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. Freshfields is a global law firm with a long-standing track record of successfully supporting the world’s leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions, and governments on ground-breaking and business critical mandates. At Freshfields we seek to create a better future for our clients, our people and the communities in which we work. Our global teams bring together individuals with different experiences, skills and strengths in a culture where we support all to belong, engage and excel.