is an exciting opportunity for a talented and ambitious graduate looking to make a real difference to the lives of others, whilst also gaining experience of UK immigration law and the modern immigration bar.

Richmond Chambers is an award-winning partnership of specialist immigration barristers and other immigration law professionals. Widely regarded as the UK's leading immigration barrister law firm, our team members share a core commitment to providing high quality immigration law advice and representation, directly to individuals and businesses, with the level of service expected from a trusted law firm.

We specialise in all aspects of personal and business immigration law, including investment migration, family migration, work and business migration, the EU Settlement Scheme, short stay migration, sponsor licensing, nationality law, refugee protection and human rights.

We undertake the full range of privately funded immigration work, from preparing initial, extension, settlement and citizenship applications to the Home Office through to administrative reviews, appeals and judicial reviews before the immigration tribunals and higher courts.

Chambers currently has 16 barrister members and 1 pupil, supported by a team of legal associates and business services professionals.

The Role – Immigration Legal Associate

As a legal associate, you will work closely with, and in support of, our immigration barristers, assisting with visa applications, immigration appeals and judicial reviews across all areas of personal and business immigration law, including on cases involving complex and novel points of law.

This will be a hands on role where you will shadow and support our immigration barristers with their casework under supervision. You will be part of a team with either one or two barristers and your responsibilities will include: liaising with clients, attending conferences, taking instructions, completing application and appeal forms, undertaking legal research, reviewing documents, preparing application and appeal bundles, drafting correspondence and legal representations and attending appeal hearings.

Previous experience of working in a law firm or chambers is not necessary. You will receive excellent training from both the barristers that you work alongside and through attending in-house and external training courses. We will support you to develop your legal skills through a process of mentoring and regular feedback.

This role will develop and challenge you. Our focus on direct access immigration work means that you will have a high level of client contact and responsibility from day one. You will also be expected to keep up-to-date with changes to immigration law and policy.

That said, Chambers offers a friendly and supportive working environment, where our people develop, both personally and professionally. Our working culture is inclusive and collaborative – we're very much a team, working together for our clients. We also aim to encourage and facilitate working practices that support the health and wellbeing of all of our members. We are proud to have been awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the Bar Council for our wellbeing work.

Are you an aspiring barrister? As a legal associate you will gain a wealth of practical immigration casework experience working alongside some of the UK's leading immigration barristers in an innovative immigration law firm. We are the only set of barristers specialising solely in UK immigration law and our unique business model offers a different perspective on the Bar.

Our legal associates are also eligible to apply for pupillage with us. Whilst employment as a legal associate does not guarantee an offer of pupillage, several of our legal associates have been successful in our open pupillage competitions and have gone on to pursue rewarding careers at the immigration bar. Those who have not been successful have gone on to secure roles with other leading law firms and chambers.

Are you an aspiring solicitor? We do not offer training contracts, but we do provide the training and experience that allows our legal associates to build relationships and take advantage of other career opportunities. Our legal associates are able to count time spent working with us as qualifying work experience (QWE) for the purpose of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).

Requirements

The successful candidates will be able to demonstrate:

  • An excellent academic background with a minimum 2:1 degree;
  • A commitment to working with migrants and/or within the field of human rights;
  • Excellent English language skills, both verbal and written;
  • A pro-active and self-motivated attitude;
  • Strong attention to detail and a commitment to providing exceptional client care;
  • The ability to work independently and be a pro-active member of the team;
  • Exceptional organisational skills and the ability to maintain high professional standards of work, including when working to strict deadlines;
  • Strong IT skills, including experience of Apple Macs, Google Workplace and other cloud-based technology platforms.

The following are desirable but not essential:

  • Post-graduate academic qualifications (Masters, Doctorates, GDL);
  • Post-graduate vocational qualifications (BTC, LPC);
  • Immigration casework experience (personal or business) within a leading national or London law firm with an established immigration law team or a top rank immigration consultancy.

We know that employing a diverse group of people from different backgrounds is key to our ongoing success and future growth. We're committed to promoting diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

What We Offer

Compensation packages can be tailored to individual needs and circumstances, but our legal associates typically enjoy the following:

  • A starting salary of £25,000 per year, plus up to £1,000 performance bonus annually;
  • Flexible, home and remote working, subject to internal policies;
  • 20 days paid holiday, increasing by 1 day per year to a maximum of 25 days (plus bank holidays);
  • Unlimited unpaid leave;
  • Annual interest free travel loan;
  • Subscriptions to online practitioner resources fully paid;
  • Training, by both in-house and external providers;
  • Discretionary budget available to fund ongoing professional development;
  • Membership of a pension scheme;
  • Private health insurance.

How To Apply

Applications should be made by completing our Legal Associate Application Form and Equality & Diversity Monitoring Form. The completed forms should be emailed to our HR & Wellbeing Manager, Nancy Holland (nancy.holland@richmondchambers.com). All applications will be treated in the strictest of confidence.

Please note that this is a 12 month fixed term position. Whilst further employment beyond 12 months may be offered, this will depend upon an assessment of both individual performance and business need at the relevant time and is not guaranteed.

The closing date for applications is Friday, 20 January 2023 (close of business). However, applicants are encouraged to apply early because outstanding candidates may be interviewed before the closing date.

If you do not hear from us within 14 days of the closing date then you may assume that your application has not been successful in the first round of the selection process. Due to the high number of applications that we receive it will not be possible to provide individual feedback.