Real Estate - NQ - Senior Associate

The Firm

Hunters Legal are currently working with a leading international legal business with over 2,500 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. They have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Miami. They also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia, and Germany.

The firm is a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in insurance, health, and real estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. They represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. They act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial, and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 house builders.

They have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top-tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 of the firm's lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings. 

The firm's successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which they operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Their health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help their clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

The firm's commercial real estate team comprises 65 lawyers working across all offices – London, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, and Glasgow. It forms part of a wider real estate department including specialists in construction, planning, residential development, and property litigation.

The team has a strong and growing pipeline of work from existing and new clients and needs new team members from NQ to Legal Director (or equivalent) to service the needs of those clients.  The new team members will focus on commercial investment and development work, acting for institutional investors, property companies, and real estate developers.  The clients are London based, but they are looking for team members to join their existing commercial real estate teams nationally.

 “Easy to work with firm who give solid advice and are always available.” Legal 500 UK 2023, Commercial Property

 “Provide a reassuringly competent and efficient service, which is consistent across all team members. Their multi-disciplinary experience is easy to access and their partners and associates are an excellent blend of professional, experienced and approachable.” Legal 500 UK 2023, Commercial Property

Role Responsibility

An expanding team and increasing volumes of work mean that new team members are needed to play an essential, valued role in delivering the time-critical, high quality service expected by our clients. Working as part of dedicated client teams you will:

• Deliver time-critical projects for clients, working both independently and as part of a team, including delegating work where appropriate, always benefiting from appropriate supervision and supported by colleagues
• Understand and comply with client service level agreements and KPIs
• Get involved in business development and marketing activity
• Develop awareness of firm wide strategies
• Build an awareness of the firm's other services
• Grow your knowledge and skills by taking up the training and development opportunities available
• Support and develop more junior members of the team
• Manage financial performance by accurately budgeting, adjusting quotes to reflect changes in scope, timely billing and a focus on debt management.

 The Ideal Candidate

The successful candidate will be enthusiastic, dedicated, ambitious for themselves, for the real estate group and for the firm and have strong technical and client relationship skills appropriate to their level.

 Key technical skills (at a level appropriate to experience) include:

•  Commercial lease and asset management experience, acting for landlord or tenant
• Ability to report clearly to clients on due diligence and with advice; specifically experience of preparing reports on title and certificates of title
• Knowledge of sales and acquisitions transactions, both asset sales and sales within corporate wrappers, with and without debt funding
• Experience of commercial property development including exposure to pre-lets, forward fundings, rights of light concerns and associated construction and planning law issues
• Up to date knowledge of legal developments and case law.

Characteristics which the new team members will possess (again, at a level appropriate to their experience) include:

• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Team oriented and collegiate, willing to support more senior and junior colleagues in their work
• Excellent communication skills, both verbally and in writing
• Ability to analyse and apply legal principles and facts to derive technically sound, commercial strategies for complex matters
• Sound judgment in decision making and a focus on client needs
• Responsiveness to clients, intermediaries and colleagues within the firm
• Strong organisational skills coupled with a pragmatic and methodical approach to handling a variety of commercial property matters simultaneously
• Flexibility and the ability to work under pressure when necessary
• Attention to detail and a concern for quality
• An awareness of external market conditions, affecting the firm and its clients
• Confidence and a willingness to engage with and develop existing client relationships and build new ones through own initiative and firm initiatives

If you are interested in this opportunity, or for any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Stefan on 0203 355 2262 or directly via email Stefan@hunterslegal.com