In-House Legal Counsel
Property development firm
£100K-£130K + bonus
London
Permanent role
The Role
You will be the primary legal resource for land acquisitions, development finance, and commercial contracts providing fast, pragmatic, high-quality commercial legal advice that enables the business to move decisively.
Key Responsibilities
Land & Property
- Lead legal due diligence and transaction management on land acquisitions, option agreements, conditional contracts, and promotion agreements
- Advise on title matters, planning obligations (s106 agreements), overage, clawback, and restrictive covenants
- Review and negotiate heads of terms, purchase contracts, and ancillary documentation
- Manage external solicitors on complex or high-value transactions, ensuring quality and cost efficiency
- Support joint venture structuring and documentation alongside the investment team
Banking & Finance
- Act as the primary in-house legal contact on development finance facilities, including senior debt, mezzanine, and equity arrangements
- Review and negotiate facility agreements, security documentation, and intercreditor arrangements
- Manage conditions precedent processes and drawdown mechanics in coordination with the operations and development team
- Liaise with lenders' solicitors and maintain strong working relationships with banking counterparties
Commercial Contracts
- Draft, review, and negotiate a broad range of commercial agreements including construction contracts (JCT), professional appointments, consultant agreements, and NDAs
- Advise on contractor and consultant terms, warranties, collateral warranties, and novation agreements
- Support the development team with procurement and contract administration queries
- Maintain and develop a suite of standard-form templates and precedents for use across the business
General In-House
- Provide timely, commercially focused legal advice to senior stakeholders across the business
- Identify and manage legal risk across the development and investment pipeline
- Manage the external legal panel, instruct and oversee specialist advisers, and control legal spend
- Keep the business informed of relevant legal and regulatory developments
Requirements
- Qualified solicitor
- Strong grounding in property law and ideally experience across banking/finance and commercial contracts
- Background in a reputable private practice real estate team, with in-house experience a plus
- Solid experience of land acquisition transactions — including conditional contracts, options, and s106 negotiations
- Exposure to development finance documentation and lender-side or borrower-side finance transactions
- Comfortable working at pace in an entrepreneurial, deal-driven environment
- Pragmatic and commercial — able to give clear, direct advice rather than purely academic legal analysis
- Strong drafting skills and meticulous attention to detail
- A self-starter who can manage multiple workstreams independently and prioritise effectively