Projects Solicitor

We have a great opportunity for an enthusiastic lawyer at our Senior Associate or Legal Director level to join our growing Projects Department. The successful candidate will undertake major and complex projects with a particular focus on local government, but also in other sectors (especially social housing and health and social care). The projects entail the key themes of regeneration, investment, commercialisation, and trading, all of which are important to councils, housing associations and other public agencies, driving social and economic prosperity in the areas that they serve.

We are also engaged in climate change capital programmes, especially decarbonisation of public buildings, energy micro-generation and initiatives to stimulate a strong green economy and to change infrastructure to meet national and local carbon reduction targets. In addition, many of our teams are involved in waste and energy projects and there is plenty of opportunity in these areas, if of interest.

The candidate must have a good understanding of local government law, public procurement, subsidy control, contracts and commercial law.

The candidate will be part of our team of experts who are rolling out our programme of training and advice on the Procurement Act 2023.

They must have an appreciation of alternative corporate structures (with an interest in being familiar with co-operative structures) for collaborative and joint venture structures.
About the candidate

The successful applicant will have a strong technical skillset and the ability to apply those skills to develop and implement new and emerging delivery models in this space (e.g. public-private corporate joint ventures, multi local authority collaborative procurements and DBOM and similar structures).

The ideal candidate will have a strong grasp of and experience with most or all of the following:

Alternative delivery models.

Joint venture vehicles and not-for-profit structures.

Company law (including LLPs).

Public procurement.

Subsidy control (previously state aid).

Funding and grant agreements.

Local government law (including statutory functions and fiduciary duties).

Governance (especially local government and combined authority, NHS/local government, regulated housing).

You will need to be able to support our clients in running procurements under a variety of procedures for works, services and/or supplies. Experience of major infrastructure projects, particularly in the energy, decarbonisation and regeneration areas would be a distinct advantage.

Expertise in data protection and/or freedom of information law will also be very useful, working with our existing specialist team. We will enable you to develop a grasp of some unusual areas of law where particular expertise is needed, especially the housing regulatory framework and co-operative law, both of which we use in the models that we create and apply.

The successful applicant will need to be a confident communicator with strong interpersonal skills and high levels of emotional intelligence, with the ability to solve problems and talk with clients in a pragmatic and timely way. They will take early responsibility for their work and be trusted to get on with things in a supportive, collaborative and friendly setting. They must also be a strong team player, able to manage a complex and varied workload effectively, showing resilience, perseverance and positivity in meeting new challenges.

It is a key requirement that the candidate enjoys supervising and developing more junior colleagues and can grow to being a line manager within the Department's structures.

We particularly want to recruit people who support and embrace our purpose, which is: to improve lives, communities and society. We choose to make our skills available not just to the "big players" but to communities at a local level.

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.
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.