< Back to jobs

Job Title Construction Lawyer
Closing Date 30-Aug-2023
Position Full Time
Business Entity Gateley Legal
Department Construction
Location Manchester – United Kingdom
Job Type Experienced Hire
Description

The Team

Our nationally recognised construction team advises on all kinds of construction projects for contractors, developers and housebuilders and has experience in dealing with international construction projects.

Our clients include many of the major housebuilders, local authorities, universities, major developers, landowners and employers not directly involved in construction. We also act for a wide range of those delivering construction projects including major national and regional contractors, subcontractors and professional consultants.

The Roles

Our business is ambitious for success and in order to manage a strong pipeline of existing work and take up many other opportunities, we have exciting plans to significantly grow our Construction offering.

We are looking to appoint lawyers at all levels to grow our team and the roles are available across our network of Gateley Legal offices; including Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle.

For roles in Northern Ireland, our team in Belfast work closely with the wider national construction team in England. You will have the opportunity to work across jurisdictions (England & Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland) and develop your practice in the local Belfast market.

Examples of work across the Construction team include:

  • Assisting clients with various construction disputes, relating to issues such as payment, delays and defects.
  • Supporting clients with non-contentious construction work, procurement and project funding arrangements.
  • Providing strategic support and advice to clients on fire and building safety issues in projects in England and Wales since the Grenfell Tragedy in 2017and related disputes.

The Gateley group act in a multi-disciplinary capacity for most of the UK's top 20 Housebuilders, so we are well positioned to advise clients who are acutely exposed to the building safety issues affecting the construction and development industry since the Grenfell Tragedy.

We are trusted advisors to the UK's largest residential developers; helping them navigate rapidly evolving government policies and legislation, including the significant expansion of liabilities brought about by the Building Safety Pledge and the Building Safety Act 2022.

We support our clients with all aspects of their remediation procurement strategies and represent them in the defence and pursuit of formal legal claims, including £multi-million disputes in arbitrations and court proceedings.

Successful candidates will play a leading role in this fast moving, technically challenging area of law and will benefit from working with industry leading clients, lawyers and experts across many disciplines including architectural, fire engineering, structural, project management and quantity surveying.

Key Skills & Experience

We have opportunities in a range of roles:

  • Experienced solicitors, from 4PQE+ with construction litigation experience (including ideally professional negligence work). We will also consider candidates with a broad construction or general commercial litigation background (with a focus on construction disputes / professional negligence of such cases) but who also practise in other areas.
  • A dedicated Professional Support Lawyer who is keen to play a key role with supporting the team on fire and building safety issues, assisting with regular training sessions and insight documents (for internal and external audiences), preparing precedent documents and implementing legal tech solutions that will drive efficiencies and improvements in service delivery for our clients.

Candidates will also have the following skills / attributes:

  • Interest and enthusiasm in the wider political issues and policies that affect our clients, so we demonstrate that we are more than simply legal advisors and are fully aware of the 'big pictures' issues that will impact upon our clients' businesses and their decision making.
  • A forward thinking approach to innovation and legal technology, always eager identify ways of delivering improved processes for the benefit of our clients.
  • Ambition to build and grow a network of clients within professional services
  • Excellent inter-personal skills and a confident manner in engaging with clients and colleagues
  • A strong team work ethic and the ability to work effectively under pressure and will thrive in a collaborative environment of working with clients and colleagues across multiple locations.
  • Drive, commitment, self-motivation and a "can do" attitude
  • The ability to exercise discretion and professionalism at all times
  • Exceptional attention to detail.

The Benefits

With support, coaching and feedback from some of the most engaging colleagues around our great development and progression opportunities will reward your commitment and loyalty. We offer a competitive remuneration package where you'll be rewarded for your individual performance with an opportunity to receive an annual bonus.

In addition, we have a wide range of learning and development opportunities via our Learn platform to develop new skills and progress your career. Our My Flex comprehensive rewards package includes options covering annual leave (and the benefit of purchasing extra days), cycle to work, critical illness benefit, employee assistance programme, group personal pension, health care, season ticket loan and many more benefits (grade dependent). Finally, with Perks At Work/Home you can select a host of retail benefits that suit your needs alongside a Community Online Academy, free courses for all from fitness to coding to languages to hip hop dance.

We are Gateley

We are forward thinking and straight talking, our approach is to find solutions to the problems that our clients face. Gateley is a legal and professional services group, we are a group of formidable experts in all areas of law and business. Passionate problem solvers, we get our kicks from finding the right answers and getting our legal and business clients where they need to be. We support more than 5,700 active clients, ranging from FTSE 100 companies to private individuals, in the UK and beyond. Being part of Gateley is not just about the expertise that you bring; it's about attitude too.

The 'Gateley Story' is the story of our people and our culture. It is what has got us to where we are today as a successful business and it's the driving force behind the Gateley Team Spirit and the values that have shaped it. We have a set of shared internal values that capture what the Gateley Team Spirit is and this includes five elements that bind us all together as one Gateley: Ambitious for Success, Forward Thinking, Room to Breathe, Trusted to Do and Working Together. Every year across the group, we recognise members of our team that have gone and above and beyond and have lived these shared values. They are recognised at our annual Gateley Team Spirit awards.

Diversity, inclusion and well-being

Diversity, inclusion and well-being is an important part of Gateley Tweed's culture and values.

We recruit talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, providing equal opportunities for all to join our team regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, disability, or culture.

We create an exciting and rewarding place to work that aims to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals. We offer flexible working patterns to help our staff achieve a good work/ life balance and we encourage candidates seeking flexibility in their next role to apply for any of our vacancies.

Additional Information

If you are successful in receiving an offer of a role with our company a variety of pre-employment screening checks will be completed. Our screening checks can include but are not limited to your eligibility to work, professional and academic qualifications, any criminal records, your financial stability and references from previous employers. The screening that takes place will be relevant to your role and will vary from role to role.