Paralegal

Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.

With offices in London, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.

Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.

Our Immigration group supports UK, Irish and multinational organisations with their business immigration needs. As a member of the Irish immigration team, you will contribute to the overall success of the wider immigration group. Due to our Ius Laboris membership, we are well placed to provide global mobility support internationally and offer co-ordination services across EMEA and APAC.

We work with a range of multinationals, start-ups and High Net Worth Individuals from around the world with particular focus on technology, sports, the creative sectors and professional services sectors.

Our experts advise on the full range of business immigration services including:

• Business immigration applications – advising employers and employees on appropriate permissions including critical skills employment permits for highly skilled occupations or senior employees, graduate permissions, intra company transfer employment permits for international assignments of senior executives or key personnel, general employment permits including quotas for certain occupations, sport and cultural employment permits, contract for service employment permits etc.).
• Visa support – employment visas as well as short stay business visas tournament / performance visas, atypical working scheme and more.
• Family reunification applications – applications for join family visas, preclearance applications, and EU Treaty Rights.
• Personal Immigration – naturalisation applications, foreign birth registration and international protection. Compliance and prevention of illegal working - establishing processes and systems, creating policies, dealing with inspections by the Workplace Relations Commission, mock audits of right to work documents, training and hotline services.

• Employment and global mobility – our immigration lawyers are also employment law specialists and support employers with the relocation of employees, covering employment and immigration requirements.
• International work – global movement projects catalysed by mergers, sales or restructuring..
• Global mobility – supporting employers with the relocation of employees for long term periods (covering employment and immigration ).

The overall objective is to provide fee-earning support to the immigration team, supporting associates and partners as requested on a day-to-day basis, with a view to ensuring that individual tasks are completed cost-effectively and at the appropriate level.

Key duties and responsibilities

Key elements of the role are:

• Assisting with the day-to-day activities related to Irish immigration cases.
• Assisting with applications for the right to work in Ireland.
• Initiating immigration process with both the employer and employee.
• Attending meetings with clients regarding their applications;
• Drafting checklists, employment permit applications.
• Preparing applications for submission to the relevant government bodies (Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, Department of Justice, Immigration Service Delivery, local embassies and consulate offices (including visa facilitation services).
• Collating supporting documentation for application on behalf of the client.
• Tracking applications submitted to the relevant government bodies and providing updates to clients.
• Booking appointments with the Immigration Service Delivery / Garda National Immigration Bureau.
• Updating internal tracking systems.
• Initiating renewals.
• Assisting with global mobility projects.

Abilities and desired qualities:

• Good eye for detail, excellent organisational skills.
• Ability to communicate at all levels.
• Strong practical and analytical skills.
• Ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
• Enthusiastic and strong team player.

Candidate profile

Candidates will have excellent academics with strongIT, numeracy, practical and analytical skills. You’ll have aclear communication style (both spoken and written), and above all, must be a team player with a passion to work with a fast-paced professional and friendly team.

The successful candidate must have excellent communication skills and enjoy working in an involved team environment.  They must be highly organised and have a flexible nature, and a co-operative and willing attitude. Prior experience and knowledge of immigration work would be advantageous but not essential as training will be provided.   

IT skills required:

• Competency in MS Office suite and Teams.

Educational and professional qualifications required:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent (Law related degree would be advantageous).

At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.