Principal Associate

Weightmans is a Top 45 law firm with offices throughout the UK. Having been recognised as the leading legal employer at the annual Britain's Top Employers awards and achieved record rankings in Chambers UK 2017, we are immensely proud of the work we carry out for our clients and the culture we provide to our people.

 Our national Corporate team provides a comprehensive range of legal services, with a particular focus on corporate transactional work, including mergers and acquisitions, management buy-outs and buy-ins, and trade sales and disposals. We also handle company formations, re-organisations and re-structuring, joint ventures, shareholders agreements and investment agreements and offer advice on general company law compliance and corporate governance.

To advise on all aspects of private corporate M&A transactions and to grow the practice through business development activities. It would also be helpful (although not essential) if the candidate had some experience in private equity.

Key duties and responsibilities

• Manage a workload of corporate transactional and company law advisory work (to include structuring and governance) for a variety of clients including owner managed businesses, private and public companies, public sector bodies, LLPs, partnerships and individuals
• Assist other lawyers in the team with their work as required including supporting lead advisers in transactional work and supervision of more junior lawyers
• Draft, review and negotiate a variety of transactional and corporate documents
• To develop and build upon own case load of corporate/company law matters whilst supporting partners with larger scale matters
• Advise clients in relation to the various areas set out above
• To take an active role in business development
• Attend client meetings and visit clients’ premises as necessary
• Liaise with internal and external parties such as colleagues, clients, other lawyers etc
• To train, supervise and develop junior team members
• Complete MI procedures as and when required
• Achieve set financial and chargeable targets
• Ensure relevant deadlines, quality measures and KPIs are adhered to
• Comply with relevant policies and procedures
• Work in accordance with Weightmans’ values

This list is not intended to be exhaustive and you will be expected to perform other duties and have other responsibilities that fall within the wider remit of the role.

• 7years+ PQE

• An experienced lawyer with proven experience in all aspect of private M&A transactions

• High level of commercial awareness with strong attention to detail and good drafting skills

• Conscientious, self motivated, hard working, responsive, with critical thinking abilities and excellent communication, organisation and analytical skills

• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team within the national Corporate teams supporting more senior and junior staff and across the wider firm on larger projects

• Methodical, organised approach

• Passionate about growth, generating work opportunities both internally and externally

• Passionate about operational excellence generating work opportunities through great service delivery and improving the client experience

• Ability to work to strict deadlines, tight timetables, targets and client protocols while maintaining high standards in terms of accuracy and quality

Please note:

• Any reference to experience or PQE in our adverts or job descriptions is to be used as a guideline only. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and with different levels of experience who can demonstrate that they fulfil the requirements of the role.

• The successful candidate appointed to this role will be subject to our standard background checking process, and any offer of employment made is conditional upon successful completion of those checks. Further details can be obtained from the Recruitment team.