Solicitor/Associate

3-5

Permanent

Full-time

Residential Development

Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, London, Norwich or Sevenoaks

The firm

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

The department

The Residential Development Team at Birketts is expanding. The team includes 5 partners and 40 other fee earners at all levels working collaboratively together across six of Birketts’ seven offices. The team also works closely with other Birketts’ teams, which includes full support from tax, planning, environmental, construction and Real Estate litigation teams.

The Residential Development Team sits within Birketts’ highly regarded and one of the UK’s largest dedicated Real Estate teams. Our property lawyers are particularly experienced in dealing with development and investment, planning, secured lending and landlord and tenant matters.

Our lawyers come from a range of backgrounds, including major City practices, other major national and regional firms, industry and local government and include individuals with construction, planning and commercial expertise. The depth and range of expertise means the team can work together in major and complex transactions on cost effective terms, providing our clients with true value for money.

We are people orientated, offering a dynamic, progressive and supportive culture where you can learn from our Partners, Legal Directors and Senior Associates who are experts in their field.

Purpose of job

The Residential Development Team acts for a broad range of developers (both small regional companies to national developers), affordable housing providers, local authorities, promoters and landowners.

Developments we work on regularly range from 5 to 4,000 dwellings, and can in some instances be worked on for 10 years or more, giving the team members extensive opportunities to grow long standing relationships with clients and a real sense of pride in schemes worked on.

All members of our Residential Development team play an active role in marketing and practice development as well as providing a high level of service to existing clients within the team.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a successful and growing team, joining a top 50 law firm which enjoys an excellent reputation and offers excellent and exciting career prospects. You will be based in one of the six offices set out above, supported and working with each local team, but also working collaboratively cross office with other team members.

Our Legal Talent framework can see Solicitors become Associates after 3/4 years and Senior Associates after 6 years with further promotion to Legal Director and Partner. We welcome candidates who can bring ambition, drive and growth to our team and in return we can offer the first-class training with a progressive career path.

Accountabilities

• Working with and supporting senior fee earners across our offices in the Residential Development Team on a wide variety of residential development and strategic land acquisitions and disposals (options, conditional and unconditional contracts, promotion agreements)
• Working on affordable housing transactions for both Registered Providers and private developers;
• Carrying out title due diligence, reporting on title – including searches and site visits;
• Understanding development infrastructure delivery and working on transfers and easements to bring services and access rights to development sites;
• Dealing with lender requirements for development funding;
• Proactively working with other specialisms within Birketts to ensure full and commercial advice is given to clients;
• Drafting documents accurately and commercially;
• Early responsibility and opportunity to network and grow client relationships.
• Liaison with our plot sales team within Residential Development for site set up and handover, but this role is not to support the plot sales function.

The candidate

We are seeking two solicitors to come and join our Residential Development Team on a full time permanent basis. Preferably you will have trained within a well-regarded city, national or regional firm and already have experience in the residential development sector and wish to further specialise in this practice area.

Equal opportunities

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid CSR Day
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Agile/Hybrid Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy

https://www.birketts.co.uk/recognition-reward-benefits/

Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.