Research Assistant

Kennedys is recruiting for a research assistant to join our Corporate Affairs team based in London on a permanent basis. Reporting into the Corporate Affairs Director, and working closely with the wider team, business services and lawyers cross the globe, the successful candidate will handle research requests and create written assets to promote team projects internally and externally.

The role will help the Corporate Affairs team meet Kennedys' strategic goal to show the firm is at the forefront of key issues that matter to our clients, and is a valued partner to industry and policy-makers. It supports the Corporate Affairs team in helping clients prepare their business and gain competitive advantage by navigating emerging risks. Doing so ensures Kennedys builds credibility and creates advocacy, which it can capitalise on.

The nature of the research in this role is predominantly legal and regulatory and will support on a range of practice areas, topics and sectors. Current priority themes include climate change, AI technology and innovation, ESG and dispute resolution.

Your insights will play a vital role in ensuring that client-facing teams are able to give the most up-to-date and accurate advice to our clients. The successful candidate will provide in-depth analysis and summarisation of results in a timely manner, along with monitoring daily news and legislative developments, as required.

Team

Kennedys vision is to be a global legal and risk advisory firm which has support for the insurance industry at its core. We will harness our collaborative culture, enabled by innovation, technology, and data insights to help clients. In doing so we will be a trusted advisor to our clients, an employer of choice for our people and will have a positive impact on the communities in which we live and work.

Kennedys Corporate Affairs team is an advisory team drawn from law, business, academia and government. It is responsible for bringing data and analysis together in order to help clients understand global business trends and reputational challenges. Doing so ensures Kennedys can support our clients in their own strategic decision making, product development and competitive advantage. The team delivers thought leadership across a range of business critical issues; seeking to create engagement plans for clients, policymakers and other stakeholders.

Key features of the team include the creation of market reports for clients, which involves turning insights into strong and compelling content for multiple formats and across all marketing channels. Implicit in that function is curating and managing a pipeline of content-led activity.

Promoting our clients' interests in the public policy space is at the core of the team's activity. We monitor regulatory and legislative developments and regularly engage with the government, regulators and industry bodies, often by way of responding to consultations on topics including sustainability, dispute resolution, disruptive technologies, data privacy and legislative change more broadly.

The Corporate Affairs team is based in London and is set to grow to other regions in the Kennedys network

Key responsibilities 

Required experience 

Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys. 

*where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience.

About Kennedys

Kennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,500 people worldwide across 45 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field.

Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.

We're a fresh-thinking firm, and we're not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.

What do we have to offer?

We welcome high-performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you'll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference.

Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive and distinctive. Our are at the core of who we are and what make us a great firm to work with and for.

The Firm recognises the value of investing in our people's development and believes our culture and values contribute to the quality of our work and of our client relationships. With a culture of on-the-job and experiential learning, peer to peer learning, mentoring, resources and tools that enable you to drive your career, we can support your development in your current and future roles. A variety of other opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices.

We strive to celebrate empower our people and ensure everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. We've created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust, where diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority. We recognise that many of our people want to work for an employer that is aligned to their values, which is why we are building an inclusive culture, decarbonising our operations and supporting our people to thrive at work. Our people are the key to driving this change and helping us to make a difference to our clients, our people and the communities in which we live and work.

Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested.