Senior Associate / Legal Director
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
About us
Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client.
We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.
Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 6th best law firm to work at in 2026.
With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 42% of our partnership.
The team you will join
The Birketts Commercial Real Estate Team is one of the best regarded and largest dedicated real estate teams within any firm outside of London, with over 200 lawyers across the firm as a whole. Our property lawyers are particularly experienced in dealing with development and investment, planning, secured lending and landlord and tenant matters. We are increasingly advising high value, high profile transactions and clients.
Our lawyers come from a range of backgrounds, including major City practices, other major national and regional firms, industry and local government and include individuals with construction, planning and commercial expertise. The depth and range of expertise means the team can work together in major and complex transactions and provide a sector based offering for our clients which offers true value for money.
Our Ipswich Commercial Real Estate Team comprises around 25 colleagues with extensive combined experience.. It is a well established, collegiate team with an impressive client base at the heart of the firm, offering plenty of opportunity and support for career development.
The work you will be doing
The ideal candidate will possess experience in the following areas:
- Conditional and unconditional acquisitions and disposals
- Portfolio acquisitions, disposals and management
- Secured lending transactions for lenders and borrowers
Acting for landlords and tenants across multiple sectors in relation to:
- Leases
- Surrenders
- Conditional and unconditional agreements for lease
- Management matters such as licences to assign, alter etc
- Residential Development and Commercial Development work, including land assembly options and overage agreements.
- Supporting the firm’s corporate team with the real estate aspects of their share and asset sales and purchase
As a Senior Associate/Legal Director at Birketts, you will also be responsible for:
- Ensuring client needs are met with the highest standard of professionalism and efficiency
- Maintaining and growing client relationships and contributing to the strategic direction and success of the firm.
- Leading and mentoring junior lawyers, fostering a collaborative and supportive work environment.
- Participating in networking events, conferences and other business development activities to promote the firm’s services.
- Embracing and encouraging adoption of developing technology, including appropriate AI initiatives.
Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.
What we are looking for
To join our Commercial Real Estate team, we are seeking a candidate who is a solicitor with ideally 7+ years’ PQE experience gained within a well-regarded city, regional or national firm with a well-developed knowledge in all areas of commercial real estate law.
The successful candidate will have an excellent knowledge of the law yet be able to think commercially and analytically so as to provide accurate and practical advice tailored to the needs of our clients.
You will also be expected to play an active role in marketing and practice development as well as providing a high level of service to existing clients.
Qualifications/Experience:
- Strong academic background
- 7 years’+ PQE gained within a strong regional, national or City firm
- A high attention to detail to produce work/ documentation which is consistently of a high standard
- A flexible approach to work to ensure client deadlines are always met and clients are communicated with on a consistent and regular basis.
- Interest in and aptitude for business development, including a sector based approach
- A potential client base or established network (together with a drive to explore those opportunities)
- A good understanding of the latest developments in technology and AI in the legal market and an aptitude for harnessing that potential
Hybrid Working
Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. This role attracts a split of 60% office days and 40% working from home days per week.
Benefits
As a Birketts colleague, you will be eligible to receive a wide range of benefits:
- 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
- Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
- Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
- Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
- Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
- Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
- Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
- Paid CSR Day
- Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
- Subsidised gym membership
- Electric car scheme
- Dress for your Day Policy
You can find out more on our website: https://recognition-reward-benefits/
Inclusivity and Culture
At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achiKey skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Lead your CV with a Personal Statement that explicitly names 'Commercial Real Estate' and 'secured lending' — the advert lists these as core competencies for this Senior Associate / Legal Director role.
📊 Quantify deal experience: e.g. 'Advised on 30+ conditional acquisitions totalling £85M in land value across residential and commercial development schemes'.
🎯 Highlight any experience acting for both lenders and borrowers in secured lending transactions, as the advert specifically calls out both sides of the instruction.
🌐 Showcase sector breadth in your matter list — the team values lawyers who can handle landlord and tenant, development, and corporate real estate support, so a varied deal sheet strengthens your application.
🤝 Reference any experience working within or alongside a corporate team on share and asset sales with real estate elements, as this cross-practice capability is explicitly sought in the advert.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Led conditional land acquisition for a 120-unit residential development scheme, coordinating title due diligence across 8 separate titles and exchanging contracts within a 10-week client deadline.
- •Advised a high-street lender on 15 secured lending transactions in a single financial year, drafting bespoke security packages and reducing average completion time by 3 weeks through streamlined reporting protocols.
- •Managed a portfolio disposal of 22 commercial properties for an institutional landlord, negotiating surrender and re-grant arrangements across 6 sectors and achieving full completion within a 4-month programme.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
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Letter preview — tailored to Birketts LLP
Dear Hiring Manager,
Birketts LLP's reputation as one of the most highly regarded commercial real estate practices outside London — and its ranking as the 6th best law firm to work at in 2026 — makes the Senior Associate / Legal Director opportunity in Ipswich a natural next step for me. Having built a career focused on conditional and unconditional acquisitions, secured lending transactions, and landlord and tenant matters across multiple sectors, I am well placed to contribute to the Ipswich team's high-value transaction work from day one.
My background in commercial real estate law encompasses advising both lenders and borrowers on secured lending, drafting overage and options agreements for development schemes, and managing portfolio acquisitions and disposals. I have also supported corporate colleagues on the real estate elements of share and asset sales, giving me the cross-practice perspective your team values. I am comfortable handling complex, multi-title transactions and mentoring junior lawyers through the process.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›Walk us through your experience handling conditional land acquisitions — what due diligence steps do you consider essential before exchange?
- ›How do you approach overage agreement drafting, and what triggers and valuation mechanisms do you typically recommend to developer clients?
- ›Describe your experience advising lenders on secured lending transactions — what are the key risk areas you focus on at the outset?
- ›How have you managed portfolio acquisitions or disposals involving multiple titles simultaneously, and what systems did you use to track progress?
- ›What is your experience supporting a corporate team on the real estate aspects of share or asset sales, and how do you manage competing deadlines across practice groups?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a complex commercial real estate transaction you led — what made it challenging and how did you deliver for the client?
- ›Describe a time you had to manage multiple landlord and tenant matters across different sectors at the same time — how did you prioritise?
- ›Give an example of when you identified a risk in a transaction that others had missed — what action did you take and what was the outcome?
- ›Tell me about a situation where you had to build or maintain a client relationship under pressure — what approach did you take?
- ›Describe a time you contributed to the development of a junior colleague — what did you do and what was the impact on their performance?
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a complex commercial real estate transaction you led — what made it challenging and how did you deliver for the client?
Describe a time you had to build or maintain a client relationship under pressure — what approach did you take?
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