Vacancy - Corporate & Business Lawyer
Full time, Permanent, based in our Plymouth office, with opportunities for remote work
Following significant growth over the last few years, and with a desire to grow significantly bigger across the firm in the future, we are recruiting for a Corporate & Business Lawyer to join our specialist team.
The Corporate & Business team
Our Corporate & Business team works with a wide range of clients in both the private sector and both locally and regionally. The team provides a comprehensive range of services, encompassing:
Succession planning
Mergers & Acquisitions
Management Buyouts
Company law
Restructuring
Joint Ventures
Commercial & Partnership agreements
IP & Licensing
Main responsibilities and duties of the job
The firm’s commercial offering has grown significantly over the last decade, which has allowed us to establish and grow dedicated company commercial, commercial property, commercial dispute resolution and employment teams. This has enabled a greater focus on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and business legal support services providing the core of the work of the Commercial team, while working closely with the other non-contentious teams in the firm to provide a full range of legal services for established businesses and startups as well as working alongside the private client teams to ensure that the owner’s personal legal requirements are also met.
The team and the work
Austin Blackburn, Head of the Corporate & Business team had this to say about the team and the work that they do:
Having worked in and around Plymouth for over 15 years, I have developed a strong following of business clients assisting them through the years with setting up and restructuring their businesses including through mergers and acquisitions, taking finance, advising on their general commercial agreements, establishing succession arrangements and dealing with management buyouts, and asset and share sales.
While increasingly focusing on corporate reconstructions, acquisitions, mergers and sales, the work remains varied and we are keen to continue to provide a wide range of legal support to businesses both locally and throughout England. These other areas include advising on and preparing terms of business, partnership and LLP and shareholder agreements, joint venture and other commercial contracts. We also offer a range of trusted advice to directors, shareholders, partners and sole traders.
We often work closely with business owners and their accountants, business agents and bank account managers to determine the best strategy. By doing this, we’re also able to balance the sometimes competing interests of business efficacy, tax arrangements and finance, developing pragmatic solutions throughout the process. Our approach as a team is to keep matters as straightforward as possible, working with our clients and their other advisors to meet our client’s needs, developing long-standing relationships and being by their side as their businesses grow.
We’re looking to expand the team with someone to work directly alongside myself, developing a broad range of commercial skills with an often varied workload, and establishing strong relationships with clients and other professionals to grow with your own role. You need to be approachable, ready to rise to technical challenges, able to analyse any situation and then offer pragmatic solutions.
About you
We do not set upper or lower limits of PQE for any of our vacancies. We have however given an indicative PQE as an approximate guide for applicants. Candidates who have at least 2 – 5 years PQE are likely to have the right level of enthusiasm and knowledge, with the right level of experience needed to be able to undertake and develop within this role.
Qualified Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive in England & Wales
Well-developed professional and interpersonal skills
Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) and legal technical skills
Ability to work in a team environment and develop relationships across the business
Ability to demonstrate a deep understanding of the technical issues that are key to our clients
Recognises and seizes opportunities for the firm, including repeat business
Builds and develops own network of internal and external contacts
Awareness of business development initiatives in the team and identifies ways to contribute
Good knowledge of PC applications, including MS Office
About us
We’re a firm of Solicitors in Plymouth who passionately believe in providing our clients with the very best client experience and service.
We work with clients across the City, throughout the South West, and nationally too. We’re a law firm that punches well above our weight and our client list would be the envy of a lot of larger firms nationwide.
We put a very significant emphasis on providing our clients with exceptional client service and experience, and are keen for our lawyers to use their experience, knowledge and expertise to provide an outstanding quality of work as well. We currently have the highest average score and by far the most Google Reviews of any law firm in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and the majority of Dorset.
Our Corporate and Business Law, Employment Law, Commercial Property and Litigation teams together provide companies and organisations with a comprehensive and joined-up approach to all of their legal requirements.
For individuals and families needing legal support, we understand that visiting, talking to and trusting in a lawyer can be a daunting experience. As a result, we tailor our approach to ensure that the needs of our clients are catered to and that we balance professional advice and assistance with a friendly atmosphere.
Salary & benefits
We offer a highly competitive salary, 6 weeks holiday per year, a health cash back plan, death in service benefit, a healthy bonus scheme and enhanced maternity/paternity pay.
Outside of work, we organise various events for our people throughout the year and live and work in undoubtedly one of the most beautiful parts of the country. We also think that it’s one of the best places to bring up a young family.
It’s vitally important to us that our people can maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and well-being and we're very happy to talk about opportunities for flexible/remote working, full-time or part-time working patterns.
This really is a two-way relationship. Our clients benefit from your hard work, your expertise, commitment and experience. In return, you’ll be an important and valued member of the firm, and we’ll do whatever we can to make sure that you have access to the resources that both you and your family need to thrive.
You can find out more about the benefits of employment at Nash & Co Solicitors, by clicking here.
Our values
Everything that we do at Nash & Co Solicitors, is done with these values in mind.
Be Fair – we do not expect you to work ‘silly hours’, in fact we discourage it. In our view, work is part of our lives, not all of it.
Be Kind – we are committed to being kind to both clients and our people. This helps to create an environment where our people produce their best work, and our clients return time and again. We should always be supportive, compassionate and act thoughtfully.
Be Transparent – we should always be transparent about costs, timescales, and the work that we do for clients. We should be in regular contact with our clients, keeping things understandable and avoiding legal jargon wherever possible.
Be Honest – if something goes wrong, or circumstances change, we should always communicate this with our clients as soon as possible.
Be Brilliant – We should constantly challenge ourselves to be better, think bigger and work to find creative solutions to clients’ challenges.
Diversity and inclusion
At Nash & Co Solicitors, diversity and inclusion naturally underpins how we as a firm live our values and everything we do. We believe that everyone has a voice, and that everyone’s voice counts. We know that the rich diversity across our firm makes us stronger, more innovative and creative, which helps us to better serve our clients and communities. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment and culture across our firm, where everyone can feel comfortable coming to work.
Diversity of perspective, thought, background and culture combine to make us the one of the top law firms in the area; and because of this, we actively seek to build balanced teams. We welcome the unique contribution that you will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.
Our environmental and community commitments
We have a range of long-term environmental commitments, particularly with ocean-based charities and organisations - the Ocean Conservation Trust, the National Marine Aquarium, Surfers Against Sewage, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Plymouth is known as Britain’s Ocean City, and we want to do our bit to help look after the seas and rivers that surround us. We’re also running our own rewilding and tree planting scheme in our grounds and the adjacent public park, to encourage wildlife to thrive. You can find out more about our environmental commitments here.
Here at Nash & Co we have always believed in doing whatever we can to help and support our local community, and this will always be an important part of the firm. From buying Christmas presents for young carers across Plymouth to paying for our staff to enter half marathons, 10k and 5k events. From doing beach cleans and street cleans to cycling the equivalent of Plymouth to the South of France and organising bake sales and charity quizzes etc. Supporting our community is something that we’re all really passionate about and more than happy to do. Click here to find out more about the work that we do in the community.
Hybrid/Remote working
We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That’s why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for both hybrid and remote working.
Pre-engagement screening
In the event that we make an offer to you, and where relevant, we may conduct pre-engagement screening checks. These may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the UK, any criminal records, and work-related references.
Apply for our Corporate & Business Lawyer job
As well as filling out the form, please don’t forget to attach your current CV AND a cover letter. You’d be surprised just how many people forget to send us a cover letter to go with their application.