Planning Legal Director - Yorkshire / North West / North East
| Location | Leeds |
| Discipline: | Directors & Partners |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Salary: | £c£85K-£105K |
| Contact name: | Tony Brooke |
| Contact email: | anthony@brookethornham.com |
| Job ref: | J10167 |
| Published: | 1 day ago |
| Startdate: | 2025-10-16 |
Unusual opportunity with a Top 20 brand, but one whose Planning team is a compact size in comparison to many other similarly ranked brands. The consequence is greater involvement in the work of the whole department, less internal competition for inclusion on complex matters, and a greater visibility within the team. They're keen to make an appointment at Legal Director level, which will be a valuable connection between the Partners and the Associates, and provide a platform for future progression to Partner for those who want it.
As a Legal Director you will have significant responsibility, leading on work where you have the competence and interest, assuming you've already got some favoured aspects of planning law which you want to be focusing on.
Career advancement in this firm is very objective, there is not an inflexible process to adhere to, rather the partners have real sway as to recognition, promotion and reward for their team members. So again this opportunity should be of interest to someone who wants to rise quickly on merit as opposed to being told to wait for rigid PQE gateways or to adhere to some sort of quota - the door is open with this firm.
The Head of Department is super-supportive and keen to develop the team members, so you'd be encouraged to be involved in more rather then corraled and restricted because of internal considerations. They want someone ambitious, who wants to do good planning work and who wants to help the department to continue to grow and to advance its market position. As a Legal Director you'll be instrumental in that.
The teams expertise across a whole range of Development and Regeneration, Energy, and Infrastructure is strong, for both private sector and public sector clients for whom they have panel places. They're confident of their expertise and of the interesting work they can present for experience lawyers to get stuck into.
Their work is from London as well as the regions, so where you're based isn't impacting on the exposure you'll get.
This is a tight team of individuals who get on well, who work hard for the clients and also support one another, and when there's a slightly quieter period they'll enjoy that to balance out the times of working to deadlines.
An unusual opportunity with high quality work, but day to day advantages when compared to some of the bigger brands in Planning. The Head of Department will happily have an informal exploratory conversation if you simply want to find out more with a view to deciding whether to get further into a formal recruitment process, so reach out to discuss.
Brooke Thornham Consulting advertisements use PQE levels purely as a guide to the level of experience required for the role and this does not prohibit applications from candidates who are able to demonstrate the necessary skills and experience. We aim to respond to enquiries as soon as possible but if we have not contacted you within 5 days then unfortunately on this occasion your application has not quite met the requirements of our client closely enough.