Employment Lawyer | 2–4 yrs PQE | Accredited Specialist team | Brisbane

Most employment law ads promise complex, high-quality work. Then you spend eighteen months on unfair dismissal responses while the interesting matters go upstairs. This is not that role.

Who you'd be joining:

A national employment and workplace relations firm advising Australian businesses for 30+ years - top-ranked in Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Chambers Asia Pacific and Doyle's Guide. It sits inside Australia's leading specialist group in workplace compliance, currently in a growth phase. Clients span aged care, retail, hospitality, sports and leisure, recruitment, construction and manufacturing, and the work covers the full employee life cycle - not one sector on repeat, not one narrow slice of law.

Who you'd work with:

You'd report to one Partner but have access to all of them, plus three Accredited Specialists in Workplace Relations - an accreditation rare anywhere in Australia and rarer in Queensland. The credential isn't the point; how they practice is. They're commercially minded (they answer what the client actually asked - what should we do - rather than listing risks and leaving the decision on the table). They're thought leaders who publish, present and get the call when a matter turns unusual. And they'd rather you were in front of a client at three years with support behind you than shielded until seven.

What you'd actually be doing:

Advising on unfair dismissal, general protections, discrimination, restraint of trade, wrongful termination and industrial disputes

Enterprise bargaining,



restructuring, independent contracting, statutory compliance, WHS, and managing ill and injured workers

Drafting contracts, policies, enterprise agreements and advice clients can act on

Running your own matters - work plans, client expectations, costs agreements - and stepping into problem-solving mode when your SA or Partner is unavailable

Delegating to, training and mentoring junior staff, against a billable target set to client budgets

Building your profile is part of the job, not an extra.

Business development here is structured and supported: drafting case studies and hosting client seminar roundtables, writing articles for publication, running fortnightly technical sessions, and contributing to new business pitches. At 2-4 years PAE most firms offer none of this. Here it's expected - which is how you build a practice of your own by the time you're a Senior Associate.

What we're looking for:

2-4 years PAE in employment and IR law. Law firm experience preferred, though strong in-house candidates considered

Autonomous matter management and the judgement to know when to escalate

Commercially minded, with strong, detailed drafting that never loses the practical outcome





Self-starting - willing to grow your own workload - and aiming at a more senior position

Admitted to practice in Australia with full, unrestricted working rights

The part that decides whether this works

Technical skill gets you the interview; shared values decide the next five years. The firm's own people wrote them:

Exceed expectations - own what you do; be driven by discontent at today.

Inspired and creative - see obstacles as opportunities; question the conventional.

Relationships matter - be open and transparent; earn trust and act with integrity.

We're better together - one team, support each other, and don't take yourself too seriously.

If you recognised how you already work, the rest of the conversation is easy. If they read like wall art, this probably isn't your firm - worth knowing now.

This might not be for you if you want to stay purely technical (client contact, mentoring and BD start early), want a settled unchanging practice (this one's growing, and the pace shows it), or want a firm with no billable target (there is one).

The package, and the honest version of the hours:

$130,000 + super

Hybrid working from contemporary Brisbane offices

Standard hours Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm. It's a busy commercial practice and some weeks ask more - better said here than at your second interview

Up to 16 weeks paid parental leave, a volunteer day, and your birthday off

Recognised Employer of Choice, nine years running

#J-18808-Ljbffr

📌 Employment Lawyer | 2–4 yrs PQE | Accredited Specialist team | Brisbane (Brisbane City)
🏢 Leading
📍 Brisbane City