HomeJobsEast MidlandsWest Northamptonshire3+ PQE Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate
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⚡ Source: ReedRef: 49956720

3+ PQE Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate

Reed·West Northamptonshire, East Midlands·Posted 39 months ago
💰 £42-60k/year⭐ Senior
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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 lease drafting (grants/surrenders/assignments)LTA 1954 lease renewalsGrant of easementsFreehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposalsOptions and overage agreementsProperty finance (debentures/charges)3+ years PQE in commercial property
Nice-to-have
Conditional sale agreementsDevelopment site assemblyCollaboration/JV agreementsAgricultural lawFarm Business TenanciesEstate managementPlanning law knowledge
Soft skills
LeadershipAutonomyProfessionalismAmbitionOrganisationTeam collaborationTime management
SpeedCV AI

Application advice

5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.

1

⭐ Lead your CV personal statement with your PQE level and specific commercial property sub-specialisms (e.g. LTA 54 renewals, options and overage) as the advert lists these as requisite practice areas.

2

📊 Quantify your fee-earning track record: e.g. 'Consistently achieved 95% of annual billing target of £180,000 across commercial lease and freehold disposal matters'.

3

🌐 Dedicate a 'Practice Areas' section to the advert's two tiers — list requisite areas (commercial leases, property finance) separately from preferred areas (agricultural work, development sites) to mirror the job spec structure.

4

🎯 Highlight any agricultural law or Farm Business Tenancy experience prominently, even if limited — the advert explicitly welcomes 'some working experience' and this differentiates candidates.

5

🤝 Reference partnership-track ambition explicitly in your personal statement, as the firm offers a structured progression plan up to Partnership — align your career goals to this in one sentence.

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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:

  • Advised commercial landlords and occupiers on 35+ lease transactions annually, including LTA 1954 renewals, assignments and surrenders, consistently meeting a £165,000 annual billing target.
  • Led freehold acquisition due diligence on a 12-acre development site, negotiating conditional sale agreement terms and ransom strip releases that reduced client risk exposure by an estimated £220,000.
  • Acted for a regional landowner on 4 Farm Business Tenancy agreements and associated estate management matters, delivering all completions within agreed timescales across an 18-month instruction.

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

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AI cover letter

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Letter preview — tailored to Reed

Dear Hiring Manager,

Commercial property law at a firm with a genuine partnership-track pathway is precisely where I want to develop my career — which is why the Commercial Property Solicitor/Senior Associate role at your West Northamptonshire firm immediately stood out. With 3+ years' PQE handling commercial leases, LTA 1954 renewals, freehold and leasehold acquisitions, and options and overage agreements, I am well placed to contribute to your fee-earning targets from day one.

My background in commercial property has encompassed acting for both landlords and occupiers on complex lease transactions, as well as advising on property finance matters including fixed charges and debentures. I have also developed working knowledge of development site agreements and agricultural tenancies, which I understand are areas of growing importance to your practice.

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SpeedCV AI

Interview questions

10 questions generated from this advert.

Technical

  • Walk us through your process for handling a complex LTA 1954 lease renewal where the landlord is opposing the grant.
  • How do you structure an options and overage agreement to protect a landowner's interests in a phased development?
  • What are the key due diligence steps you take when acting on a freehold acquisition with an existing Farm Business Tenancy in place?
  • How do you advise a commercial occupier on the implications of a debenture or fixed charge held by a lender over their leasehold interest?
  • Describe your approach to drafting a conditional sale agreement for a residential development site, including the key conditions precedent you would negotiate.

Behavioural

  • Tell me about a time you managed competing deadlines across multiple commercial property transactions simultaneously — how did you prioritise?
  • Describe a situation where you had to advise a client against a course of action they were set on. How did you handle it?
  • Give an example of when you supported a junior colleague's development on a complex property matter.
  • Tell me about a time you identified an issue during due diligence that significantly changed the direction of a transaction.
  • Describe a situation where you had to work independently to progress a matter without senior supervision. What was the outcome?
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 competing deadlines across multiple commercial property transactions simultaneously — how did you prioritise?

Situation: During a particularly busy quarter I was simultaneously running 8 active commercial property matters, including two LTA 1954 renewal hearings and a freehold acquisition with a fixed completion date. Task: I needed to ensure no deadline was missed while maintaining quality of advice across all files. Action: I mapped every critical deadline onto a shared calendar, delegated initial title report drafting on two smaller leasehold matters to a paralegal I supervised, and communicated proactively with clients on the two renewals to agree a short extension on one hearing date. Result: All 8 matters completed on time, the freehold acquisition exchanged three days ahead of schedule, and client satisfaction scores across those files averaged 4.8 out of 5 in the firm's post-completion survey.
2Question

Describe a situation where you had to advise a client against a course of action they were set on. How did you handle it?

Situation: A commercial landlord client wanted to forfeit a lease immediately after a tenant missed two rent payments totalling £14,000, without serving a statutory notice. Task: I needed to advise them that forfeiture without a Section 146 notice carried significant legal risk and could expose them to a damages claim. Action: I arranged a call the same day, clearly explained the Landlord and Tenant Act requirements, and presented an alternative strategy — a formal demand followed by a Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery procedure — with a realistic timeline. Result: The client accepted my advice, the CRAR process recovered £11,500 within six weeks, and the tenancy was preserved, avoiding a costly void period the client later acknowledged would have cost them more than the arrears.

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