Job Description:

Conveyancing Solicitor

Location: London or Oxford
Working Pattern: Full-time | Monday to Friday | Office-based
PQE: NQ - approximately 5 years PQE
Practice Area: Residential Property / Conveyancing
Salary: Dependent upon experience

The Opportunity

My client is a progressive, commercially minded and entrepreneurial law firm with a particularly substantial property practice. Following continued expansion, the firm is seeking an ambitious Conveyancing Solicitor to join its property department, with opportunities available across its London and Oxford operations. Applications are welcomed from newly qualified Solicitors through to approximately five years' PQE. The successful individual will join a fast-moving practice where lawyers are given meaningful responsibility for their clients and transactions.

This is very much a hands-on fee-earning appointment.

Solicitors are expected to personally control their caseload, manage client relationships and progress matters from initial instruction through to successful completion. Alongside their own matters, Solicitors will also have an opportunity to provide guidance and practical assistance to junior fee earners within the department.

The Role

Responsibilities will include:

• Managing an independent caseload of residential property transactions.
• Taking matters from initial instruction through to exchange and completion.
• Handling freehold and leasehold sales and purchases.
• Managing remortgages and transfers of equity.
• Reviewing and reporting upon title.
• Reviewing contracts, leases, searches and associated property documentation.
• Raising and responding to enquiries.
• Identifying title defects and other potential legal or transactional issues.
• Providing practical and commercially appropriate solutions to issues arising during transactions.
• Reviewing mortgage offers.
• Ensuring lender requirements are properly satisfied.
• Preparing and reviewing contracts, transfers and completion documentation.
• Managing exchange and completion processes.
• Overseeing relevant post-completion requirements.
• Advising clients clearly throughout the lifecycle of their transaction.
• Liaising directly with estate agents, lenders, brokers, managing agents and other legal professionals.
• Managing key contractual dates and transaction deadlines.
• Ensuring compliance with AML, KYC and wider regulatory requirements.
• Providing guidance and assistance to Paralegals and more junior fee earners.
• Maintaining high standards of client care and technical delivery.

The Candidate

Applications are sought from qualified Solicitors from NQ level through to approximately five years' PQE.

The successful individual should demonstrate:

• Strong practical conveyancing experience.
• Experience running or substantially controlling their own caseload.
• Sound knowledge of residential property law.
• Experience of freehold and leasehold transactions.
• Strong title-investigation ability.
• Experience reviewing searches and raising enquiries.
• Familiarity with lender requirements.
• Strong drafting ability.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent organisational and case-management skills.
• The ability to manage a demanding portfolio of transactions.
• Strong written and verbal communication.
• Confidence dealing directly with clients.
• Commercial judgement.
• The ability to work independently whilst recognising when escalation is appropriate.

The firm is particularly interested in candidates who are ambitious about progressing into more senior positions.

Career Development

This is an excellent opportunity for a Solicitor who feels constrained by a heavily hierarchical environment and wants greater responsibility earlier in their career.

My client operates with a genuine collegiate and open-door culture.

It is commonplace for junior Solicitors to work directly alongside considerably more senior lawyers and Partners, providing exposure to both technical matters and the wider commercial operation of the practice.

The firm actively seeks to develop individuals who have the ambition and capability to progress towards senior fee-earning, supervisory and ultimately leadership responsibilities.

Business Development

The firm's approach is deliberately entrepreneurial.

Solicitors are encouraged to build their own professional profile and relationships rather than viewing business generation solely as the responsibility of Partners.

There is an established internal business-development team generating work for the practice, meaning Solicitors are not expected to create their own caseload from scratch.

However, lawyers who wish to develop their own network are actively supported in doing so.

This can involve:

• Meeting property businesses and professional introducers.
• Developing relationships with estate agents.
• Networking with brokers and lenders.
• Building relationships through LinkedIn.
• Attending external meetings.
• Developing existing client relationships.
• Identifying cross-referral and repeat-business opportunities.

Eligible fee earners can earn 10% commission on personally generated new business, payable once the relevant legal invoice has been settled.

Commission is assessed and paid monthly rather than solely through a conventional annual bonus structure.

For a commercially ambitious Solicitor, this offers the opportunity to develop a genuine personal client following alongside their technical legal career.