Senior Associate - Real Estate Dispute Resolution

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Associate to join our growing, collegiate, and highly regarded Real Estate Dispute Resolution team. The team advises a diverse client base including funders, landlords, tenants, developers, investors, high net worth individuals, hoteliers, and retailers on a wide range of commercial and residential property issues.

Our work is structured around four key workstreams:

1. Development and Neighbourly Rights – including Building Safety, Party Wall etc. Act 1996, Rights of Light, Boundary disputes, Easements, Nuisance, and more.
2. Residential – including enfranchisement, possession claims, service charge disputes, co-ownership, and tenancy enforcement.
3. Commercial Asset Management – including lease renewals, forfeiture, dilapidations, break notices, rent reviews, and insolvency-related disputes.
4. Property Contract Disputes – including specific performance, injunctions, building defects, professional negligence, and misrepresentation.

As a Senior Associate, you will play a key role in managing complex matters across these workstreams, leading client relationships, and supervising junior team members. You will be expected to contribute to the strategic direction of the team and support business development initiatives.

Main responsibilities

Ideally you will be able to demonstrate:

• Independently manage a varied and complex caseload across all four workstreams, with minimal supervision.
• Supervise and support junior lawyers, trainees, and paralegals, providing guidance, feedback, and contributing to their development.
• Act as a key point of contact for clients, providing strategic and commercial advice, and building long-term relationships.
• Lead on all stages of contentious matters, including pre-action strategy, court proceedings, ADR, and settlement negotiations.
• Assist Partners in driving team initiatives, including training, knowledge sharing, and process improvement.
• Contribute to the team’s growth through networking, client pitches, thought leadership, and participation in sector groups.
• Oversee budgeting, fee estimates, and cost recovery, including liaison with costs draftsmen and insurers.

About you

You will ideally demonstrate:

• Extensive experience in Real Estate Dispute Resolution, with a strong track record of handling complex matters independently.
• Commercial acumen with a pragmatic and solution-focused approach to client issues.
• Strong communication skills and confidence in dealing with both internal and external stakeholders at all levels
• Leadership capability with experience supervising, mentoring and developing more junior members of the team
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Collaborative mindset, contributing to a positive team culture and supporting firm-wide initiatives.

At Howard Kennedy we believe that everyone deserves the space to thrive. We’re committed to creating an inclusive recruitment experience that reflects the diversity of both our people and our clients.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and identities, and we’re committed to ensuring that our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and accessible to all.

We understand that every candidate’s needs are different If there’s anything we can do to make your application journey more comfortable— whether for interviews, assessments, or onboarding—please let us know. We’ll work with you to remove any barriers and ensure our recruitment process is comfortable for you.

Contact our recruitment team at [email protected] to discuss any support you might need.

Agency Introductions

Please note that we are not accepting applications via agencies for this role at this time. Before sharing any named candidate CVs, please contact your recruitment representative. If any named CVs are sent from agencies without approval from our recruitment team, they will not be deemed valid introductions, and no agency fee will be paid.