Associate Solicitor in Leeds

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Associate to join our Affordable Housing Property team within the Housing department, based in Leeds. The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting commercial property, asset management, and acquisition and disposal work across a broad range of affordable housing matters. You will manage your own caseload with a high degree of autonomy, maintain strong client relationships, and demonstrate a proactive, client-facing approach. In addition, you will support Partners on more complex transactions and contribute to the supervision and development of paralegals within the team. This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated and client-focused individual to join a collaborative, forward-thinking, and high-performing team within a well-established and growing practice. With a strong pipeline of work and an expanding national footprint in the affordable housing sector, the role offers the chance to develop specialist expertise while benefiting from genuine, structured career progression.

What will I be doing?

• Managing a diverse and varied caseload of commercial property and asset management work for registered providers, as well as supporting on development and acquisition work when required.
• Recent examples of work that the team have been involved in includes:
• Shop leases and depot leases, including new leases, renewals, deeds of variation, licences to assign and surrenders
• Leases of community facilities to councils and other occupiers and leases of residential properties to public bodies
• Acquisitions and disposals of land and residential dwellings (not individual residential conveyancing)
• Sales of multi-tenure buildings and residential portfolio disposals
• Transfers of garden land and other small parcels of development land
• Easements and other title matters
• Working alongside the partners and senior fee earners on larger and more involved transactions, including:
• Site acquisitions and development transactions for regional and national registered providers
• Advising on grant funding implications and Capital Funding Guide requirements
• Drafting and negotiating documentation including conditional contracts, development agreements, transfers and leases
• Preparing reports on title and certificates of title for lenders
• Co-ordinating with other teams within the firm and external parties as required
• Building and maintaining strong client relationships, contributing to business development through networking and training initiatives
• Supporting junior team members, including trainees, paralegals, and legal support staff
• Staying up to date with legal developments and undertake ongoing professional development to maintain expertise

You’ll have:

• Ideally a minimum of 4 years PQE in property law, with a background in affordable housing or a combination of residential and commercial property.
• Demonstrable experience in handling commercial leases including new leases, renewals, surrenders and licences.
• Experience of acquisitions and disposals (ideally including work for or alongside registered providers).
• Confidence in dealing with clients and instructing officers directly.
• Experience of supervising junior colleagues, or ambition to take this on, with some relevant experience gained career to date.
• Strong drafting, analytical and negotiation skills.
• The ability to work independently and within a team, deliver accurate work under pressure, to tight deadlines and have a flexible approach to ensure work is delivered in a straightforward and timely manner.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with a clear and logical approach.
• Strong planning skills, be highly organised and possess the ability to manage workload independently, with resilience and a 'can do' approach.
• A proactive, motivated, and commercially aware approach, with effective file management, IT skills, and financial discipline.

It would be great if you also had:

• Experience of affordable housing law.
• Familiarity with the Capital Funding Guide and the registered provider regulatory framework.
• Experience supporting large team transactions including use of data rooms.

Benefits:

• An enhanced pension scheme with employer matched contributions of up to 6%.
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays (increasing to 28 days with length of service). There is also the option to purchase up to 5 additional days.
• Life assurance cover of 4 times basic salary, with the option to purchase additional cover.
• A range of health and wellbeing benefits.
• Hybrid working with a minimum requirement of 2 days per week working from one of our office locations.
• We also have a flexible benefits programme where you can purchase a wide range of additional benefits.