Private Client Senior Associate

Private Client Senior Associate | 5 Years PQE | International Firm | Manchester

A rare chance to be a senior figure in a small, bespoke Private Client team while standing on the platform of a large international firm. The team is deliberately compact, which means visibility, ownership and a realistic route upwards rather than a queue of senior lawyers ahead of you. Clients are high net worth and ultra high net worth, and the work carries a genuine international dimension.

The Firm

This is a large international firm with a substantial UK presence and an established Manchester office. Private Client sits within that wider platform, which means access to corporate, real estate and tax colleagues when matters demand it.
What makes this role unusual is the shape of the team. Private Client here is a specialist, boutique style practice operating inside a firm of significant scale.

Most private client lawyers face a choice between the two: the autonomy and visibility of a small team, or the clients and resources of a large one. This is both. You will not be one senior associate among twenty, and your contribution will be obvious to the people who decide on promotions.

The firm's international network brings a dimension that most regional private client practices cannot match. Expect cross border estates, internationally mobile families and wealth structuring with a European element, alongside a strong domestic caseload. Prior international experience is welcome but not a prerequisite.

The Role

You will advise high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals, families and business owners on estate planning, succession and wealth preservation, taking strategic ownership of your matters from the outset. At five years PQE in a team of this size, that responsibility arrives immediately rather than in stages.

Much of the work is collaborative. You will coordinate with accountants, tax advisers, trustees and HMRC to deliver joined up advice, and you will have real scope to develop your own client relationships and profile in the Manchester market. Supervising and mentoring junior lawyers forms part of the role, as does contributing to the direction the practice takes as it grows.

The caseload spans the full breadth of private wealth work:

• Will drafting where trusts and business assets are in play
• Long term succession and wealth preservation strategy for families with substantial holdings
• Estate administration, from the straightforward through to complex, high value matters
• Tax planning across inheritance tax, capital gains and structured lifetime gifting
• Trust creation, administration and restructuring, alongside advising trustees on their duties
• Family investment companies and other wealth holding vehicles
• Lifetime planning, including Lasting Powers of Attorney
• Court of Protection work, covering deputyship applications and the ongoing administration that follows
• Matters carrying a cross border dimension

Requirements

• Qualified Solicitor at around five years PQE with a strong private client background
• Track record advising HNW and UHNW individuals, families and business owners
• Solid technical grounding across succession and will drafting, trusts, estate administration, inheritance tax, LPAs and Court of Protection work
• Exposure to complex estates where business, agricultural, investment or property assets are involved
• Commercially minded, and comfortable holding client relationships directly
• Able to run a busy and varied caseload without letting standards slip
• Willing to take on the development of junior lawyers
• Ambitious, with partnership in view over the longer term
• STEP qualification welcome but not a requirement

What's on Offer

• Seniority in a small, specialist team with a large international firm behind it
• Direct visibility with the people who decide on progression
• A realistic route towards partnership rather than a distant one
• International work through the firm's wider network
• Room to build your own following and profile across the Manchester market
• Supervisory responsibility and a say in how the team develops
• Competitive salary and excellent benefits
• Hybrid working

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