People & Reward Associate

Freshfields is looking for an ambitious mid-level associate to join its Brussels’s People and Reward practice. In this role, you will advise global employers on a range of Belgian and international employment, pensions, benefits and data privacy issues. The firm boasts a leading international employment practice, known as People and Reward, with teams spread across Asia, Europe and the US.

Key activities

• Advising international and domestic clients on a wide range of Belgian and cross-border employment matters;

• Managing and coordinating multi-jurisdictional employment law projects across our global network;

• Transactional work: due diligence exercises, drafting transactional documentation, advising on employment-related issues arising out of corporate transactions (transfer of undertaking, pensions, information and consultation);

• Advising on executive remuneration, senior appointments, departures, and severance packages;

• Structuring and implementing employee stock option plans, equity incentives, and benefit schemes;

• Guiding clients on collective consultations, restructuring projects, and European Works Councils;

• Delivering strategic advice on the modern workplace, including flexible work policies, digitalisation, and internal investigations;

• Handling HR-related data privacy issues, GDPR compliance, and workplace data incidents;

• Actively participating in business development initiatives, client pitches, and know-how development.

Key requirements 

• We are seeking an ambitious and highly motivated lawyer with 2 to 5 years of relevant experience, preferably within the employment practice of a leading law firm.

• In addition to your Belgian law degree (with excellent academic records), a post-graduate degree in employment, labour or social law is an asset.

• You are creative, curious and rigorous, have excellent communication skills and are able to take on a high degree of responsibility and autonomy. You are also proactive and committed to providing an excellent service to clients.

• You have a forward-looking mindset and are comfortable with (or eager to embrace and leverage) modern legal technology and Artificial Intelligence tools to enhance your daily work and client service.

• You are fluent in English and Dutch, with a good command of French. 

What we offer

• The opportunity to work on a wide variety of challenging projects together with our People & Reward partner. You will also closely cooperate with other members of our Global M&A and Capital, Tax, Dispute Resolution, Antitrust and regulatory teams based in Brussels and across other Freshfields offices on multijurisdictional matters. 

• Our structured network that allows new legal developments to be shared rapidly among the teams, which is a real added value for our clients and for our lawyers.

• Regular participation in international technical and personal skills trainings taking place in different parts of the world, bringing together lawyers from all around the network.