Advert Close date: 27th March 2026
Purpose of Role:
As part of a Legal, Ethics, and Compliance function currently undergoing a transformation, this newly created role is designed to support the evolving needs of the business, both now and for the future. The Senior Lawyer (Real Estate) will provide high-quality legal advice with a primary focus on real estate matters, while demonstrating agility and confidence in advising across other legal disciplines. Whilst being a hands‑on advisory role, it includes line management responsibilities and offers a valuable opportunity for a legal professional ready to step into a junior management position. The individual will work closely with the Group Legal Directors and collaborate across the department and wider enterprise to support the delivery of the business’ legal needs.
Main accountabilities
Real Estate Legal Advisory
* Advise on residential and commercial development projects, including planning, acquisition, construction, and disposal.
* Support joint venture arrangements, including structuring, governance, and documentation.
* Provide legal input on leasing arrangements, including heads of terms, lease negotiation, renewals, and terminations.
* Advise on rural estate matters, including agricultural tenancies, land management, and heritage considerations.
Cross-Functional Legal Support
* Provide legal advice across other areas of law as required, including commercial contracts, regulatory compliance, and governance.
* Support enterprise‑wide initiatives and transformation programmes with legal input and risk assessment.
Stakeholder Engagement
* Build strong working relationships with internal stakeholders across business units, including property, finance, sustainability, and operations.
* Liaise with external counsel and advisors as needed, ensuring value for money and alignment with internal priorities.
Legal Risk Management
* Identify, assess, and mitigate legal risks in line with organisational appetite and policy.
* Contribute to the development and implementation of legal policies, templates, and guidance materials.
Management and Development
* Line manage junior legal team members, providing coaching, feedback, and development opportunities.
* Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture aligned with the department’s transformation goals.
Operational Excellence
* Maintain accurate records and contribute to legal reporting and metrics.
* Support continuous improvement in legal service delivery, including use of technology and process optimisation.
Agility and Responsiveness
* Respond flexibly to changing business needs, managing competing priorities with professionalism and resilience.
* Demonstrate enterprise‑wide thinking, offering support wherever the business need arises.
Most important skills based requirements
* Qualified solicitor in England & Wales
* Strong technical expertise in real estate law, including:
o Residential and commercial development
o Joint ventures
o Leasing
o Rural estate matters (desirous)
* Ideally the candidate trained in private practice and is currently working or previously worked in‑house.
* Experience or demonstrable interest in expanding into other legal areas (e.g., commercial, regulatory, construction).
* Excellent drafting and negotiation skills.
* Strong interpersonal and stakeholder engagement abilities.
* Previous experience in mentoring or line management (even at a junior level) is desirable but not essential.
Capabilities
* Agility: Able to pivot quickly between tasks and legal disciplines in response to business needs.
* Judgement: Applies sound legal reasoning and commercial awareness to deliver balanced advice.
* Pragmatism: business‑centric, is able to contextualise advice and support they provide, considering and having regard to a complex risk matrix capturing legal and non‑legal areas such as reputation, financial and sustainability for example.
* Collaboration: A team player, they build trusted relationships across the department, business and other functions, effectively working with others to deliver a consistent high quality service to the business.
* Management: Demonstrates initiative and supports the development of others.
* Resilience: Manages workload effectively under pressure and adapts to change.
* Curiosity: Proactively seeks opportunities to learn and grow in new legal areas.
* Enterprise Mindset: Willing and able to work across the organisation wherever the business need arises.
* Detail‑oriented, maintains high standards while managing competing priorities.
* Inclusive and culturally aware, promoting equitable practices and supporting diverse teams.
* Ethical and discreet, with sound judgement and a commitment to confidentiality and integrity.
Our Offering / benefits
As well as a competitive salary, pension and performance relatedbonus offering, we have a wealth of benefits available ranging from flexible working; market leading family policies and shopping discounts in the West End,to private healthcare; life andcritical illness cover and 28 days holiday with the option to buy more. We value work life balance and your wellbeing highly,enabling you to be your best self to work.
Disability Disclaimer
We are a proud disability confident employer and operate the offer of interview scheme Disability Confident employer scheme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We are happy to offer alternative application methods or formats and can be flexible on our process to enable you to have the best opportunity.
If you have any questions about our recruitment process or would like to talk about adjustments, please contact us directly on careers@thecrownestate.co.uk
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