We’re a national law firm with a local reach. Our legal experts are here for you. Whether it’s personal or business, we understand that everyone’s situation is different. But we’re more than just a law firm – we’re a team of people working together to help individuals and businesses navigate life’s ups and downs. Working here you’ll feel a part of our friendly and inclusive environment.

We’ll value you for who you are and what you bring. We support each other and push boundaries to achieve incredible things and make a real difference to our clients and communities.

We're always looking to support our colleagues to work in a way that works best for them and everyone else, including our clients, the business and the regulators. Please speak to a member of our Recruitment and Onboarding team for more information.

The National Family team are one of the UK's leading family law teams, accredited by independent legal guides Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500, with decades of experience dealing with all family related legal matters.

Our team has expertise in different areas of Family Law including our Religious & Cultural Team of Excellence which the focus of this role.  You will have the opportunity to work on a range of complex and interesting cases and play a key role in driving forward the team’s offering in this area, specifically in relation to Sharia law and the cross over with the family law in England & Wales.

You will be dealing with a range of matters on behalf of clients such as:

• Advising on marriage contracts (Nikah) and pre-nuptial agreements
• Dowry (Mahr) payments
• Talaq or Khula divorces
• Annulments
• International divorces
• Domestic abuse
• Financial settlement
• Arrangements for Children
• Matrimonial assets on divorce
• Islamic divorces connected with the Sharia Council
• Cohabitation disputes
• Financial provision for Children

Given the nature of the work, it is essential you have well-rounded client service skills  and are able to empathise with a wide range of clients in order to resolve  the often sensitive and complicated practicalities that arise in family break-ups. We would also like you to be able to demonstrate ambition, energy and enthusiasm to help continue to build a successful Family law team at the top of the market.

This is a superb opportunity to develop your knowledge and expertise by working as part of an award-winning top tier Family team in one of the UK‘s leading law firms. You’ll be given a high degree of autonomy, strong partner access and training and excellent career progression opportunities.

• Strong and demonstratable experience of advising UK clients on Sharia law matters such as those mentioned above
• The ability and drive to help us to continue to grow this offering
• Verbal fluency (and preferably written fluency, although this is less essential) in one or a combination of Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi or Urdu.

We believe this role would best suit an Associate solicitor (at c. 5 PQE or more) but are open to candidates of various levels if they can demonstrate the required level of knowledge in this area.

• 25 days holidays as standard plus bank holidays - You can ‘buy’ up to 35hrs of extra holiday too.
• Generous and flexible pension schemes.
• Volunteering days – Two days of volunteering every year for a cause of your choice (fully paid)
• Westfield Health membership, offering refunds on medical services alongside our Aviva Digital GP services.

We also offer a wide range of well-being initiatives to encourage positive mental health both in and out of the workplace and to make sure you’re fully supported.  This includes our Flexible by Choice programme which gives our colleagues more choice over a hybrid way of working subject to role, team and client requirements.

We have been ranked in the Best Workplaces for Wellbeing for Large Organisations for 2024!

Our responsible business programmes are fundamental to who we are and our purpose. We’re committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where our colleagues can flourish, and we have established a number of inclusion network groups across our business to support this aim. 

Our commitment to Social Responsibility, community investment activity and tackling climate change is a fundamental part of who we are. It’s made up of four strands: Our People, Our Community, Our Environment and Our Pro Bono.

As part of the Irwin Mitchell Group’s on-boarding process all successful applicants are required to complete the group’s employment screening process. This process helps to ensure that all new employees meet our standards in relation to honesty and integrity therefore protecting the interests of the Group, colleagues, clients, partners and other stakeholders.

We carry out pre employment screening to establish your eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record and financial checks ­with our trusted 3rd parties.

The employment screening process will fully comply with Data Protection and other applicable laws.

Irwin Mitchell LLP is an equal opportunity employer.