HomeJobsCambridgeshireEast Cambridgeshire3+ PQE Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate
Back to all jobs
⚡ Source: ReedRef: 49956694

3+ PQE Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate

Reed·East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire·Posted 39 months ago
💰 £42-60k/year⭐ Senior
Tailor my CV for this job — Free

Job description

Original text imported from Reed

Are you Looking to work with an award-winning local firm that puts their clients and staff at the forefront of all they do?

We are excited to be looking for a Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate to join a growing, friendly and supportive team.

Experience & Skills

  • Achieve billing, time and fee earning targets set and co-operate with the firm’s credit control arrangements
  • Proven project and time management skills
  • A confident and professional manner
  • Work effectively within a team but also as a leader
  • Be professional, organised, competent, enthusiastic, and ambitious.
  • Be able to work independently and as part of a team with other fee earners, providing advice and assistance whenever needed to develop knowledge and skills within the rest of the team.

Good experience in the following practice areas is a requisite:

  • Commercial leases/occupiers (grants/surrenders/assignments/ LTA 54 renewals);
  • Grant of easements;
  • Freehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposals
  • Options and overage; and
  • Property finance (e.g. debentures/charges)

The ideal candidate would also have either good or some working experience in the following areas:

Commercial and residential development sites including:

  • conditional sale agreements
  • site assembly
  • ransom strips
  • options
  • sub-station leases
  • collaboration/JV agreements
  • promotion agreements
  • Acting for landowners in respect of sales to developers (experience of developers requirements)
  • Ancillary knowledge of planning law/construction process.

Agricultural work including:

  • Agricultural law
  • Farm Business Tenancies/Occupational agreements
  • Estate management
  • Entitlements

Benefits:

  • Agile working (up to 40% working from home)
  • 25 days' holiday (FTE) (plus statutory holidays)
  • Pension scheme
  • Death-in-service/Life assurance benefit scheme
  • Critical illness insurance cover
  • Eye care voucher
  • A structured career progression plan tailored to you and with the aim of enabling you to achieve your career goals and ambitions including up to Partnership.

Salary dependant on experience

For more information, please apply with your CV.

SpeedCV AI

Key skills

AI-extracted from the job advert

Must-have skills
Commercial property law (3+ PQE)Commercial leases — grants, surrenders, assignmentsLTA 1954 lease renewalsGrant of easementsFreehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposalsOptions and overageProperty finance (debentures/charges)
Nice-to-have
Agricultural lawFarm Business TenanciesConditional sale agreementsJV and collaboration agreementsPlanning law knowledgeCommercial development site assembly
Soft skills
LeadershipAutonomyProfessionalismAmbitionTime managementCollaborationEnthusiasm
SpeedCV AI

Application advice

5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.

1

⭐ Open your Personal Statement with your PQE level and a direct reference to commercial leases and LTA 54 renewals, as these are listed first among the firm's requisite practice areas.

2

📊 Quantify your fee-earning track record: e.g. 'Consistently achieved £180k annual billing target across a mixed commercial property caseload of 40+ active matters'.

3

🌐 Dedicate a 'Key Practice Areas' section to mirror the advert's structure — list requisite areas (leases, easements, property finance) separately from preferred areas (agricultural, development sites) to pass ATS screening.

4

🎯 Highlight any agricultural law or Farm Business Tenancy experience prominently, even if limited — the advert explicitly welcomes 'some working experience', making this a differentiator against urban-focused candidates.

5

🤝 Reference partnership ambition explicitly in your cover letter, as the firm offers a structured progression plan up to Partnership — demonstrating alignment with this goal will resonate with the hiring partner.

NEW
AI SpeedCV

Suggested CV bullets

3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.

How to tailor your CV

Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:

  • Managed a caseload of 50+ active commercial property matters including LTA 1954 lease renewals, easement grants and leasehold disposals, achieving 95% of annual billing target of £175k.
  • Advised landowner clients on 3 conditional sale agreements and 2 promotion agreements with national housebuilders, securing overage provisions worth up to £400k on each site.
  • Drafted and negotiated Farm Business Tenancy agreements and estate management documentation for a 1,200-acre agricultural estate, reducing turnaround time by 20% through precedent standardisation.

Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.

NEW
AI cover letter

Your cover letter is ready

We've drafted a cover letter for Reed. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.

Letter preview — tailored to Reed

Dear Hiring Manager,

The Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate role at your East Cambridgeshire firm stands out precisely because of the breadth of work on offer — from LTA 1954 lease renewals and options and overage to agricultural law and property finance. Having built a caseload that spans both commercial landlord and tenant work and development site transactions, I am confident I can contribute to your team from day one while continuing to grow towards Partnership.

My background in commercial property law encompasses acting on freehold and leasehold acquisitions, drafting collaboration and JV agreements, and advising landowners on conditional sale structures with developers. I have consistently met billing targets while supporting junior colleagues with technical queries, and I am comfortable managing a varied caseload independently.

Get my personalised letter — free

Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).

SpeedCV exclusive
SpeedCV AI

Interview questions

10 questions generated from this advert.

Technical

  • Walk us through how you handle a complex LTA 1954 lease renewal from initial instruction to completion.
  • How do you structure an options and overage agreement to protect a landowner client's interests?
  • What due diligence steps do you take when acting on a freehold acquisition involving ransom strips?
  • How do you advise a client on the differences between a Farm Business Tenancy and an Occupational Agreement?
  • Describe your experience with property finance instruments such as debentures and legal charges — what are the key risk areas you flag to clients?

Behavioural

  • Tell me about a time you managed a high-volume commercial property caseload and had to prioritise competing deadlines.
  • Describe a situation where you had to lead or mentor a junior fee earner — what approach did you take?
  • Give an example of when you identified a legal risk on a transaction that the client had overlooked and how you handled it.
  • Tell me about a time you worked independently on a complex matter without senior supervision — what was the outcome?
  • Describe a situation where you had to build a relationship with a new commercial client from scratch and grow that relationship over time.
SpeedCV AINEW

STAR answer examples

Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.

1Question

Tell me about a time you managed a high-volume commercial property caseload and had to prioritise competing deadlines.

Situation: During a particularly busy quarter I was carrying 55 active commercial property matters simultaneously, including 4 LTA 1954 lease renewals with court-imposed deadlines and 3 simultaneous freehold acquisitions due to exchange on the same date. Task: I needed to ensure none of the court deadlines were missed while keeping all acquisition clients informed. Action: I triaged the caseload by statutory deadline first, then commercial urgency, and delegated title report drafting on two lower-risk acquisitions to a supervised paralegal. I introduced a daily 15-minute review of the top 10 matters. Result: All 4 lease renewal notices were served on time, all 3 acquisitions exchanged within the agreed window, and I received written thanks from two clients for communication throughout.
2Question

Describe a situation where you had to lead or mentor a junior fee earner — what approach did you take?

Situation: A newly qualified solicitor joined the commercial property team with limited transactional experience and was assigned to assist on a 12-plot development site acquisition involving ransom strip negotiations. Task: I needed to bring them up to speed quickly without compromising the client's timeline. Action: I structured their involvement in three stages — first shadowing my client calls, then drafting ancillary documents with my review, then taking the lead on sub-station lease negotiations with me available for queries. I gave written feedback after each stage. Result: The NQ successfully negotiated the sub-station lease independently within 6 weeks, the transaction completed on schedule, and they went on to handle similar matters autonomously within 3 months.

Similar jobs

View all