Associate NQ +

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Our national Property Litigation team has extensive experience and unrivalled expertise in dealing with this complex area of the law. With one of the largest property litigation practices in the UK, we are able to assist clients in all areas of their property needs, whether as occupier, investor or developer.  On the occupier side we act for many household names in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors across large portfolios.  On the investor side we act for substantial UK landlords.  Both sides of the occupier and investor practice involve break notices; dilapidations; forfeiture; issues relating to consents; lease renewals; possession claims; recovery of rent and other arrears and service charge issues.  On the developer side we act for numerous substantial clients (both public and private) from traditional housebuilders, student accommodation, build to rent, senior living, commercial developments and substantial regeneration projects.   

This area of work involves strategic and risk management advice, rights to light and other easement disputes; development agreement and JV disputes and restrictive covenants.  We also advise on a number of niche areas of law, including property related telecommunications issues, judicial review, and agricultural law.

Due to growth, we are looking for an additional Associate to join our Property Litigation team in either Manchester or Leeds. This is a brilliant opportunity to work alongside the local and national team, advising our clients on high quality, technical work.

This is a varied role where no two days are ever the same, but we would expect candidates to be able to demonstrate an understanding of, and passion for, the areas of law undertaken by the team, a willingness to learn and excellent client service skills.  

This opening will present you with a great opportunity to work alongside experts in the field and be supported with a clear career path. 

We hold a strong belief in culture and community, and genuinely believe we have something different to offer you at Shoosmiths.  This is reflected in everything we say and do from our use of technology to enable agile working, to the team spirit and culture and our collaborative way of delivering across offices. We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed expectations around how and where we work and moving forwards we anticipate that this position will involve a mix of home and office working.

We are a values-driven business – our values are at the core of the firm and we evaluate how we behave in accordance with these values through a competency framework. This role is considered to be at competency Level 2 in our internal framework, depending on experience.

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.