Property Lawyer

Brighton & Hove City Council; Portslade by Sea; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Brighton & Hove City Council seeks a qualified barrister, solicitor or legal executive (England and Wales) to join its Legal Property team. You will handle commercial property work, development projects and residential conveyancing for the Council, managing a varied caseload and delivering high-quality service to clients.

You will work within a supportive, award-winning Legal Services team with opportunities to contribute to major regeneration schemes and asset management initiatives.

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with experience in commercial property, development work, residential conveyancing or a combination.

Responsibilities

• Manage your own caseload of varied property matters for Council clients.
• Advise on commercial property, development projects and asset acquisitions.
• Support delivery of Council priorities and regeneration schemes.
• Collaborate with a busy legal property team and other teams across the Council.

Skills

Property experience

Negotiation skills

Communication skills

Drafting

Client care

IT literacy

Job description

Are you a talented barrister, solicitor or legal executive (qualified in England and Wales) who is interested in property work in local government?

Do you have strong negotiation skills, organisation skills and client care skills?

Would you like to deliver a variety of legal work in a professional and friendly legal team?

If so, come and join our award-winning Legal Services team by the sea!

Due to an increasing number of high profile and large projects and work programmes, we are seeking to further expand our Legal Property team. You will have a real impact by helping the Council’s housing and development programmes and its regeneration schemes together with carrying out transactions to implement the Council’s new Asset Management Strategy and to maximise its property portfolio income. Our Team has worked on many exciting projects recently such as the Sea Lanes Outdoor Swimming Pool, the city’s Kingsway to the Sea redevelopment and the acquisition of large new build apartment blocks for the purposes of the Council’s housing strategy.

The Council is an existing Unitary Authority and the Legal Services team is recognised by Lexcel as an Excellent and well-led service. We have had many award successes, including winning the 2024 LLG Legal Team of the year.

Contract type: This role is permanent

Interviews to be held: Week commencing 16th November 2026

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Siobhan Fry, Head of Legal (Commercial) at [e-mail].

About the role

We are looking to recruit a qualified lawyer with experience in commercial property, development work, residential conveyancing or a combination of these areas. You will manage your own caseload of varied and interesting property matters, advising a wide range of Council clients and supporting the delivery of key Council priorities. You will work as part of our busy and collegiate legal property team alongside experienced lawyers and support staff, with opportunities to develop your expertise and work on complex and high-profile projects and programmes.

You will have:

• Relevant experience in commercial property, development work, residential conveyancing or a combination of these areas.
• Effective communication skills and the ability to explain complex legal matters in a clear and accessible way.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills.
• A strong commitment to delivering high-quality service to clients and building trusting working relationships.
• The ability to manage competing priorities and work independently whilst recognising when support is required.
• A positive attitude and a willingness to develop new skills and areas of expertise.
• A good working knowledge of IT applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Strong interpersonal skills, building inclusive working relationships and collaborating with a wide range of diverse stakeholders.
• An understanding of, or interest in developing knowledge of, local authority property work and the public sector environment.

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us

As a council, we want to:

• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

AI advice for candidatesWe are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.