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Job Title Property Litigation Associate/Senior Associate (5+ PQE)
Location Birmingham, Bristol or Leeds
Description

Make a Real Impact

Bevan Brittan is a leading commercial law firm. Alongside our recognised expertise in housing, local government, and health and social care, we are specialists in the construction, energy and resource management, higher education and financial services sectors.

Supported by our valued business services professionals, our award-winning and growing legal teams provide almost 2,000 organisations with commercial, corporate, property (transactional and litigation), finance, regulatory, employment and litigation (commercial and clinical negligence) legal and advisory services.

As a responsible business, we embrace our four values: Relationships, Reputation, Responsible and Results. These give us a sense of purpose. They influence the decisions we make and how we work with each other. Importantly, they motivate us to deliver meaningful outcomes for our clients and the communities that we're part of.

Consistently recognised as one of The Times Best Law Firms and highly ranked across the legal directories, we are proud of our hard-earned reputation. Our 2023/24 financial results confirmed both revenue and profit growth for an eleventh consecutive year, ensuring our ability to continue investing in our people.

Looking to the future, we're targeting ambitious growth and success. And we're looking for the best people to be part of it.

Join a team of experts and progressive thinkers

The Property Litigation Team sits within our Property Department, which has experienced significant growth over the last five years and that growth is set to continue, with major tender wins on high profile projects and new clients coming on board across the country.

The team operates nationally as one team, with lawyers across our Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds offices working collaboratively on client work and other initiatives. The team and many members of it are recognised in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 for our skills and expertise.

We offer a very supportive working environment, and our lawyers regularly work as members of litigation or multi-disciplinary client service teams that involve colleagues of all levels working together. The team's culture is open, friendly, and progressive with regular in person and virtual collaboration events arranged to nurture team playing and collegiality. New joiners have commented positively about how people-centred our ways of working are, with colleagues at every level being valued, supported and invested in.

We operate a flexible hybrid-working model designed to give colleagues autonomy over their working week.

The role

Reflecting the firm's growth and future plans, a vacancy has arisen within our Property Litigation team. As we work on a truly cross-office basis, the role can be based in our Birmingham, Bristol or Leeds offices (with flexible hybrid-working).

This role will involve advising a varied and interesting range of public and private sector clients on the full range of contentious property advice and litigation. Our clients are many and varied and include an impressive list of central Government bodies, registered providers of social housing, local authorities, secured lenders, NHS bodies, higher education institutions, property developers, and management companies.

The successful candidate will handle property litigation in UK courts and tribunals, and will also provide wider contentious property advice outside of the litigation process. The team regularly work on cases in the First-tier and Upper Tribunals, and in the courts up to Court of Appeal level, and has recently been involved in a number of leading cases that have either made new law or clarified the existing law.

Advising clients on the Building Safety Act 2022 and residential leasehold management work (e.g. residential forfeiture, service charges, and section 20 consultation) are growth areas for the team and so experience and/or an interest in either of those areas would be helpful, but is not essential.

As a more experienced member of the team, we are keen that our new recruit actively engages in business development in order to support the Partners with their ambitious plans for growth.

What we are looking for from you

The successful applicant will possess the following skills key to the role:

  • Strong technical credentials and demonstrable relevant experience
  • First class written skills with an aptitude for drafting and legal analysis
  • A proactive mind-set and a professional approach to work
  • A keenness to work collaboratively with colleagues as a team player
  • Experience of or an interest in supervising and delegating to junior colleagues
  • A strong desire to manage the running of their own caseload with ongoing support from senior colleagues
  • Confidence in working directly with clients
  • Excellent project management skills and the ability to work efficiently to meet deadlines
  • A practical and commercial approach
  • A genuine interest in business development
  • An ability to build strong relationships with clients and intermediaries

Work with approachable people

When we ask colleagues what makes Bevan Brittan a great place to work, the most popular thing they say is "the people". The overwhelming consensus is that we make time for each other. We welcome questions and support each other. Naturally, we look for new colleagues who align with our values.

Supported to be your best

Hybrid working

We operate a hybrid working model based on the needs of our clients, teams and people. Our core business hours are 9am - 5:15pm Monday to Friday, but we're open to our people working more flexibly around those times and welcome a conversation with you if you have any questions about this. We try to offer you the flexibility to work your week in a way that suits you.

Learning, Development & Progression

We're committed to supporting your professional and personal development needs.This means that we offer a range of tailored training courses and you will have lots of opportunity to learn from those around you. We actively encourage progression and this is reflected in our annual review and promotion processes. You will be supported by your line manager to achieve your full potential.

Wellbeing

As a Bevan Brittan employee, you'll have access to a variety of services that support your wellbeing. We've pledged our commitment to The Mindful Business Charter and lots of our people contribute to our Wellbeing Responsible Business strand, which organises an annual calendar of wellbeing events and initiatives.

Benefits

  • A minimum of 25 days holiday (plus the option to buy up to an additional 5 days)
  • Discretionary bonus scheme
  • Generous pension scheme
  • Private medical insurance through Vitality
  • Biennial private health assessment through Nuffield Health
  • Life assurance
  • Access to Employee Assistance Programme
  • Cycle to work scheme

Embracing our differences and valuing inclusion

Our shared aim is that everyone is welcome and can feel comfortable being themselves at Bevan Brittan. To support this, we actively value and promote equality, diversity and inclusion in everything that we do. You'll be empowered and supported through our employee led networks, diverse colleagues, and a broad range of firmwide initiatives.

Recognising the unique contributions that a diverse workforce can bring to our business, we encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We take great pride in being a Disability Confident Employer. If you need any adjustments throughout the recruitment process or have any questions, please get in touch with our recruitment team by emailing recruitment@bevanbrittan.com

Acting responsibly, now and for the future

To us, being a responsible business is second nature; a core part of Bevan Brittan's identity. Our colleagues are heavily involved in shaping and delivering activity across the four pillars of our Responsible Business strategy: Community Engagement; Environmental Sustainability; Equality, Diversity & Inclusion; and Wellbeing.

Our people deliver pro bono legal work for charities and not-for-profit organisations. We play an active role in our local communities and donated £100,000 across our four regional office charities last year. We are also proudly carbon neutral. We've achieved the UN's Climate Neutral Now accreditation and our environmental sustainability plan focuses on achieving our net zero carbon target by 2040.

Collectively, the four pillars ensure we look after our colleagues' wellbeing; offer an environment in which everyone can progress on merit, give something back to the communities in which we work; and protect the environment.