Associate/Senior Associate, Medical Law, 3+ PQE

Kennedys is seeking an experienced Associate or Senior Associate to join our Medical Law team, based in either Cambridge Birmingham or Sheffield. You will work on a broad range of Court of Protection matters—particularly urgent medical treatment decisions—alongside healthcare advisory work, mental health and capacity issues, inquests, and Judicial Reviews. This is an excellent opportunity to join our highly regarded Healthcare Division.

Team

Our Healthcare Division is recognised as one of the leading providers of specialist legal services to the health sector, advising NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts, and medical malpractice insurers acting for private hospitals, clinics, and individual practitioners. The division handles a broad spectrum of EL/PL and clinical negligence claims, combining deep sector knowledge with a practical, solutions‑focused approach that reflects the complex and sensitive nature of the work.

Kennedys Medical Law Group plays a central role in supporting clients on some of the most challenging and high‑stakes issues in modern healthcare. The team specialises in highly sensitive medical treatment decisions and works closely with NHS Trusts on urgent and complex matters that often require swift, carefully considered legal intervention. Our work spans the full range of Court of Protection matters, including applications relating to serious medical treatment, as well as child and adult safeguarding issues, capacity and consent questions, and cases involving the deprivation of liberty. We also represent clients at inquests and in Judicial Review proceedings, ensuring they receive robust, informed support throughout every stage of the process.

The team operates across our London, Cambridge, Birmingham, and Sheffield offices, with additional support from colleagues in several of our global locations. This broad footprint allows us to draw on a wide pool of expertise and ensures that our clients benefit from a cohesive, nationally integrated service. Our collaborative culture, combined with the depth of our experience, enables us to deliver clear, confident advice on matters that are often urgent, emotionally charged, and legally complex.

Clients

• NHS Healthcare Trusts and CCGs
• Primary Care Networks
• Insured healthcare practitioners
• Independent hospital groups and practitioners
• Medical malpractice insurers and their insured Hospitals and healthcare providers
• NHS Resolution

Cases

• Applications for declarations to treat
• Child protection and safeguarding cases
• Mental health law advice
• Mental capacity law advice
• Deprivation of liberty matters
• Healthcare‑related inquests

Required experience

• 3+ years' UK‑based relevant experience*
• Strong knowledge and expertise in:
• Court of Protection (including urgent healthcare declaration cases)
• Mental Capacity Law
• Mental Health Law
• Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
• Inquests

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 3,000 people in 45 offices across 18 countries around the world 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.