Plan­ning & Envi­ron­ment Lawyer

About Swaab

We are a mul­ti-award win­ning, com­mer­cial law firm.

Estab­lished in 1981 we have grown to become a haven for inno­va­tion, entre­pre­neur­ship, fam­i­ly busi­ness, SMEs, cor­po­rates, high-net-worth indi­vid­u­als and gov­ern­ment clients. We hold a unique posi­tion in the mar­ket place, as a firm with both full-ser­vice Com­mer­cial and Fam­i­ly law offer­ings. Our suc­cess has been a result of putting our peo­ple and clients first by liv­ing our val­ues of: Com­mit­ment, Integri­ty, Excel­lence, Gen­eros­i­ty of Spir­it, Uni­ty and Inno­va­tion. Our strong and endur­ing cul­ture has been the result of devel­op­ing and nur­tur­ing long-term client relationships.

Our key areas of prac­tice are fam­i­ly law, cor­po­rate, com­mer­cial, intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty and tech­nol­o­gy, employ­ment law, prop­er­ty, plan­ning, con­struc­tion, lit­i­ga­tion, insol­ven­cy and franchising.

We are a mem­ber of Mer­i­tas, a glob­al alliance of inde­pen­dent, full ser­vice law firms and are its only Syd­ney based mem­ber. This allows us to keep in touch glob­al­ly, pro­vide extend­ed ser­vices to our clients and gives us the expo­sure and oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with inter­na­tion­al businesses.

About the role

We cur­rent­ly have a rare oppor­tu­ni­ty for a Plan­ning & Envi­ron­ment Lawyer to work under the guid­ance of a Doyle’s rec­om­mend­ed Part­ner and a Doyle’s Ris­ing Star Senior Asso­ciate in our well-respect­ed Plan­ning team. 

The role will pro­vide expo­sure to both advi­so­ry and lit­i­ga­tion work, with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with a wide range of clients, from devel­op­ers, gov­ern­ment depart­ments, and agen­cies across a vari­ety of plan­ning and envi­ron­ment mat­ters. You will be expect­ed to run your own con­cil­i­a­tion conferences.

Devel­op­ment and growth is impor­tant to us and you will receive ongo­ing guid­ance and mentoring.

Skills & Experience

Whilst your mul­ti-task­ing, abil­i­ty to work in a team and excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills will be a giv­en, we also require the following:

• You must pos­sess a Bach­e­lor of Laws or equiv­a­lent qual­i­fi­ca­tion and be admit­ted as a solic­i­tor of the Supreme Court of NSW;
• Demon­strat­ed expe­ri­ence in the spe­cial­ist area of Plan­ning and Envi­ron­ment Law;
• Be expe­ri­enced in deal­ing with Class 1 matters;
• 2 — 5 years’ PAE as a solicitor;
• Lit­i­ga­tion / Court expe­ri­ence is a must how­ev­er there will be an ele­ment of front end advi­so­ry and back end lit­i­ga­tion work involved in this role;
• Supe­ri­or prob­lem-solv­ing skills and a prac­ti­cal com­mon-sense approach.

This role would suit some­one who has a pas­sion for build­ing strong client rela­tion­ships and proven expe­ri­ence in busi­ness devel­op­ment with a desire to build their own practice.

Cul­ture

Work­place cul­ture is impor­tant to us, because when our peo­ple are hap­py we know they will look after our clients and them­selves. Swaab is a place where peo­ple feel they can inno­vate, col­lab­o­rate and devel­op their careers and are reward­ed for their efforts. Our peo­ple are the key to our suc­cess and we believe in recog­nis­ing the val­ue that they bring to the firm.

How to Apply

If this sounds like the oppor­tu­ni­ty that you have been wait­ing for please apply now, direct­ing your appli­ca­tion to Angela Sharpe, Head of Peo­ple and Cul­ture. All appli­ca­tions will be treat­ed in strict confidence.

The appli­ca­tion form will include these questions:

• Which of the fol­low­ing state­ments best describes your right to work in Australia?
• How many years’ expe­ri­ence do you have in envi­ron­ment & plan­ning law?
• What’s your expect­ed annu­al base salary?
• How much notice are you required to give your cur­rent employer?
• Do you hold a cur­rent Aus­tralian legal prac­tis­ing certificate?