**RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SENIOR ASSOCIATE, LONDON
Hybrid working, around 60% office-based
A top 100 UK law firm with more than 500 people, around 80 partners and offices in London and the South East is looking for a Senior Associate to join its Residential Conveyancing team in London. The firm has been in practice for well over a century. Over the past few years it has grown through two mergers and a period of sustained investment, and its London residential practice has been building its presence in the high-value market with partner-level hires.
The role is a senior fee-earning position. It suits a qualified solicitor who already runs a full residential caseload independently and wants more complex, higher-value work alongside a part in developing the team around them.
**The work
The team sits within the firm's wider Private Client and Residential Property division. Its clients include high and ultra-high net worth individuals, families, trustees, property investors and London landed estates, as well as first-time buyers and long-established owners. Matters run from straightforward freehold and leasehold sales and purchases, remortgages and refinancing through to lease extensions and enfranchisement, difficult title and covenant issues, property structuring, and high-value transactions on tight timetables. The London team is also regularly instructed on complex leasehold enfranchisement and Building Safety Act matters.
The Senior Associate will manage matters from instruction to completion, take instructions directly from clients and remain their main point of contact throughout. They will meet clients where it helps, manage expectations as a transaction moves, and handle their own billing. Day-to-day supervision sits with a partner or senior fee earner, with the role reporting into the head of team. Work is escalated where it makes sense, but the expectation is that this person runs their files with genuine autonomy.
Residential work here does not happen in isolation. The team works closely with the firm's Private Client, Tax and Dispute Resolution lawyers, so a purchase with a trust, tax or contentious angle can be handled in-house rather than referred out. Externally, there is regular contact with agents, lenders and surveyors, and clients can follow the progress of their transaction through the firm's own app.
**The team and its leadership
The London practice has partners with deep prime central London experience, one with more than 15 years in that market, and a recent senior hire from a West End practice who brings high-value residential, landlord and tenant and development expertise. The residential team is ranked in the leading independent legal directories, both in London and in the South East, and the wider real estate group numbers around 120 property lawyers across the firm.
The Senior Associate will supervise and develop junior fee earners, trainees and support staff. The firm puts real weight on training its own people: it runs structured development frameworks from trainee level upwards, and many of its current partners started as trainees with the firm.
**Progression and business development
The firm's stated ambition is to keep growing, and its residential partners have said publicly that they are expanding the high-value side of the practice. For a Senior Associate, that means room to build a personal client following and a referrer network among agents and lenders, through networking, seminars, articles and talks. The firm does not overpromise timelines, but the route from senior associate to partner is a well-trodden one here, and the person who helps grow the London practice will be well placed for it.
**What the firm is looking for
The successful candidate is likely to have trained and qualified at a well-regarded large regional, national or London firm. They will have a strong academic record, typically a 2:1 law degree and the LPC or equivalent passed first time, and a current practising certificate. They will be used to working to financial and billing targets and to running a busy residential caseload without close oversight. Experience of complex or high-value matters will be a real advantage. Just as important is a confident, commercially minded manner with clients, the organisation to handle competing deadlines, and a collaborative approach to working with colleagues across the division.
**Flexibility and benefits
The firm operates a hybrid model, with people spending around 60% of their week in the office. It is open about valuing time together, and arrangements can vary by role. All staff share in a firm-wide profit-sharing scheme, alongside a competitive salary, bonus, flexible working arrangements and ongoing investment in formal and informal training. The firm also holds independent certification for its social and environmental standards, which shapes how it runs the business day to day.
For a confidential conversation about the role, the team and what the firm is like to work for, please get in touch.