Senior Associate (Construction)

BDB Pitmans LLP

With over 300 years of legal experience, BDB Pitmans is a well-established top 60 firm with offices in London, Southampton, Reading and Cambridge. Across these locations, we are proud of our client focused approach which is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission statement, Building Better, shape what’s important to business, people and society and we are delighted to work alongside a diverse range of clients who are creating new ideas or learning for a better future.

Above all, our focus is on doing things right and doing them well. So we aim to build longstanding and mutually beneficial client relationships based on trust and genuine partnership.

What really sets us apart is our friendly, open and inclusive culture. People join and stay at BDB Pitmans as they get the benefits of challenging work in a supportive and professional atmosphere alongside a healthy work/life balance, reflected in our flexible working and target hours.

ED&I

At BDB Pitmans, our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion sits at the heart of who we are as a firm as we are passionate about ensuring we create a work environment where everyone feels safe, respected, and fully supported to be themselves. Our ED&I work, though, goes beyond how we work with our colleagues. Our firm values – we act with respect, we work in partnership, and we find solutions – are deeply embedded in ED&I principles, and heavily inform how we approach client relationships, as well as external partnerships.

The team

The Firm has a specialist Construction Team that sits within its Commercial Real Estate Team. The legal work of the team includes preparing and negotiating building contracts, professional appointments and development and other stakeholder agreements across the real estate sector including major infrastructure projects, and commercial, residential, and industrial schemes.

The opportunity

The focus of this role will be to assist with a wide range of construction matters, acting for commercial, institutional, public sector, charity and private clients. The main responsibilities include:

• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a range of industry-specific and general commercial contracts between the different parties involved in a project.
• Acting for a variety of clients including builders, property developers, architects, contractors, subcontractors, engineers, landowners and funders.
• Working closely with professionals of other disciplines including project managers and monitors
• Drafting and negotiating building contracts based on standard forms ( JCT and NEC) as well as bespoke forms of building contracts
• Drafting and negotiating professional team appointments
• Drafting and negotiating ancillary documents i.e pre-construction services agreements, collateral warranties, parent company guarantees, construction cost account arrangements & performance bonds
• Assisting Real Estate and Corp/Commercial departments with construction due diligence
• Assisting Real Estate and Planning/Infrastructure colleagues with development agreements and the construction obligations in Real Estate and other documents
• Any other duties as reasonably required by the Partners

Who we are looking for

Key Requirements

• Admission to the Roll of Solicitors
• 2:1 Degree or higher preferred
• 6+ years PQE in in construction law, focussing primarily on non-contentious construction work
• A strong grounding in transactional construction work in the property and/or infrastructure related sectors
• Enthusiasm for construction as a practice area, along with good technical knowledge and drafting skills
• Familiarity with the various methods of construction procurement is essential, along with a robust knowledge of all the standard forms of construction contracts
• Experience in advising on the construction aspects of agreements for lease, facility agreements, forward funding agreements and construction related security documents

Skills

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral) and able to understand each client’s commercial objectives
• Team player but with an ability to work with minimal supervision
• Strong attention to detail
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and maintain high quality standards