Solicitor / Associate - Real Estate, Construction

The role

This is a great opportunity for an experienced lawyer to join the firm's rapidly growing Construction practice. The role is predominantly focused on non-contentious work but provides a mix of both contentious and non-contentious work.  The Construction team is core to the firm's full-service Real Estate department, one of the largest in London.

The current balance of work in the team is c. 60% non-contentious, 40% contentious, almost exclusively UK-based and all building-related, involving both standard form and bespoke agreements.  The team works closely with the firm's largest clients, with a particular focus on developers, project funders and high net worth individuals in the private development sector as well as contractors.

Role responsibility

• Drafting: construction contracts (standard form and bespoke); agreements for lease and sale/purchase; collateral warranties (standard and bespoke); consultant appointments (standard form and bespoke); development agreements; facility and funding agreements; deeds of priority; share purchase agreements; etc.
• Information gathering, processing, analysis, interpretation: DD information to ascertain relevance; reviewing of contracts; negotiations; mediation.
• Negotiating: agreements for lease and sale/purchase; development funding DD; development agreements; licences to alter; procurement and funding.
• Advising in respect of: funding arrangements, procurement routes, and a range of standard form construction contracts.
• Handling contentious matters and dispute advisory work up to and including ADR, expert and determination and adjudications (plus enforcement proceedings in the TCC), dealing with wide range of matters including final account and delay claims, quality of build claims, construction insolvency, bond claims, ACM cladding, professional indemnity and other insurance-related claims.

About you

Ideally you will be able to demonstrate;

• Experience working as a Construction lawyer, with a focus on or interest in focussing on non contentious construction work
• Relevant experience in Real Estate and Construction law
• Experience in dealing with large sized funders and developers
• Knowledge and experience of high value transactions and the ability to run matters through from instruction to completion under minimal supervision
• A commercial and pragmatic approach to work
• The ability to organise your own time and workload ensuring you are responsive to clients' needs and are able to work to completion deadlines
• Experience of working in a fast-paced practice, at times working to challenging deadlines
• Exceptional client facing skills and able to operate as a 'trusted advisor'
• The ability to develop long standing client relationships
• A demonstrable interest in the Construction industry
• A broad technical grounding across Real Estate
• The ability to deal with complex technical legal problems
• A commercial approach to problem solving and providing innovative solutions
• Thoroughness and strong attention to detail
• Confidence in managing internal and external relationships
• The willingness to participate in business development and profile-raising activities

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.