Paralegal

It’s the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams, together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves, from when and where you work, to how you dress; we focus on outputs.  

Want to find more about our amazing benefits?

Our multi-disciplinary Real Estate group is highly regarded by our clients and within the sector. It comprises not only lawyers but town also town and country planners and sector focused financial advisers. We’ve brought experts into our services in planning, development, investment, landlord and tenant matters, construction and litigation with a particular emphasis on energy, retail, housing, education, finance and investment funds.

Our Social Housing Sales team is one of the largest in the Midlands specialising in all aspects of property acquisition and disposal for more than 60 Registered Providers across the country. We lead our competitors in the delivery of extra care housing for people over the age of 55. In the last 12 months we have disposed of more than 250 void residential dwellings, 450 extra care properties and 300 shared ownership units

We are looking for a Paralegal to join the vibrant Social Housing Sales team based in our Stratford-Upon-Avon office, part of the firm’s Real Estate Business Unit.

You will work with the team to provide a high quality legal service to Housing Association clients, dealing with a variety of sale transactions including shared ownership, ‘right to buy’, ‘Surrender’ and Plot Sales’ Transactions.

What you will be doing / or your key duties will be:

• working to strict deadlines
• maintaining good file management
• providing legal transactional support to a large team
• dealing with Housing Association clients in a professional manner and maintaining close contact
• liaising regularly with Housing Associations, and providing regular updates within specific timeframes on progress with plot sales and updating weekly reports
• running a high volume and varied case load and handling queries and enquiries efficiently
• participating in group and team meetings in a positive and proactive manner

Role requirements:

• a minimum of 12 months’ practical experience of property conveyancing transactional work (social housing experience preferred but not essential)
• previous responsibility dealing with shared ownership, ‘right to buy’, ‘Surrender’ and Plot Sales’ Transactions preferred but not essential
• strong IT skills
• a high degree of initiative and an ability to cope in a demanding environment
• to be tidy, well organised and motivated
• to be able to self-manage and take ownership of problems
• the ability to work well in a team and develop good working relationships with colleagues and others
• good communication skills with the confidence to liaise openly and clearly with colleagues and clients
• the ability to produce a high standard of work, sometimes under pressure, whilst maintaining accuracy and good attention to detail

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.

We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. This role will be a hybrid of home based and working from either our Stratford upon Avon or Birmingham hubs as required.  

Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.