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Travers Smith
Travers Smith is a leading full-service law firm, with a wealth of
experience in its areas of specialisation. The firm has a
market-leading reputation for its international expertise in Asset
Management, M&A and Dispute Resolution & Investigations.
Clients include asset managers across the alternative asset classes
(private equity, venture, credit, infrastructure and real estate),
publicly listed and private companies, financial institutions, and
other business enterprises involved in large and complex UK and
cross-border matters, transactions and disputes. Our purpose is to
provide the highest quality of service to our clients whilst enabling
our people to achieve professional fulfilment in a supportive,
inclusive and enjoyable working environment.
The Department
We are one of the biggest tax departments in a UK London law firm in
relation to firm size (with circa 30 lawyers including 7 partners);
this represents approximately 10% of the firm by reference to people
and revenues. Our size gives us a breadth of expertise, knowhow and
influence which smaller tax departments simply cannot match. We are
very highly regarded for advice to private equity, venture, credit,
infrastructure, and real estate funds. We are preeminent in private
equity transactional tax, advising both financial sponsors and
management teams. We also have considerable expertise in tax
structuring relating to infrastructure investment, capital markets,
finance and real estate. As a result, the variety of work available to
our associates is very broad and of high quality.
The approach of businesses to tax influences the corporate governance
agenda and is of growing interest in assessing the behaviour of
national and international businesses. Our involvement in a variety of
industry representative bodies enables us to anticipate developments
and help to influence policy to ensure that where possible, new law is
clear, effective and well-targeted. For our clients, tax is never a
standalone conversation but is integral to every commercial
engagement. As such, our Tax team is required to play a vital role in
every major corporate and commercial decision faced by our clients and
we expect our associates to be able to communicate effectively with
internal and external clients to explain the tax issues relevant to
their transactions and assist them in finding appropriate solutions.
Tax advisory services form a core strength, but we make sure that we
think beyond structuring and tackle real-world implementation too. Our
lawyers have thorough technical understanding of tax legislation,
policy and an awareness of our clients' commercial objectives.
The Tax team operates in a supportive and inclusive way, which aims
to allow all members to perform to the best of their abilities and to
be themselves at work. We continue to work hard to promote diversity
of all descriptions within the team and have already achieved some
notable successes in this regard, not least a partner group which is
currently around 60% female. We place a value on being good "firm
citizens" and we support our associates in taking part in a
variety of initiatives at a wider firm level, including D&I, CSR,
Graduate Recruitment, and other firmwide business development and
management initiatives. We have our own associate social committee
which organises a variety of department-focused and cross-departmental
events and we have regular offsite and team-building events.
We place a very high value on learning and development for our
associates. This is achieved through structured formal training,
including weekly whole department meetings and supplementary training
for junior associates, and also through our room sharing system, where
rooms are shared between a number of lawyers of varying degrees of
seniority. Added to this, there is a programme of cross-departmental
training which Tax associates can participate in, and regular
"milestone training" sessions, aimed at giving associates
training in a variety of skills relevant to their level of seniority.
Key Responsibilities
The Senior Associate role in relation to Transactional Tax will
include, but is not limited to:
Advising on a broad range of tax matters including M&A,
Finance and Real Estate transactions. With a particular focus and
specialism on Real Estate Tax.
Ability to manage matters and work with light touch supervision.
Advising on the tax aspects of private M&A transactions (and
related transactions and structuring) from the perspective of a
variety of stakeholders, including financial sponsors, corporate
shareholders, management teams and finance providers.
Tax advisory work to corporate clients.
Advice on financing transactions, real estate transactions,
restructurings and management equity incentives.
Tax advisory work on IPOs and other fundraisings and capital
market transactions.
The work of the Transactional Tax team frequently crosses over with
the work done by the other sub-groups within the Tax team - being the
Asset Management and Incentives and Remuneration groups - and our
associates will have the opportunity to collaborate with other members
of the Tax team in relation to work of this sort, and, where
appropriate, to undertake work that crosses over into these areas.
There is no requirement for associates to rotate through the different
sub-groups, but for those who wish to do so (or who simply wish to
gain some experience in these areas whilst remaining in the
Transactional Tax team), we can generally facilitate this, subject to
business need and other considerations. In addition, there may be
opportunities for client or overseas law firm secondments from time to time.
Person Specification -
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
An outstanding academic record.
UK Qualified Solicitor (preferably with experience at a City law firm).
Experience in transactional tax (M&A, Finance and Real
Estate), commensurate with PQE level.
Substantive Real Estate Tax experience would be seen as an advantage.
Evidence of strong verbal and written communication skills.
An ability to demonstrate proactivity and good transaction management.
A team player who thrives working within a collegiate environment.
A willingness to show commitment and engagement to the firm's culture.
This is a transactional role rather than a pure structuring role and
candidates would therefore be expected to have experience of and / or
an interest in drafting and negotiating transaction terms and
documents as well as structuring and advisory work.
The firm would also be open to discussing flexible and agile working
arrangements for the right candidate.
