In-House Real Estate Lawyer

In-House Real Estate Solicitor | 4-8 Years PQE | Property Development | UK

A rare in-house opportunity to join the legal team of one of the UK's most established privately owned property development groups, working across the full lifecycle of residential development from site acquisition through to plot sales.

The Business

This privately owned property development group has been operating for over 35 years and has built a substantial and growing presence across the UK, accumulating more than 100 industry awards for design and quality along the way. The business operates across residential housebuilding, strategic land and contractor work for third party investment builders, with housebuilding at its core, delivering thousands of new homes per year and carrying significant growth ambitions.

As a privately owned business, it retains the culture and agility that larger corporate structures rarely allow.

The in-house legal team is split across construction and property. This role sits within the property team, working closely with a small number of colleagues and reporting directly to the Head of Legal. You will own your matters end to end and work directly with stakeholders across the business, with genuine scope to take on greater responsibility as you settle in.

The Role

The focus of the role is development work spanning the full property lifecycle.

Day to day you will:

• Run site acquisitions and disposals end to end, freehold and leasehold, including title review, due diligence, conditions precedent management and completions
• Review and negotiate conditional contracts, options, overage agreements, development agreements and associated ancillary documentation
• Support lettings and landlord and tenant workstreams including agreements for lease, licences and variations
• Advise on property risk across live projects covering title defects, easements, restrictive covenants, access, utilities and environmental matters
• Support the plot sales team on site set-up, preparation of precedent sales documents and day-to-day queries
• Coordinate legal input on planning conditions and obligations, liaising with external counsel where required
• Draft and negotiate commercial contracts spanning professional services, agency, marketing and NDAs
• Instruct and manage external counsel, controlling cost and ensuring quality and responsiveness
• Contribute to the team's ongoing development through templates, playbooks and checklists

Requirements

• Qualified solicitor with 4 to 8 years PQE
• Strong real estate transactional background with meaningful exposure to property development work, from private practice, in-house or both
• Confident and commercially minded, able to give clear and pragmatic advice to non-lawyers across a range of internal stakeholders
• Highly organised with the ability to prioritise a busy caseload and keep multiple transactions moving simultaneously
• Sound drafting and negotiation skills with strong attention to detail
• Prior in-house experience preferred
• Exposure to BTR, residential development, regeneration or mixed-use schemes an advantage

What's on Offer

• A genuinely interesting and varied in-house role with end-to-end ownership of matters
• Direct exposure to a high-volume, high-quality development programme
• A collaborative team environment within a business that has real scale and ambition
• The culture and flexibility of a privately owned business

To find out more, contact Joe Bryant at joe@jmc-legal.com or call 07441 937590