Vacancy - Child Care Solicitor
Full time, Permanent, based in our Plymouth office, with opportunities for remote work
Following significant growth over the last few years, and with a desire to grow significantly bigger across the firm in the future, we are recruiting for a Solicitor to join our specialist Family Care team.
The Child Care team
Our Family Childcare team specialises in representing parents, grandparents, and wider family members in cases involving social services, care proceedings, and special guardianship. We support clients during some of the most distressing and uncertain times of their lives, offering calm, expert advice and strong representation every step of the way. Our work is grounded in empathy and clarity - helping people understand their rights and options when social services become involved in their family life.
Our work includes:
Advising and representing parents and children in public law proceedings
Providing advice and supporting family members applying for Special Guardianship Orders within public law proceedings
Pre-proceedings work and PLO meetings
Representing clients at all stages of court proceedings
Main responsibilities and duties of the job
We’re looking for a solicitor with experience in public law children matters to join our specialist Family Childcare team. You will be supporting clients throughout the care proceedings process, from early involvement and PLO through to final hearings, as well as advising on Special Guardianship applications and related orders within public law proceedings. Confidence in managing your own caseload and representing clients at court is essential.
You will be working with vulnerable clients, often in emotionally charged situations, so the ability to remain calm, clear, and supportive is vital. Excellent communication skills – particularly the ability to explain legal processes in plain English – are key to this role.
The ideal candidate will be a team player who thrives in a fast-paced and sensitive area of work, with a genuine commitment to making a difference in people’s lives. Knowledge of Legal Aid processes and being a member of the Law Society Children’s Panel (or a desire to work towards it) would be an advantage, though not essential.
The team and the work
Helen Bull, Head of the Family Care team had this to say about the team and the work that they do:
The Family Care team at Nash & Co Solicitors acts for parents, children, grandparents, and wider family members when social services become involved in family life - often during extremely distressing and uncertain times.
Each day, our team supports clients through complex and sensitive cases involving pre-proceedings work under the Public Law Outline and public law proceedings. This area of law presents both emotional and legal challenges, requiring a careful balance of empathy, clarity, and strong advocacy.
In Family Care, no two cases are ever the same. The families we support are often facing overwhelming pressure, and our role is to help them understand their rights, navigate the legal system, and work towards a resolution that’s in the best interests of the child. We’re flexible and responsive, adapting to the fast-moving nature of care cases while making sure our clients feel heard, supported, and represented at every stage.
We’re committed to achieving the best possible outcomes in an area of law where the stakes are incredibly high. That commitment, alongside our compassionate, clear, and client-focused approach, has helped us build a reputation as one of the region’s most trusted and experienced Family Care teams.
About you
We do not set upper or lower limits of PQE for any of our vacancies. We have however given an indicative PQE as an approximate guide for applicants. For this role it would be 2+ years PQE.
Qualified Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive in England & Wales
Able to undertake own advocacy
Well-developed professional and interpersonal skills
Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) and legal technical skills
Ability to work in a team environment and develop relationships across the business
Ability to demonstrate a deep understanding of the technical issues that are key to our clients
Recognises and seizes opportunities for the firm, including repeat business
Builds and develops own network of internal and external contacts
Awareness of business development initiatives in the team and identifies ways to contribute
Good knowledge of PC applications, including MS Office
About us
We’re a firm of Solicitors in Plymouth who passionately believe in providing our clients with the very best client experience and service.
We work with clients across the City, throughout the South West, and nationally too. We’re a law firm that punches well above our weight and our client list would be the envy of a lot of larger firms nationwide.
We put a very significant emphasis on providing our clients with exceptional client service and experience, and are keen for our lawyers to use their experience, knowledge and expertise to provide an outstanding quality of work as well. We currently have the highest average score and by far the most Google Reviews of any law firm in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and the majority of Dorset.
Our Corporate and Business Law, Employment Law, Commercial Property and Litigation teams together provide companies and organisations with a comprehensive and joined-up approach to all of their legal requirements.
For individuals and families needing legal support, we understand that visiting, talking to and trusting in a lawyer can be a daunting experience. As a result, we tailor our approach to ensure that the needs of our clients are catered to and that we balance professional advice and assistance with a friendly atmosphere.
Salary & benefits
We offer a highly competitive salary, 5 weeks holiday per year, a health cash back plan, death in service benefit, a healthy bonus scheme and enhanced maternity/paternity pay.
Outside of work, we organise various events for our people throughout the year and live and work in undoubtedly one of the most beautiful parts of the country. We also think that it’s one of the best places to bring up a young family.
It’s vitally important to us that our people can maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and well-being and we're very happy to talk about opportunities for flexible/remote working, full-time or part-time working patterns.
This really is a two-way relationship. Our clients benefit from your hard work, your expertise, commitment and experience. In return, you’ll be an important and valued member of the firm, and we’ll do whatever we can to make sure that you have access to the resources that both you and your family need to thrive.
You can find out more about the benefits of employment at Nash & Co Solicitors, by clicking here.
Our values
Everything that we do at Nash & Co Solicitors, is done with these values in mind.
Be Fair – we do not expect you to work ‘silly hours’, in fact we discourage it. In our view, work is part of our lives, not all of it.
Be Kind – we are committed to being kind to both clients and our people. This helps to create an environment where our people produce their best work, and our clients return time and again. We should always be supportive, compassionate and act thoughtfully.
Be Transparent – we should always be transparent about costs, timescales, and the work that we do for clients. We should be in regular contact with our clients, keeping things understandable and avoiding legal jargon wherever possible.
Be Honest – if something goes wrong, or circumstances change, we should always communicate this with our clients as soon as possible.
Be Brilliant – We should constantly challenge ourselves to be better, think bigger and work to find creative solutions to clients’ challenges.
Diversity and inclusion
At Nash & Co Solicitors, diversity and inclusion naturally underpins how we as a firm live our values and everything we do. We believe that everyone has a voice, and that everyone’s voice counts. We know that the rich diversity across our firm makes us stronger, more innovative and creative, which helps us to better serve our clients and communities. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment and culture across our firm, where everyone can feel comfortable coming to work.
Diversity of perspective, thought, background and culture combine to make us the one of the top law firms in the area; and because of this, we actively seek to build balanced teams. We welcome the unique contribution that you will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.
Our environmental and community commitments
We have a range of long-term environmental commitments, particularly with ocean-based charities and organisations - the Ocean Conservation Trust, the National Marine Aquarium, Surfers Against Sewage, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Plymouth is known as Britain’s Ocean City, and we want to do our bit to help look after the seas and rivers that surround us. We’re also running our own rewilding and tree planting scheme in our grounds and the adjacent public park, to encourage wildlife to thrive. You can find out more about our environmental commitments here.
Here at Nash & Co we have always believed in doing whatever we can to help and support our local community, and this will always be an important part of the firm. From buying Christmas presents for young carers across Plymouth to paying for our staff to enter half marathons, 10k and 5k events. From doing beach cleans and street cleans to cycling the equivalent of Plymouth to the South of France and organising bake sales and charity quizzes etc. Supporting our community is something that we’re all really passionate about and more than happy to do. Click here to find out more about the work that we do in the community.
Hybrid/Remote working
We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That’s why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for both hybrid and remote working.
Pre-engagement screening
In the event that we make an offer to you, and where relevant, we may conduct pre-engagement screening checks. These may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the UK, any criminal records, and work-related references.
Apply for our Child Care Solicitor job
As well as filling out the form, please don’t forget to attach your current CV AND a cover letter. You’d be surprised just how many people forget to send us a cover letter to go with their application.