Managing Associate

An exciting opportunity has become available for an experienced Managing Associate to join our matrimonial team within the private client department. Based in Manchester, the successful candidate will play a pivotal role in delivering high-quality family law services across the North West; working closely with Partners, to support the provision of a comprehensive range of legal services, assisting clients through often complex and sensitive matters with professionalism and empathy.

This is an excellent opportunity for a driven and client-focused individual to contribute to a collaborative team environment, to the development of junior team members, all whilst continuing to develop  expertise within a well-established and growing practice.

What will I be doing:

• Managing a varied and complex caseload of family law matters, including divorce, financial remedies (including high-net-worth cases), private children matters, cohabitation disputes, and nuptial agreements
• Providing clear, practical legal advice and take detailed client instructions tailored to individual circumstances, ranging in complexity
• Drafting high-quality legal documentation, including pleadings and agreements, aligned to client objectives
• Representing clients in negotiations with litigants in person and other professionals to achieve favourable outcomes
• Conducting advocacy, attending court hearings, and ensuring compliance with court procedures and deadlines
• Building and maintaining strong client relationships, significantly contributing to business development through networking and training initiatives
• Supporting the partners with team growth and supervising junior team members, including trainees, paralegals, and legal support staff
• Staying up to date with legal developments and undertake ongoing professional development to maintain expertise

You'll have

• A minimum of 6 years PQE, with significant experience across a full range of family and matrimonial matters, including advocacy
• A proven track record of advising on complex matters concerning divorce, financial remedy, and private Children Act cases
• Sound legal knowledge with the ability to work independently and within a team, deliver accurate work under pressure, to tight deadlines and have a flexible approach to ensure work is delivered in a straightforward and timely manner
• Significant experience of engaging in business development, with a proven track record of the ability to win new client work
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with a clear and logical approach
• Strong planning skills, be highly organised and possess the ability to manage workload independently, with resilience and a 'can do' approach
• Demonstrable problem-solving ability and sound professional judgement
• A proactive, motivated, and commercially aware approach, with effective file management, IT skills, and financial discipline

About us

We're proud to be an independent, full-service law firm providing exceptional legal expertise to businesses, the built environment, healthcare, the public and third sectors, and private individuals. With several office locations around the UK we're one of the UK's Top 100 law firms. When you join us you’ll be part of a team of over 500 passionate and talented individuals who take pride in offering an exciting and supportive environment allowing you to thrive.

We're passionate about promoting wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusion, with dedicated committees to support ongoing efforts. We recognise that a healthy and thriving Firm filled with individuality and differences strengthen our teams, our clients and our communities.

What we can offer you

We’re committed to being a firm focused on support, development, wellbeing and inclusion and we’re always striving to improve. Our commitment to this has been recognised by our achievement of our Gold Investors in People award and by our Hive HR Employee Voice certification.

We reward our people with a whole range of benefits, some core and some flexible, designed to shape a reward package that’s right for you – now and in the future. Our core benefits include:

• An enhanced pension scheme with employer matched contributions of up to 6%.
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays (increasing to 28 days with length of service). There is also the option to purchase up to 5 additional days.
• Life assurance cover of 4 times basic salary, with the option to purchase additional cover.
• A range of health and wellbeing benefits.
• Hybrid working with a minimum requirement of 2 days per week working from one of our office locations.
• We also have a flexible benefits programme where you can purchase a wide range of additional benefits.

If you would like to request further information or to discuss the role, please contact people@wardhadaway.com  quoting vacancy reference NTX1205460.

If you require any adjustments to be made to our recruitment process, please request a call back via the above email address.