Associate – Private Property (3-6 PQE)
The Role
Forming an integral part of the Private Property team, the Associate role will advise a variety of UK and international clients on a range of legal matters that are relevant to landed estate ownership and management as well as in respect of general private property ownership. As such, the role incorporates a blend of ongoing client management and strategic advice with pure property transactional work. Working for a range of partners within the team, this is an opportunity for those looking to develop their careers and breadth of experience within a friendly collegiate team that is widely recognised for its expertise in this area.
The Team
The team specialises in looking after landed estate clients – consisting of private individuals (from the UK or overseas), trusts, charities or corporate entities – and in acting on high value transactions of whole estates, country houses, farms, equestrian property and other residential property. In addition to transactional work, the landed estate advisory role includes providing legal support for day-to-day management of our clients’ landed estates, often acting as the main point of contact between the client and the firm. This involves a significant amount of cross-departmental work and internal referrals.
The team in Cheltenham consists of a Partner, Consultant, Senior Associate, Associate, Title Specialist, Paralegal and a Trainee.
The firm’s Private Property practice forms part of a wider Landed Estates group that includes leading partners in the prime central London, outer London and Home Counties residential property, agricultural and country house markets. It is recognised in the Chambers guide (Bands 1 and 2), Chambers High Net Worth Awards, Spear’s 500 and The Legal 500 (Band 1). The Private Property practice forms an integral part of our Band 1 Private Client and broader Private Wealth practice. This is an extremely powerful domestic and international private client business which acts as a continuing source of new instructions into the Private Property group.
It comprises approximately 100 staff that includes 11 Partners, a number of Legal Directors, Title Specialists, Senior Associates, Associates, Trainees, Apprentices and a team of dedicated support staff. Our lawyers are mainly City of London trained and many are ranked as leaders in their fields.
Our other teams across the firm are ranked Band 1 by Legal 500 in five practice areas, including Corporate & Commercial, Employment, Agriculture and Estates, Personal Tax, trusts and probate and Commercial Property. As a firm we have exacting standards that require expertise, rigor, accountability and a personal service to a wide range of clients. The Private Property group is a friendly and inclusive team, offering lots of training and opportunities for you to progress your career.
The Private Client Division
The Private Client Division across our three UK locations incorporates our Private Property team. It has extensive market-leading expertise in advising individuals, trustees, families and charities in relation to their property and private affairs.
We are experienced in handling a full kaleidoscope of work for our private clients whilst adding our particular expertise in many specialist areas:-
- Rural Business & Landed Estates
- Private Property
- Charitable Trusts & Philanthropy
- Estate Planning & Succession
- Matrimonial and family
- Probate & Estate Administration
- Tax
- Trust Establishment, Management & Taxation
- International and UK Private Wealth Disputes
We offer not simply technical expertise within the areas listed but take a rounded and long-term approach to the legal needs of our clients, using our fully integrated firm-wide services to ensure that the needs of our clients are proactively best served.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Provide practical and commercial legal advice to clients in a clear and succinct manner
- Assist with developing and maintaining client relationships
- Manage and prioritise a substantial and varied workload efficiently and cost effectively with supervision, appropriate to level of expertise
- Draft accurately and logically, making appropriate use of precedents
- Apply a commercial approach to research and evaluate relevance and accuracy in delivery of advice
- Support Partners in client marketing and business development activities to develop the department’s client base and network of referrers and contacts
- Identify client opportunities and take appropriate steps to follow through
- Contribute to divisional knowledge and know-how initiatives
- Where appropriate, delegate, co-ordinate and supervise the work of more junior members of the team
Person Specification
- Have strong commercial acumen and be client focused
- Good experience in the country house/rural property market
- Demonstrate good judgement and a good legal and commercial understanding of client’s particular needs
- Be confident to work autonomously and as part of a team
- Demonstrate excellent time management skills
- Be organised and capable of running a significant number of files and work matters simultaneously
- Have the ability to develop effective working relations at all levels
- Be confident in both verbal and written communication with a diverse range of clients
- Have a flexible approach and willing to go the extra mile
For a detailed specification please download the job description in the documents section of this page.
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Agencies
When we require external assistance with our vacancies, we will reach out to our PSL supply chain. Please be aware we operate a very strict PSL policy with close relationships with our suppliers and cannot respond to agencies outside of the PSL. We also do not accept speculative CVs as an introduction. Please do not contact individual hiring managers or the Talent Acquisition team.