"Osborne Clarke has a genuinely national and international practice."- Chambers & Partners
We have an exciting opportunity for an Associate or Senior Associate to join our Tax Disputes team in London.
You will be joining a successful team and a firm with a collegiate and supportive culture, which makes it a rewarding place to work.
The practice
Osborne Clarke's tax disputes practice covers all forms of (direct and indirect) contentious tax matters, including managing tax risk, HMRC investigations, and tax litigation before the tax tribunals and higher courts. The practice has enjoyed sustained growth and has developed a particular reputation in a number of key areas:
Technology sector - the tax disputes team has won mandates from numerous prominent technology-focused clients, including platforms and often with an international element;
Financial services sector - the tax disputes practice is also building up an impressive client roster in the financial services sector, many of which are international and cross over into the digital space;
The contingent workforce sector - the firm has outstanding expertise in tax disputes in this area, building on the firm's wider pre-eminence in the sector. We are seeing a significant increase in disputes in this sector with the increased importance of flexible workforces to employers and HMRC's focus on enforcement both in this area and the wider gig economy; and
Tax-based litigation - the practice is often asked to advise on tax-related litigation matters, defending major accountancy firms against professional negligence claims for tax advice.
The team is anticipating further growth, including litigation work involving cases on important points of law, which is one of the key drivers behind this opportunity.
Find out more about the practice using the following link:
https://www.osborneclarke.com/services/tax/tax-disputes
https://www.osborneclarke.com/lawyers/ian-hyde
https://www.osborneclarke.com/lawyers/jack-prytherch
The work
Recent examples of the team's work includes:
Advising an accountancy service company (specialising in providing accountancy advice to personal service company contractors) in HMRC's investigation into the application of the Managed Service Company anti-avoidance legislation, including related appeals to the First-tier Tribunal.
Advising various global platforms on a review of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 risks across their businesses.
Advising an international recycling group on a HMRC investigation into transfer pricing treatment of cross-border supplies and whether exports qualified for VAT zero rating, including related appeals to the First-tier Tribunal.
Acting for a multinational group on a multi-million pound tax-related commercial litigation involving issues with potentially industry-wide implications.
The team
The Tax Disputes team is run by Partners Ian Hyde and Jack Prytherch, both individually recognised in Chambers. The team sits within our Commercial Disputes service line led by Chambers rated Charlie Wedin (Partner), The UK Commercial Disputes team is made up of over 70 lawyers in total. In London the team comprises 13 Partners, 1 Legal Director, 5 Associate Directors, 7 Senior Associates, 10 Associates, 4 Trainee Solicitors and 1 Solicitor Apprentice.
Technical skills and experience
The successful candidate will be working directly with the partners and helping to grow the tax disputes practice further. You will have a strong academic background, with excellent drafting and communication skills, organisational skills, and attention to detail.
You will have experience working as a Solicitor or Barrister in tax disputes work. Alternatively, for the right candidate, we are open to speaking to a Solicitor or Barrister with experience in tax work more generally if they have a desire to focus on contentious matters.
Your career development
Like all our lawyers, you will benefit from our multi-award winning career development programme. At each stage of your career this provides you with:
clear expectations of your role and what it takes to progress;
• high quality clients and work, with early responsibility and client exposure;
• thorough assessment and individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues;
• robust technical training with early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you; and
• reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.
Our recruitment process
We welcome direct applications for our opportunities - if you would like any further information about this role or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Rachael Nye on [email protected].
Please note we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.
We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.