About Gowling WLG

We have more than 1,400 legal professionals working around the world. Our offices span across 19 cities in Canada, the UK, Continental Europe, Asia and the Middle East. There’s strength in our global presence – we embrace our differing cultures and work together as one team. We also understand the importance of investing in relationships that build knowledge and trust, while we provide legal advice that’s tailored to our clients’ world.

‘Our people and distinct culture are what makes us different. We know this through client and employee feedback and this drives everything we do” Chris Oglethorpe, HR Director.

There are great opportunities for all our people to flourish. Through training and personal development they can grow in their role. Our people are the cornerstone of our success, across legal, business support and early talent. We care about their happiness and believe in the power of teamwork. We want them to feel empowered and recognise that by supporting, respecting and embracing everyone’s different contributions we achieve more.

Working flexibly, working fairly

Agile working offers people more freedom and flexibility in where, when, and how they work. As technology advances and our workforce becomes more diverse – and with clients often working to a 24/7 rhythm – having extra flexibility is key to helping us balance work and other commitments sensibly and productively.

By supporting people to choose where and when they get their work done, we help them to make a full and fair contribution to their team – while maintaining that all important work-life balance.

Where possible and depending on business needs, we will consider all flexible working options such as part-time working, job sharing, working from home and staggered hours. If in considering a role with Gowling WLG you favour flexibility in your working arrangements, please discuss this with the recruitment team in the early stages of the application process.

About the team:

Housing Development and Regeneration team, one of the top teams in the country, sits within the Real Estate Group, the third largest Real Estate practice in the UK.

The team of 130 comprises 10 partners and 65 lawyers, supported by a team of paralegals, advising on all aspects of residential development and housing led regeneration.  We act for house builders, mixed use developers, affordable housing providers, landowners (public and private) and investors in the residential sector.  The housing sector continues to be a key area of investment for the government, supported by opposition parties, and demographic demand requires a continuing increase in supply.  Our large, experienced team and excellent client base has a proven track record of resilience in the downturn and has enabled us to capitalise on housing sector growth.

Expertise:

The team’s areas of residential development expertise includes:

• acquisitions, disposals and exchanges of land and property, including serviced  parcels;
• overage arrangements, and security;
• strategic work – option agreements, promotion agreements and hybrids;
• collaboration, consortium and joint venture arrangements, with related site assembly;
• planning and infrastructure agreements;
• building licences and development agreements;
• development management agreements;
• mixed use schemes, with related structuring advice;
• private rented sector;
• institutional investment in the residential sector;
• investor acquisitions and disposals of residential portfolios;
• funding agreements

Cients include: Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Bloor, Miller, Crest Nicholson, Bellway, Keepmoat, Bovis and Avant.

Main purpose of the role:

To support land acquisition work, to deal with affordable housing disposals and to progress infrastructure agreements.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

You will be expected to:

• Build relationships with our developer clients to ensure that the affordable housing and infrastructure work streams operate smoothly and resolve any issues that may arise.
• Build internal relationships with other relevant sub-teams, within the firm, to ensure the necessary information is shared to ensure that the plots team, site setup team and affordable team all have the necessary information.
• Deal with ad hoc enquiries on development sites throughout their life cycle.
• Negotiate and draft affordable completion documentation and infrastructure documentation on behalf of developers.
• Support other fee earners in their immediate and strategic land deals which may include dealing with search and title reports, negotiating an insurance policy, reviewing warranties, drafting licences, preparing SDLT returns and generally assisting the fee earner and the client.
• The role will also include any other reasonable duties delegated by the other fee earners in the team.

Key Skills and Experience:

• The team prides itself on clear and practical advice with sound commercial judgment and swift and accurate implementation of instructions.
• Development experience is preferable, but not a necessity.

Equal Opportunities:

Gowling WLG is committed both to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment.  The firm believes in equality of opportunity regardless of race or racial group (including colour, nationality, ethnicity, national origins), religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender re-assignment and gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy, maternity and paternity.  This also includes any incidents of perceptive or associative discrimination and harassment.

At Gowling WLG we seek to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, to create an exciting and rewarding place to work.  Our aim is to fulfil everyone’s potential and together to achieve personal and business goals.

Standard hours of work are 9.30 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Friday with 1 hour for lunch (35 hours per week).

Work Locations

: 

Job

: Legal Support

Organisation

: Legal

Schedule

: Full-time

Employee status

: Regular