Solicitor (Residential Property Litigation)

ABOUT THE ROLE

Due to an exciting period of growth, our Legal 500 ranked, London based, litigation & dispute resolution department are looking for a new team member to assist the residential property litigation team on a full-time basis (35hr a week).

This role will specialise in residential, housing and leasehold management, in particular assisting senior members of the team on service charge disputes and termination of tenancies. The team cover the full range of housing management services including tenancy disputes, policy drafting, risk advisory work, disrepair, injunctive work, possession claims and residential leasehold disputes for the social housing, private sectors.

The team work closely with the real estate and governance departments in the firm who are as much our clients as external instructors. Our client base ranges from registered providers to developers and private property portfolio holders, including individuals, companies, charities and institutions.

A typical day would see you:

• Run your own caseload of housing management matters varying from service charge to termination of tenancies, as well disrepairs and injunctions.

Note to agencies: We value our agency relationships and for this role, we have instructed a small selection of chosen agency partners to assist us with this search. They have been fully briefed on the role and WS.

ABOUT YOU

We open to seeing candidates who are due to qualify or have some commercial work experience as a qualified lawyer. You will be able to demonstrate previous experience in housing and/or leasehold management and/or property litigation legal work either as a qualified solicitor, trainee or paralegal, working on service charge disputes and termination of tenancies, in particular.

The team are passionate about their practice area and will welcome someone who is keen to continue to immerse themselves in this fast-changing legal sector.

We are also keen to see candidates from inhouse or private practice legal teams.

You will thrive on the ability to organise your day around an intellectually stimulating and varied workload and your purposeful nature will lend itself well to solving complex problems for our clients.

Your ability to take ownership over your work will enable you to work efficiently and effectively, whilst collaborating with likeminded colleagues.

For the right candidate this is an opportunity to join a very high-quality residential property litigation team in a firm that is fully committed to property as its core area long term.

WHY US

Winckworth Sherwood is an exciting, diverse, and growing business. We are a full-service law firm with a diverse client base, that prides itself on providing advice across a broad range of sectors and markets. Delivering a first-class service is key to everything we do.

Our clients range from some of the UK’s largest businesses and institutions, housebuilders and developers through to investors, professional partnerships, family offices, not for profit organisations and private individuals – all of which benefit from the flexible, practical approach of our lawyers.

We recognise that our people play a key part in our success and as a result we are committed to their development and well-being. We promote a healthy work-life balance and flexibility, keeping our people motivated and stimulated to deliver great things.

YOUR APPLICATION JOURNEY

Application review

Your profile will be screened by a member of the WS recruitment team. If you CV is shortlisted, you will be invited to have a short call with our Recruitment Manager, Ash Evans, to discuss your interest in the vacancy. No AI is used in our application screening process! Every candidate who applies to this role will be told if they have been successful or not in moving to the next stage.

1st interview (via Teams/in person at our London office)

This will be with the partner who leads the team and the legal director you would be supporting on service charge and residential possession work. They will discuss your interest in the role, what you are looking for professionally, and ask some competency/behavioural/technical questions that relate to the key skills/behaviours needed for this position.

Every candidate who reaches this stage will be offered the chance to have a feedback call with our Recruitment Manager to understand why they weren't progressed to the next interview stage, so that you can use this feedback to help with other job applications.

2nd interview (in person at our London office)

At this stage, you will get the opportunity to meet other members of the team. They will discuss your experience in further detail, discuss some of the housing/leasehold management litigation transactions you have been involved in and provide a detailed overview of the type of work the team carry out. This is also a good opportunity to ask role specific questions.

This is also a good opportunity to ask any final role/firm specific questions.

Every candidate who reaches this stage will be offered the chance to have a feedback call with our Recruitment Manager to understand why they weren't offered the position, so that you can use this feedback to help with other job applications.

Offer of employment

If you are successful and accept our offer of employment, we will submit your details to our background screening company (Giant), who will conduct a series of background checks. Once these have been completed and we have separately validated your proof of right to work in the UK, a start date can be agreed, and your onboarding schedule can be planned.