Paralegal - Real Estate
Job Introduction
Our Real Estate Team covers every aspect of commercial real estate work including planning and environmental, development, investment, asset management, funding, construction, landlord and tenant and dispute resolution. Clients include property management and development companies, health trusts and government bodies (local and central), owner occupiers and institutions, both in the UK and overseas.
The successful candidate would work within our Bristol Commercial and Residential Development team. The team works with PLC house builders, as well as commercial and mixed use developers, local authorities and joint ventures in the acquisition and development of land. Our success is due to the emphasis we place on working as a team to guarantee service delivery for our clients and the paralegals are an important and valued part of the team.
Because the team is sector as opposed to discipline based, the scope of technical work is very wide and varied, and represents an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to a wide variety of work and experience across the commercial property field.
Teams are drawn from our offices across the country (London, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Bristol), ensuring our clients benefit from a combination of the most appropriately experienced team and local market knowledge.
Role Responsibility
1. Assisting qualified staff with all manner of real estate development transactions, from acquisitions and disposals to strategic land options and affordable housing sales, and being a valuable, fee-earning member of the team.
2. In particular, assisting with infrastructure transactions, such as section agreements, wayleaves, easements, substation transfers etc.
3. Undertaking specific tasks including – Land Registry searches, Local Authority and other searches and dealing with enquiries from public search bodies.
4. Dealing with completion and post-completion matters including Land Registry applications, producing SDLT application forms, calculating SDLT payments and dealing with the Stamp Office/Inland Revenue.
5. Being the primary contact for initial accounts' and billing queries (both internally and also where raised by the client)
7. Reporting to the client through monthly reports
8. Assisting with our knowledge databases for key clients
It is important to be able to handle confidential information in line with the firm's data security protocols.
In addition, the person will be expected to contribute and work alongside other team members in the Real Estate group for the group's other clients to cover the following tasks:
• General correspondence and basic progression of files for qualified staff;
• Preparing documents for engrossment checks and engrossing documents;
• Dealing with Accounts/Elite issues and queries;
• Dealing with post-completion procedures;
• Dealing with enquiries and replies on transactional matters;
• General review of ongoing matters for various clients;
• Liaising with the team's Land Registry office (ability to use the LR portal);
• Initiating and reviewing searches (ability to use Searchflow);
• Producing first drafts of documents using visualfiles (for checking);
• Producing summary reports on documentation;
• Dealing with post completion queries including re: SDLT/HMRC and Land Registry queries and requisitions.
The Ideal Candidate
Experience in Commercial Property (and in particular Development) is not essential but would be advantageous as would be an interest in this area.
• Previous experience of working as a paralegal would be an advantage but is not essential.
• 5 GCSE's or equivalent, including Maths and English and at least 3 A-Levels.
• Good organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and manage tasks within a time-scale.
• Must be flexible and self-motivated team player who is able to respect and support others within the team to achieve common goals.
• The ability to produce work to high standards and a high level of accuracy.
• Competent in Microsoft Office packages and experience in case management.
• Ability to communicate confidently both verbally and in written form in a clear, concise and friendly manner.
• Excellent attention to detail and a concern for quality are essential.
• Must be able to work under pressure to meet required deadlines.
• Must be able to work on own initiative and unsupervised.
About the Company
We are a leading international legal business with over 2,400 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 Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Peru, Central America, Argentina, the USA, Australia and Germany.
We are known for our market-leading presence in sectors such as 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 the majority of the top 30 insurance and financial services companies operating in the UK. We are the asset management lawyers for the UK’s largest shopping centres and act for 9 of the UK’s top 10 housebuilders.
We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 155 Chambers UK 2019 practice area and individual lawyer rankings, including 30 rankings at 'Band 1' level. In Legal 500 UK, 2018, the firm received top tier ranking for 32 of its practice areas and 59 practice areas in the top two tiers. In March 2018, we were named as one of Legal Week's Best Legal Advisors for the third year running, achieving category-leading satisfaction scores for our commercial approach, service delivery, quality of legal advice, communication & responsiveness and overall relationships.
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.
DAC Beachcroft is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from every sector of the community. We also welcome direct applications. 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.
DAC Beachcroft