Solicitor

Shoosmiths - UK Law Firm of the Year Winner at the Legal Week British Legal Awards 2015.

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.

Tax is a cost which, like anything else, needs to be managed. Failure to take it into account at an early stage can mean the difference between success and failure. Our team aims to provide advice that is clear, commercial and concise, in order to help clients achieve a successful outcome.  We specialise in handling corporate, real estate, EIS and VCT tax matters for large corporates and our lawyers are skilled at looking for commercial solutions, whether dealing with general tax planning, tax efficient employee and remuneration packages, investing and exit tax structuring, or negotiating with HMRC.

We are members of the international alliance of law firms, World Services Group, with which we work closely to provide solutions across tax boundaries.

The work of the tax team can be broadly divided into four main categories:

Corporate support.  A significant proportion of our work involves supporting our national team of over 95 corporate lawyers.  In this respect we commonly advise on the tax implications of private equity transactions and transaction structuring, M&A, tax planning for management teams, reorganisations and restructuring including debt restructuring and demergers and advice on joint venture projects.

VCT and EIS.  We have one of the UK’s leading VCT/EIS tax practices and, as such, a significant proportion of our time is dedicated to advising investors and, in some cases, individual shareholders on their qualifying investments.  We structure and restructure investments to ensure compliance and frequently engage with HMRC to seek clearances and to better understand and pre-empt the impact of the continuously evolving legislative framework in this area.

Real estate support.  As a firm we employ over 200 real estate practitioners.  Part of the role of our tax team is to support those practitioners by advising on SDLT, LBTT, VAT, capital allowances and the CIS.  We have a large number of developer clients whom we structure development transactions for, giving rise to more complex real estate project based tax issues.

Employee incentives.  We frequently implement ESS and EMI schemes, both on a stand-alone basis and in the context of M&A and private equity deal structuring.  We also implement and advise on growth/hurdle share schemes, CSOPs and SAYE schemes. 

A thriving three Partner team lead by Kate Featherstone and Tom Wilde, this role offers an excellent opportunity for the successful individual to become involved in a broad range of tax issues.

The ideal candidate will ideally have gained some post qualified experience at either a leading City or regional practice and be able to demonstrate knowledge and experience of a range of some or all of the above areas

This is an excellent oppotunity to join a friendly, collegiate and high performing team. 

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.