Associate Exeter, England
Job description
What you'll do
We are seeking to recruit an experienced Associate or Legal Executive (3-4 years PQE), to join our busy and highly regarded Construction and Infrastructure team, based in our Exeter Office. You will report directly to the Partners and play an integral part in a variety of matters, with a focus on non-contentious construction and infrastructure work.
The team is one of only two teams across Bristol and the South West to have a Band 1 Chambers ranking for Construction and works on high value and often high profile transactions.
The department works on a wide range of international, national and regional matters for private and public sector clients across multiple sectors, including housing, retail, transport, waste, energy and renewables. Our clients range from private individuals, owner developers, start-ups and SMEs to local authorities, national contractors, funding institutions and large multinationals. We are proud to work with prestigious clients which include household names and listed companies.
Your typical workload will include construction and infrastructure related contract work across residential and commercial development, renewable energy projects, urban regeneration schemes, financing arrangements, joint ventures, operation / maintenance / service contracts and facilities management.
You will be working directly with clients from the outset and we will expect you to have a good level of experience of advising on construction transactions, including experience of risk reviews, drafting and negotiating terms. We will provide training on any specialist areas which are new to you and will generally support and enhance your development as a construction lawyer within a supportive and experienced team with its own specialist Professional Support Lawyer. We will expect you to be enthusiastic to expand your skills and knowledge. We pride ourselves on our ability to develop our people, and as such, you will be responsible for dealing with complex, high quality, high value work and will be afforded high levels of responsibility from the outset.
Who you are
An excellent communicator with proven technical and organisational skills and a cooperative team player, you will be accustomed to providing accessible, commercially-focussed and pragmatic advice to clients and working under pressure to meet deadlines. You will already have a firm grounding in transactional non-contentious practice within a construction and/or infrastructure environment. With an eye for detail, you are meticulous and thorough in your work and are already accustomed to assisting with larger and more complex transactions in your current role, as well as advising clients directly on more routine matters. You will have gained experience in all of the most commonly used NEC and JCT forms of contracts, as well as professional appointments and ancillary construction documentation. Additionally, you may have been involved in drafting, negotiating and/or advising on the construction aspects of land sale contracts, agreements for lease and development agreements.
Our relationships with our clients are paramount. You will be able to demonstrate your ability to build strong and lasting relationships with clients and show a genuine commitment to their business needs. Being self-motivated and ambitious, you will be keen to learn more about the construction and infrastructure sector and possess the drive to help us continue to grow and develop our business. In this dynamic market, clients will be looking to you to be up-to-date regarding the latest policy and legal developments affecting the construction and engineering industry and, as such, you will need to demonstrate an interest and enthusiasm for this area of the economy and its wider implications for our clients and the department's business. In return, as well as supporting your professional development through regular training, we will help you to grow your professional networks and profile and to capitalise on business development opportunities.
Who we are
We are proud of being a professional and collegiate firm where we want our people to enjoy working together to achieve great results. Working for Ashfords, you can expect to be provided with excellent training and development opportunities, in order to further your career in a stimulating yet supportive, forward-thinking firm. We're ambitious - for ourselves, and for our people - and want to support you to realise your full potential, whilst enjoying a positive work-life balance in a beautiful South West location.
When you join us, you will enjoy flexible/hybrid working, free onsite parking and a great benefits package, including 25 days paid holiday (plus your birthday off and an extra day at Christmas, in addition to all statutory holidays), support for health and wellbeing, pension contributions and a firm-wide discretionary bonus scheme. We continually review our benefits package to ensure we are offering our people a competitive and valued reward package.
For a full list of benefits, please find the attachment below.
What next?
Interested in this vacancy but not sure you match all the requirements? At Ashfords, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We offer training and development opportunities to all of our people to help everyone reach their full potential. Even if your skills and experience aren't a perfect match, we'd still love to hear from you. If you're not the right candidate for this role, you could be the right candidate for other positions at Ashfords.
For an informal and confidential discussion about this opportunity, please contact Toby Tompkins, Talent Attraction Assistant, on 01392 333 654 or via email: [email protected].
Or apply now, and we will be in touch with you as soon as possible.
Job Type: Full-time
