Banking Associate/Senior Associate

Job Introduction

The Bristol based banking and debt finance team is a part of a very successful corporate team based in the Bristol office (turnover c. £8m, 30 lawyers), which has produced highly profitable year-on-year growth in the last four years. The work is varied and of a high calibre. Currently the mix of work across the group is weighted by a small majority to the borrower side and the short to medium term strategy is to target a broadly equal mix of non-bank lender and borrower side work.

The banking and debt finance team is led by two experienced, hands-on and ambitious partners both of whom spent significant parts of their careers in Magic Circle and leading US firms. The team has a mandate to grow and has unparalleled flexibility in relation to the direction of the business. Joining a small but ambitious, close-knit and energetic team, the successful candidate will have a unique opportunity to play a crucial role in growing and shaping the practice. The spread of work will offer the successful candidate a platform from which to develop a genuinely broad practice. For the right candidate there is a long term career path on offer to work with partners who care deeply about creating opportunities for every member of their team.

This opportunity would appeal to relocators from the City/nationally or associates already in the South West looking to join a growing, ambitious and entrepreneurial team.

Role Responsibility

The team is looking to recruit an additional solicitor with banking and debt finance experience to help drive its continued growth.

Specific responsibilities will include:

• Working as part of a team on a wide range of banking and debt finance transactions, supporting partners and associates on the full range of work streams.
• Assisting in knowledge and information management.
• Assisting in client development.
• A successful candidate will ideally be Bristol based, but some travel (particularly to London) will be required on an infrequent basis.

The Ideal Candidate

• A qualified banking solicitor with strong academic credentials and between 3-6 PQE in an established City or regional banking practice.
• A training contract seat in banking and debt finance is required.
• Post qualification experience in real estate finance, project finance and/or leveraged finance would be of particular interest but is not essential.
• Able to demonstrate a clear understanding of the broad principles of secured lending and experience of drafting and negotiating security documentation.
• A familiarity with loan documentation (including facility agreements and intercreditor / subordination agreements) would be a real benefit.
• Able to deal confidently and professionally with clients on day to day issues.  A willingness and desire to become the day to day “go to” person for clients.
• A well rounded individual with a life outside of work.
• Self-sufficient but aware of boundaries of own experience.
• A desire to learn and get exposure to a wide variety of financing situations.
• An ability to adopt a commercial perspective to legal issues.
• Will be excited by the prospect of helping to grow and develop the business.
• Will possess intellectual courage to tackle new transactions or issues and a willingness to step outside their comfort zone.

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,500 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in insurance, health and real estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

Application Details

At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences we celebrate them.  From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you like an individual.  Our strength comes from your diverse ideas and bringing the whole you to work. So if you’re good at what you do, come as you are.  We welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.

We also want you to be at your very best.  Please feel free to let us know of any changes we can make at any point in the recruitment process that will help support your application.  If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV.  Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft recruitment team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible.  We do work with recruitment agencies and where we require external support we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us.  Speculative CVs sent by any agency to any DAC Beachcroft employee without a specific request by the recruitment team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our recruitment team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft