Researcher

Watson Farley & Williams is an international law firm advising on complex disputes and transactions through local knowledge and an integrated international network.  We have a strong sector focus, combining our technical excellence with deep industry knowledge across Energy, Transport and associated Infrastructure.

The firm has achieved rapid expansion and year-on-year growth owed almost entirely to a focused strategy, strong leadership and the quality of its people.  The next stage in the firm’s growth plan is to achieve full-service strength within core sectors across the global platform.

We strive for excellence in all that we do and view investment in our people as key to achieving our business goals and values, which rest on developing deep and long-lasting relationships externally and internally through respect, sharing, communication and integrity.

Our global practice is integrated across our offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and North America delivering consistently high levels of service across borders and locally through a deep understanding of local business customs and culture.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace to attract and retain the most talented people from all backgrounds and cultures.  We believe in celebrating difference and that people from any background can rise to the top, ensuring opportunities to develop and progress are available for all.

Unlike other firms of our size, the expertise in sector means we usually find ourselves opposite magic circle or big US firms, and our clients are in the same league. We sometimes describe ourselves as ‘magic circle in sector’ which is our great strength but also our challenge.How to compete with the ‘big beasts’ and continue to grow, while retaining our values and ethos as a friendly and collegiate workplace environment. This includes knowledge and information management, research, training and technical solutions to help our lawyers work efficiently and collaboratively and to ensure that the firm’s collective knowledge is leveraged for the benefit of our clients. Our Researcher role goes to the heart of that.

The Global Head of Knowledge Management leads the wider Knowledge team made up of the firm’s Professional Support Lawyers and the Information & Research team. The Information and Research team works towards achieving the firm’s knowledge strategy by ensuring everyone has access to WFW's knowledge and resources. The team manages the firm’s online and hard copy resources, legal and business enquiries and collaborates with stakeholders across all offices.

Legal and Business Research:

• Ability to respond to legal and business enquiries globally.
• Coordinate and assist with larger projects.

Current Awareness:

• Maintain a portfolio of newswires on specific topics and clients and sectors.
• Ensure alignment of newswires on key campaigns by liaising with BD.
• Maintain bespoke good practice guide.
• Promotion of service to key stakeholders across the business to drive internal. engagement and to add value.

Contract Management:

• Promotion, testing and researching of new services.
• Maintaining good relationships with allocated suppliers and attending update meetings as required.
• Championing of allocated products to the Information and Research team and wider firm to ensure awareness of benefits of existing and new features.

Research resources platform:

• Ensuring the key product entries remain current and accurate.
• Contributing to I&R generated content to help fee-earners navigate resources effectively.
• Promotion of database to the firm as part of responding to enquiries.

Knowledge Management:

• Supporting the firm’s developing Knowledge Management strategy.
• Identifying and implementing process improvements.

Intranet

• Promotion of new subscriptions and tools.
• Promotion and updating of the Information and Research page.

Training

• New trainee induction training and ongoing training during training contract.
• Vacation student inductions.
• Provide new fee-earners training in person/virtual.
• Provide targeted training by department/sector/resource on an ongoing basis.
• Maintaining training collateral.

Ad hoc:

• Provide holiday cover.
• General team admin.
• Undertake other projects as required.

• A high degree of written, oral and digital communication skills.
• Highly organised with the ability to meet deadlines under pressure.
• The ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong attention to detail.
• A can-do attitude and a willingness to take on additional tasks as and when required.
• Proven time management and prioritisation skills.
• Pro-active, collaborative team player.
• An appetite for continuous learning and development.
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365, Teams, Lexis+UK, WestlawEdge and Practical Law.
• Experience of carrying out complex legal and business research and working in a legal or professional services environment.

We offer a competitive benefits and wellbeing package for all employees.

The Firm promotes a culture of agility and flexibility and is fully supportive of flexible working arrangements where these can be accommodated.

Respect for different backgrounds and perspectives is at the heart of our firm’s core values and we recognise the importance of fostering an inclusive environment that allows everyone to reach their full potential. This is a key feature of our Global Code of Conduct, which places diversity and inclusion at the centre of our firm’s ways of working.

We believe that exceptional client service can only be delivered by exceptional people. For this reason, we aim to attract, retain and develop the best talent from a wide range of backgrounds. All decisions relating to employment will be objective and based on merit and ability.

We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are as inclusive and barrier-free as possible. This includes making adjustments for candidates with a disability or long-term health condition.  If you require adjustments to be made at any stage of the recruitment process, we’d encourage you to get in touch with a member of our team who would be happy to discuss options with you.