Associate Employment Law

Bird & Bird’s firmly established employment practice is looking to recruit an associate with 1 to 4 years of experience in Brussels.

The Brussels Employment team of Bird & Bird is unique because of its holistic approach to legal HR issues and its ability to leverage and collaborate with the firm’s global network. The practice covers the traditional strands of any mature employment practice (litigation, advisory and transactional work). The practice encompasses all legal HR issues, and ranges from pure employment work, industrial relations related matters over social security matters, to privacy, data protection, international mobility and compensation and benefits issues.  In the Bird & Bird network, the Brussels team serves as the hub and centre of excellence for EU-driven employment law and legal developments. 

We assist our clients with day-to-day management of arising HR legal issues, but the major part of our practice deals with complex and sensitive labour matters, quite often on a cross-border scale, with boardroom type advice, strategic advisory work, and transactions which are strategic and sometimes transformational for our clients.    

The Brussels employment team is fully aligned with Bird & Bird’s sector approach with a strong focus on technology. This strategy guides the team in terms of business development, thought leadership, technical expertise and legal tech. The client base in many industry sectors reflects that focus.

The team currently consists of five fully dedicated employment lawyers, and we are looking to recruit a dynamic associate with some initial experience and keen to further develop the successful practice.

By excelling and contributing to our growing legal practice of 7 C’s: 

• Compliance driven legal HR (policies, reporting requirements, emerging regulatory constraints, at Belgian and EU level); 
• Contract work (employment agreements, novel co-operation formats, executive dismissals, etc.);
• Corporate change programmes incl. restructurings, mergers and acquisitions and outsourcings (transfer of undertaking, labour leasing, collective redundancies, closure of undertaking, transactional work, post-acquisition integration, due diligence work);
• Collective labour law (European work councils, social bodies, social elections, collective conflicts, etc.);
• Compensation and benefits (equity compensation programmes, pension plans etc); 
• Cross border employment situations and international mobility; and
• Conflict management (litigation, negotiations in respect of the above).

• Provide top-end legal services to a variety of domestic and international, large and smaller clients through challenging, cutting-edge work‎;
• Have direct client contact from the first day onwards;
• Work with experienced professionals who are true experts in their field in Belgium and across the network;
• Be encouraged to further develop your legal, business and interpersonal skills through continuous training and mentoring;
• Work in a friendly, inclusive environment;
• Be actively involved in marketing and business development initiatives in a truly international firm;
• Develop an in-depth understanding of Bird & Bird's key sectors, mainly in high-tech and regulated industries; and
• Have an opportunity to participate in various social activities and events of our Brussels office and internationally.

We are keen to hear from you if you have: 

• An excellent command of English and Dutch and a very  good command of French;
• A first experience as a junior associate up 4 years of relevant experience;
• A strong academic background in Belgium, additional studies abroad are an asset;
• Strong analytical, reasoning and writing skills;
• Committed to delivering high-quality work; 
• A strong appetite for business development activities; and
• A good team player, fitting in well with our open, entrepreneurial culture.

Bird & Bird is committed to promoting and sustaining a diverse and inclusive environment. As part of our commitment to that goal, we support applications from a diverse range of candidates and are happy to discuss our vision and initiatives in this field during the interview process.

If you think you are the right fit for our employment team in Brussels, send your cv, motivation letter and transcripts by email via the apply button below.

Learn more about our firm on our website above. You can find the latest updates from our team on LinkedIn.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact our HR manager Anneke Vermeir on 02 282 60 57.