Associate / Senior Associate - Planning & Highways

Anthony Collins Solicitors; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading law firm in Birmingham is seeking an experienced Planning Lawyer to join their expanding team. This role involves drafting complex section 106 agreements and providing legal support at planning committees. The ideal candidate will have over 3 years of post-qualification experience in planning law and will collaborate closely with regeneration colleagues. The firm offers a supportive, non-hierarchical environment, hybrid working, and generous benefits, including days for social purpose volunteering.

Benefits

Hybrid working

25 days holiday plus 2 extra days at Christmas

3 days available for social purpose volunteering

On-site café and gym

Excellent training programme

Qualifications

• 3+ years post-qualification experience in planning law.
• Significant experience dealing with complex section 106 agreements.
• Ability to provide training and attend networking events.

Responsibilities

• Draft and negotiate complex section 106 agreements.
• Attend planning committees to provide legal support.
• Support litigation colleagues on judicial reviews.

Skills

Planning knowledge

Experience with section 106 agreements

Advisory capacity experience

Supervision skills

Networking abilities

Job description

About the role and team

Our nationally recognised Planning team is seeking to expand and we are currently looking to recruit a Planning Lawyer. The ideal candidate will have 3+ yrs PQE, and relevant experience to assist the team in delivering a broad range of advice relating to planning matters across our sectors, including for local government, housing and ecclesiastical clients.

If you have good experience of advising on, drafting and negotiating complex section 106 agreements, attending planning committees to provide legal support and dealing with complex planning queries and are ready to apply your skills to the sectors we work in, we would love to hear from you!

We are fortunate to have a broad range and large number of instructions supporting inhouse local authority planning departments which will require additional long-term resource. These include providing comprehensive legal support to a number of unitary authorities including drafting and negotiating complex section 106 agreements relating to significant urban extensions, attending planning committee to provide legal support and progressing compulsory purchase orders.

We also provide legal support to a number of other public sector organisations including registered providers of social housing and ecclesiastical organisations. Please look over our website to get a feel for our core sectors (including Social Housing, Local Government, Charities, Education & Care) and for information about our exciting B Corp accreditation.

The sectors we work in often also involve overlap between planning and regeneration. This role offers a unique opportunity to work with property lawyers within our regeneration team providing legal support to local authorities in relation to town centre regeneration schemes.

About the candidate

The ideal candidate will have significant experience of planning work including dealing with complex section 106 agreements, compulsory purchase orders and providing support in an advisory capacity including providing legal support at planning committee and will also have an interest in working closely with our property colleagues in the regeneration team.

Whilst the candidate will mainly focus on non-contentious work, there will also be opportunities to support our litigation colleagues in relation to claims for judicial review of planning decisions and to provide support to our clients in relation to planning appeals.

The ideal candidate will have experience of providing training to clients and attending networking events to develop business and will support to planning partner and legal director in diversifying the teams client base.

You will also help with supervising our wonderful team of junior lawyers. This is a role you really can make your own and which offers excellent prospects for career progression.

Our teams really are known for being happy to do things differently: you'll be joining a genuinely friendly and non-hierarchical team which wants people to be able to be themselves and to thrive in a supportive environment. Our priority is to support you in having a successful and rewarding career which genuinely plays to your strengths while supporting our clients on truly varied and worthwhile matters. Our team pride themselves on using their legal knowledge to further our social purpose goals and those of our clients, whether for the day-to-day contracts they procure and administer or for a ‘once in a decade’ major procurement.

About the firm

Anthony Collins Solicitors is a specialist law firm with a clear purpose – to “improve lives, communities and society”. For over 50 years we’ve been successfully combining market-leading legal expertise with a commitment to excellence and long‑term relationships underpinned by a strong set of values.

What makes Anthony Collins Solicitors distinctive, beyond simply being a sector‑specialist law firm, is our people and the values we share. We’re extremely proud of the calibre of people that we attract; people who are inspired by our values, motivated by our vision and work with our clients to positively influence the society and communities we are building together.

What’s in it for you?

• Hybrid working.
• 25 days holiday, 2 gift days at Christmas.
• The opportunity to give back and have 3 days available for social purpose volunteering.
• For Birmingham Colleagues, we have a newly refurbished office with an onsite café and free access to an on‑site gym.
• All IT equipment and support for effective home working
• An excellent technical training programme and opportunities to grow sector expertise

Anthony Collins Solicitors is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.