Senior Associate / Legal Director

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 500 lawyers and legal professionals based in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: property, corporate services, litigation and private client advisory.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do.  RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

The Property Litigation team sits within the Litigation department and currently has sub-teams in 5 of our offices (Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London and Norwich); the Property Litigation team is the 10th largest in the country consisting of 4 partners and over 30 fee-earners.

Consistently ranked Top Tier for Legal 500 and Chambers directories, our Property Litigation Team acts for a wide range of clients including private individuals, partnerships, trusts, registered social landlords, national housebuilders and corporate clients in both the public and private sectors, also providing essential support to what clients and legal commentators consider to be one of the largest and best regarded property departments in the East of England.

Our lawyers come from a range of backgrounds, including major City practices, other major national and regional firms, industry and local government. Within the team there is a commitment to providing our clients with the very best level of service based on a thorough understanding of the law, applied with common sense and commercial acumen. We aim to provide ‘next level’ law.

We also pride ourselves in our expertise in specialisms that attract nationwide instructions for matters such as telecoms, leasehold enfranchisement, insolvency, rights of way, commons and greens, rights to light, and agricultural property.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a dynamic market leading team dealing with exceptionally high-quality work.

Due to growth, we have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Associate / Legal Director to join our highly regarded property litigation team in the Chelmsford office. The Chelmsford Property Litigation team is seeking a senior hire to join the current team and provide fee-earning and management support to the partner who leads the team

Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Running and managing files, delegating to junior lawyers and trainees as appropriate.
• Interacting directly with clients and managing their expectations.
• Supervising and training junior fee-earners and trainees
• Providing management support to partner
• Building the reputation of the firm and the team throughout the Essex region and beyond into London.

The candidate will have solid experience of high value commercial property disputes with private client and agricultural experience a bonus. He or she will be likely to be more than 5 years PQE gained in a property litigation (rather than general litigation) environment and be keen to develop their career in one of the most dynamic top 50 firms in the county. He or she will have a willingness towards and aptitude for supervision and encouragement of juniors and the skills to forging strong and loyal client relationships.

We are committed to recruiting individuals on merits of suitability for each role, based on qualifications and experience. All applications are treated fairly and equally regardless of sexual orientation, race, disability, religious beliefs and any other protected characteristic, ensuring that there are equal opportunities at all stages of the recruitment process.

Benefits

One of the best things about joining Birketts is our rewards package. At Birketts, we are appreciative of the people who work for us and our rewards package is reviewed regularly to reflect that. You can expect to receive:

• 30 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share / Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance   - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid ESG day (Environmental, Social and Governance)
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Eye Care Voucher
• Agile Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy.