Senior Associate, Real Estate - Residential Development - 12 month FTC

The role

We are looking for an experienced Senior Associate to join the Residential Development team in our Real Estate Department on a 12 month maternity cover contract.  This is an excellent opportunity for candidates significant with previous experience to develop your career, working side-by-side with our Partners and other fee earners and closely with our clients.

You will be flexible and commercial in your approach to work, with the ability to pro-actively seek out opportunities and use your initiative in supporting the team.

The Real Estate department at Howard Kennedy deals with a wide range of property work and acts for some household names in the development sector, including Galliard, Ballymore and City & Docklands.

Role responsibility

Undertaking a wide variety of work primarily for developer clients including:

• Landlord and Tenant transactions for developers (agreements for lease and leases conditional on building out and planning).
• Site acquisitions and disposals (on larger transactions assisting with due diligence, preparing reports on title, dealing with elements of the contract and/or supplemental documents).
• Dealing with property aspects for financing transactions, whether CLLS certificates or disclosure of title.
• Subsales, and TOGCS.
• Option agreements.
• Assisting more senior fee earners on larger transactions.
• Working with the wider Real Estate department on development transactions in particular the construction, tax, planning and property litigation teams.
• Responsibility for participating in business development and client relationship management activities.
• Assisting and mentoring more junior members of the team including Trainees, Paralegals, Solicitors and Associates.

About you

Ideally you will be able to demonstrate;

• Significant post qualification experience in the development sector.
• The ability to work proactively and close transactions efficiently within the clients' required timescales.
• The ability to think through difficult problems and identify effective solutions in an efficient manner.
• Strong legal skills, including proficiency in research and the ability to digest and explain complex legal and factual points in a language that clients understand.
• Comfort in using initiative and taking responsibility for managing workstreams.
• Thoroughness and attention to detail with the ability to perform in a deadline-orientated role.
• The ability to work collaboratively with others to provide a quality service to clients and colleagues.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills: working to tight deadlines where the input of others is often required, managing workloads effectively.
• Flexibility in approach.
• Strong drafting skills.
• A pragmatic, commercial approach to problem solving.
• Excellent business development and client management skills.
• The ability to mentor and supervise less experienced members of the team.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 25 days annual holiday
• Permanent Health Insurance
• Life Assurance
• Interest free Season Ticket Loan
• Private Healthcare
• Pension Scheme
• Staff Introductory Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

About us

We are a London based, full-service law firm, specialising in providing straightforward advice to entrepreneurial businesses and individuals on domestic and international matters.

We have grown substantially in recent years, including two mergers and an office move. We’ve also matured in terms of our approach to providing advice to our clients, seeking to simplify and improve the experience of working with a modern, independent law firm.

We’re proud of our journey. Without losing sight of where we’ve come from, we are focused on where we’re going. We are evolving and growing every day. And just like our clients, we are ambitious and moving forward. Many of our clients are entrepreneurial, ambitious enterprises who are often privately or family owned, or private equity backed. We are one of the only London based law firms with a large private wealth offering alongside significant business law capability.

The firm also advises major corporates on particular specialist legal matters who find our straightforward approach a compelling alternative to larger, less personal firms.