Eda/0124 - Associate - Education

Russell-Cooke is a top 100, London-based law firm with around 200 highly regarded specialist lawyers based across offices in Kingston, Putney and Bedford Row. We advise a mix of commercial, not-for-profit, regulatory and personal clients. We are currently recruiting an additional Education Lawyer on a six-month fixed-term contract to join our highly regarded Chambers and Legal 500 ranked Children and Education team based in Kingston.

Our thriving Education team adopts a fearless and solution-focused approach to championing the rights of children and young people, challenging injustices and empowering parents. The Education team’s core work includes special educational needs and disability, Equality Act claims, admissions, exclusions, judicial review and complaints for individuals. Excellence in empathic client service is at the heart of what we do. We are exceptionally well supported both by our support staff and a broad range of cross-departmental specialisms.

The Role

You will be responsible for running your own varied caseload of education matters with executive and legal assistant support as well as co-working with other lawyers.

Key Casework – supported by cross-departmental specialism where appropriate;

• SEN support, applications for EHCNA and Annual Reviews
• First-tier Tribunal – SEND Appeals
• First-tier Tribunal – Equality Act Claims
• Upper Tribunal
• School admissions including in-year applications, and school admission appeals
• Exclusions – representations, Governors’ Review and IRP appeals
• Complaints and pre-action correspondence to schools of all types incl. safeguarding and BOC
• Complaints to Local Authority, LGSCO and other regulatory bodies
• Judicial review pre-action correspondence
• Subject access requests, data rectification and remedy for data breach
• Liaising with counsel and experts and other third parties

Qualifications and Experience – minimum 2 years’ hands-on casework experience in education law. Please note, this is not an entry level role as we require someone who can hit the ground running with day-to-day tasks. In addition, we are looking for someone who is;

• Educated to degree level, 2:1 or above (although lower contextual applications will be considered)
• LPC/BVC qualified solicitor or counsel or experienced paralegal within education
• Foreign qualified lawyers should be in the process of undertaking QLTT

Key Skills and Personal Characteristics

You will have excellent, empathetic and straight-talking client care, with a tenacious strategic approach to case management and hold high financial awareness and discipline including billing and time recording. In addition to having a personal commitment to self-care and healthy boundaries, you must demonstrate initiative, passion and resilience including a ‘how not if’ approach to problem solving.

We have a diverse workforce and aim to attract high calibre applicants that reflect the demography of our geographical location and client base. Individuals will be employed solely on merit and the requirement of the position. No applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, race, gender identity, marital status, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion. Reasonable adjustments will be made to eliminate or reduce disadvantage.

Ready to make a difference? Please click on ‘Apply Now’ to submit your application or contact a member of HR for more information.

We are not accepting submissions from agencies for this role.