Property Lawyer

Join Our Team: Property Lawyer

Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.

Join the Canal & River Trust as a Property Lawyer. We have a fantastic opportunity for a talented Property Lawyer to join our national Legal & Governance team; assisting the Trust’s Senior Property Lawyer with the handling and management of transactional contentious property matters across the Trust’s property portfolio.

Location & coverage

The position will be offered on a remote working basis, with a requirement to attend our main hub spaces on occasion for meetings. Main hubs include Leeds, Ellesmere Port, Burnley, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Gloucester, London.

This role follows a 37 hours Monday to Friday working pattern and will be home‑based, with the allocation of a nearby Hub.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Senior Property Lawyer and Principal Property Lawyer on complex transactions, whilst managing your own caseload of commercial property matters.
• Draft, review and negotiate leases, licences, agreements, transfers and associated legal documents for acquisitions, disposals and other transactions.
• Provide legal advice on day-to-day landlord and tenant issues, lease renewals, consents, title matters and statutory obligations.
• Assist with due diligence and title investigations for acquisitions, disposals and projects.
• Manage instructions from internal stakeholders with a commercial, pragmatic approach.
• Help identify and mitigate legal risk in line with Trust policy and Charities Act obligations.
• Work in accordance with the property team support framework in delivery of legal advice to the wider Trust teams.

About you

We’re a complex organisation and our Legal & Governance team work closely every day across the organisation in supporting our Estates, Property Investment, Utilities, Engineering and Regional Operations teams, in addition to liaising with a variety of external partners, stakeholders and advisors. The Property Lawyer will be working collaboratively in an experienced Legal team of qualified lawyers, claims manager, paralegals and legal PA.

The Trust’s legal team plays a vital role in protecting the Trust’s interests, across the whole range of our activities, to ensure regulatory compliance with charity, environmental, planning, heritage, health and safety (as well as the Trust’s unique historic waterways Acts of Parliament dating back over 200 years), providing advice and support drafting on contractual and property documentation, bringing and defending litigation (including judicial review) plus a full range of commercial, employment and boat licensing matters.

As our Property Lawyer you will be supporting the delivery of legal advice across the Trust’s broad property portfolio in connection with its commercial property transactions and related legal matters.

Skills & Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer (or equivalent) with a minimum of 5 years’ commercial property experience gained in private practice or in‑house.
• Sound working knowledge of property legislation and case law, including landlord & tenant.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills, highly organised, detail‑oriented, and capable of working independently with minimal supervision.
• Ability to adhere to and manage deadlines.
• Have a proven track record of building and maintaining relationships both internally and externally.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Collaborative and able to think creatively when solving problems.
• Ability to build collaborative relationships across all levels and disciplines within the Trust and to participate effectively in meetings.
• To be aware of your own responsibilities regarding safeguarding and to support our commitment to providing safe environments and working practices that promote and protect the safety and welfare of children, young people and adults at risk at all times.

Contact & Application

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at CRT.recruitment@canalrivertrust.org.uk. We encourage early applications as we may close the vacancy once we receive enough suitable candidates.

What We Offer

We offer a starting salary of £48,000. Enjoy a competitive pension scheme, increasing holiday entitlement, and a range of employee benefits. For a full breakdown of our benefits, check out our brochure here: EVP - 1.

Learn more: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/work-for-us/our-benefits

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