Senior Planning Lawyer (Edinburgh)

Join our highly regarded Planning team in the heart of Edinburgh and play a key role in the continued growth of Womble Bond Dickinson's presence in Scotland. Our Edinburgh office offers the best of both worlds: the energy and ambition of a rapidly expanding hub, combined with the culture, collaboration and high-calibre work you'd expect from an international firm.

Womble Bond Dickinson is one of the leading law firms in Edinburgh, with 10 years of experience in Scotland. Having invested vast knowledge and resources supporting Scottish-based businesses, helping them to succeed and grow, our Edinburgh office is well-positioned to support a wide variety of clients across all key sectors. The office itself, based in the heart of the city rich in history and impressive architecture, is home to a talented team of solicitors whose primary focus is to ensure all clients receive in-depth, comprehensive and effective legal support and we are now looking for a Senior Planning Lawyer to join them.

As the firm's newest office, it is an exciting opportunity to be part of a growing team, and to be a part of the rising profile of the office within the firm, and of WBD in Scotland. The quality of the team in Scotland is already delivering fantastic opportunities in our key sectors, and with the energetic Edinburgh team behind it, the office is going from strength to strength!

Our Real Estate Planning team are widely regarded as one of the best in the UK advising on some of the most iconic developments. Whether it is off shore wind farms located 40 kilometres out to sea, major residential schemes including garden villages and regeneration, new rail and road projects, airport developments, or waste and mineral projects; we are instructed on all of them.

What will you be doing?

Our national team offers clients a full-spectrum of expertise and handles a range of complex mandates in the residential, commercial and infrastructure and environmental and waste sectors, as well as contentious work in Judicial Review and Lands Chamber proceedings.

What does the ideal candidate look like?

Due to the growth in our work, as well as the variety and complexity of the projects we are working on, this role needs strong experience in planning, infrastructure and environmental work as well as a genuine enthusiasmto develop our great team. This role will see you working on large scale development consent orders, compulsory acquisitions, giving strategic planning advice, reviewing environmental statements, assisting with project management and supporting our national real estate practice. The role offers an unrivalled opportunity to work on a wide range of premium level planning work outside of the City.

We've seen a significant increase in the work we undertake for major infrastructure providers and would like to hear from you if you have both the passion and expertise in this area. There are great opportunities to work with truly talented lawyers at the top of their field across our offices.

To be successful in this role you'll need as a minimum:

• A legal qualification with 8+ years post admission experience gained within a planning team.

• Knowledge of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and some knowledge or the Planning Act 2008 is desirable.

• Experience of and able to lead on complex planning agreements

• Experience of highway agreements

• Ability to handle inquiries/examinations and judicial reviews relating to planning matters.

• Experiencing managing & supervising more junior members of the team

• Knowledge and experience of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)

• Whilst not required, experience of compulsory acquisition is also desirable

What makes it great to work here?

We continually work hard to create an open culture that sets us apart from other firms. Our culture gives us much more of a human feel, emphasising that we're more than just suits!

As signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, it's important to us that our people are able to maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and wellbeing and we're very happy to talk flexible working, full-time or part-time working patterns.

Through our DEI initiatives we create an environment in which difference is valued. We have an Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group, led by our Board Sponsor, which works with our colleague networks (we currently have firm supported networks for race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage, LGBTQ+, disabilities, families, and women's career development and we're in constant dialogue with our people about how we expand our networks to better support everybody). Find out more about ED&I at WBD here. We encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities and sexual orientations.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long term condition and need us to make any adjustments to give you the best possible recruitment process, please let us know by contacting the recruiter on the right hand side of this page. Please also let us know if you need this job advert or the application form in a different format.

We will offer an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term condition who meet the minimum criteria for this role. You can opt into this scheme within the application form. Your response to this question is only used for this purpose, is only visible to the recruitment team and is not used for data monitoring.

We are an in-house recruitment team and will always aim to fill our roles directly in the first instance. If you're an agency, please click here for ways that you can work with us.

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