Associate​/Senior Associate - Banking

We are newly recruiting for a Senior Associate and Associate to join our Banking team in Belfast. Our Banking team is ambitious and continues to expand, with expertise across each of our UK offices. We provide expert and commercial advice in all areas of general corporate lending - including acquisition finance, real estate finance and renewables finance. We have the capacity to deal with all instructions, from the largest cross border syndicated transactions through to lower level strategically important bilateral lending.

The focus of our Banking team is acting lender side on transactions including acting for all of the UK clearing banks, alternative lenders and investment funds. The team also advises borrower side for many of the firm’s corporate and real estate clients who are undertaking transactions in the debt markets. The team in Belfast focus primarily on the Northern Irish banking and finance market alongside working on both English law and Irish law transactions.

We regularly advise on cross jurisdictional matters.

Our team is supported by highly regarded experts in restructuring and insolvency, property, corporate, energy and construction, all with significant experience and understanding of the way in which lending institutions operate. We pride ourselves on understanding the needs of our clients, listening to them and then providing clear, straightforward commercially pragmatic advice that offers a real solution.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to gain a broad and varied caseload, working with notable clients. You will receive bespoke training throughout your career and we will ensure that you have the technical and commercial skills to build an effective and successful practice and become a sector specialist.

As a key addition to the team, day to day you can expect to:

• Manage your own caseload of banking matters and support the Partners with larger transactions
• Provide an excellent service to our clients by working closely with colleagues from other specialisms and (at times) from across the wider Banking and Finance team;
• Support the Partners in business development matters and help to strengthen the relationships with new and existing clients
• Demonstrate an understanding of the client’s business and an ability to secure new work within existing client relationships to develop the account
• Delegate tasks to other team members appropriate to their job role level and skill to ensure the optimum use of available resource and utilisation
• Supervise work delegated to other team members as a means of developing others adopting a supportive and coaching approach
• Focus on financial implications and targets at a team and group level

We are looking for:

• Two qualified lawyers, one 1-3
  
  PQE Associate and a 4-6
  
  PQE Senior Associate, each with prior banking/finance experience within a commercial firm
• Qualified in Northern Ireland, Ireland and/or England and Wales
• Senior Associate candidate should have experience in drafting LMA style loan documentation essential, preferably with a good knowledge of real estate finance and/or corporate finance
• A forward thinker, with excellent analytical, communication and organisational skills, you will be self-motivated with the ability to manage workloads and deadlines
• Commercial awareness with enthusiasm for business development, and an appetite for keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in your practice area and sector focus
• An ambitious and enthusiastic team player, able to support senior fee earners and contribute to our collaborative culture