Residential Development Solicitor in Leeds

This is an exciting time to join our market leading Residential Development Unit as the team continues to win repeat and new work from its impressive client base of recognised national and regional housebuilders. This brand-new role is of strategical importance to Gateley and will offer you the opportunity to develop valuable technical and commercial skillsets.

Responsibilities

• Working on infrastructure agreements for matters that arise both before and during site development.
• Putting in place the legal arrangements and agreements to allow the developers to lay roads and utility services which serve developments.
• Ensure that statutory processes do not delay plot sales.
• Working with multiple development stakeholders to negotiate agreements to allow work to progress in accordance with the developer’s schedule.
• Manage client relationships and keep them regularly updated on progress.

This role sits directly between our land acquisition and plot teams. You will be in the perfect position to ensure that the two teams’ work transitions smoothly and pick up on any potential technical and infrastructure related issues prior to them becoming an issue at the plot sale stage. This will put you in the best place to build great relationships with our clients and to be a part in retaining Gateley’s position as the go to for all residential development matters.

The team

We are the leading residential development and urban regeneration legal team in the country acting for 18 of the top 20 UK housebuilders, institutional landowners such as Oxford University and other large-scale sector participants. We advise over the complete life cycle of new build housing from initial heads of terms, acquiring the land, obtaining planning permission, building out the scheme and the sale of the new homes. Schemes range from local developments of 50 new homes up to 20,000 unit green field urban extensions and multi-billion pound urban regeneration schemes in central London. We also advise our PLC clients at Group level on national issues such as cladding remediation post-Grenfell and Competition and Markets Authority investigations.

The team is based in 8 of our offices across England, operates within Gateley Plc’s Property Platform. This Platform comprises over 700 lawyers, surveyors, engineers, architects, accountants and support staff who provide a unique cross-disciplinary service delivery to our wider property client base. Part of the team’s role is the sale of the new homes once built. These sales, which total approximately 15,000 plots and £3 billion in revenue each year, are handled by the Plot Sales team out of three regional hubs using highly developed IT processes and automation.

The person

The successful candidate for this role will be an experienced residential development lawyer with experience in working on plot sales and site set up matters. You will be a great collaborator, working internally with our Land, Plot, Planning and Surveying teams, as well as externally with local authorities and architects to ensure that the development is a success.

Benefits

With support, coaching and feedback from some of the most engaging colleagues around, our great development and progression opportunities will reward your commitment and loyalty. We offer a competitive remuneration package where you will be rewarded for your individual performance with an opportunity to receive an annual bonus. In addition, we have a wide range of learning and development opportunities via our Learn platform to develop new skills and progress your career. Our My Flex comprehensive rewards package includes options covering annual leave (and the benefit of purchasing extra days), cycle to work, critical illness benefit, employee assistance programme, group personal pension, health care, season ticket loan and many more benefits (grade dependent). Finally, with Perks At Work/Home you can select a host of retail benefits that suit your needs alongside a Community Online Academy, free courses for all from fitness to coding to languages to hip hop dance.

We are Gateley

We are forward thinking and straight talking; our approach is to find solutions to the problems that our clients face. Gateley is a legal and professional services group, we are a group of formidable experts in all areas of law and business. Passionate problem solvers, we get our kicks from finding the right answers and getting our legal and business clients where they need to be. We support more than 5,700 active clients, ranging from FTSE 100 companies to private individuals, in the UK and beyond. Being part of Gateley is not just about the expertise that you bring; it is about attitude too.

The 'Gateley Story' is the story of our people and our culture. It is what has got us to where we are today as a successful business and it is the driving force behind the Gateley Team Spirit and the values that have shaped it. We have a set of shared internal values that capture what the Gateley Team Spirit is and this includes five elements that bind us all together as one Gateley: Ambitious for Success, Forward Thinking, Room to Breathe, Trusted to Do and Working Together. Every year across the group, we recognise members of our team that have gone above and beyond and have lived these shared values. They are recognised at our annual Gateley Team Spirit awards.

Diversity, inclusion and well being

Diversity, inclusion and well being is an important part of Gateley's culture and values. We recruit talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, providing equal opportunities for all to join our team regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, disability, or culture. We create an exciting and rewarding place to work that aims to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals. We offer flexible working patterns to help our staff achieve a good work/life balance and we encourage candidates seeking flexibility in their next role to apply for any of our vacancies. We are proud to have been recognised by The Law Society as gold standard for our Diversity and Inclusion Charter and to be Stonewall Diversity Champions.

Additional Information

If you are successful in receiving an offer of a role with our company, a variety of pre-employment screening checks will be completed. Our screening checks can include but are not limited to your eligibility to work, professional and academic qualifications, any criminal records, your financial stability and references from previous employers. The screening that takes place will be relevant to your role and will vary from role to role.