Planning Associate/Senior Associates

Planning -  Associates/Senior Associates

Bristol and Edinburgh

We are looking to recruit planning lawyers at various levels to join our market-leading planning and compulsory purchase team.  The team is expanding to meet increasing client and work demands and opportunities.

We would welcome applications from those with experience in any or all of town and country planning, development consenting, compulsory acquisition/purchase and compensation matters, EIA/HRA, inquiries/examinations and judicial review.

We are open to applications from a wide variety of backgrounds.  We have several team members who were previously in local government or in-house as well as lawyers who made late career changes.

The Team

The Department operates at the top level of the legal market, delivering planning and CPO advice to clients in the private and public sectors across the UK. We are involved in the entire development process – from devising consenting strategy to project delivery and everything in between. The firm's market-leading lawyers provide strategic advice to clients across a range of industry sectors, including energy, transport, utilities and the built environment.

• Planning

What others say…

“Burges Salmon has a first-rate team that works on complex planning matters. [The firm] is very strong at handling complex matters on both a proactive and reactive basis.” (Chambers).

The Work

The role offers an opportunity to work across a broad range of work throughout the UK. The whole team works on a fully integrated basis across all offices.  We are actively part of some of the most high-profile projects in the energy, infrastructure and built environment sectors, including onshore and offshore wind, large scale solar, pumped storage hydro, carbon capture, nuclear, interconnectors and pipelines, water and flood defence, new roads and rail, data centres, redevelopment and regeneration.

The Firm

Our working environment is professional yet progressive, where quality of work and quality of life go hand-in-hand. Our collaborative approach to how we do business is what attracts some of the best legal minds in the industry and the reason why our people love working here.

We are proud to have received an Investors in People - Platinum Accreditation and have recently been voted by our people as a RollOnFriday's ‘Best Law Firm to Work At 2026' meaning we have won this award for the last five years in a row.

We offer flexible working arrangements including hybrid working.

At Burges Salmon, you will have a fair, transparent path to progression. To find out more click here to download our Career Guide for Lawyers.

What you'll need

• Relevant experience working on a range of planning matters
• Be a strong team player, with excellent interpersonal skills
• Able to manage a complex and varied workload effectively
• Be self-motivated and willing to learn
• Must be a qualified solicitor in England and Wales, or a Law Society of Scotland registered lawyer, with at least three years' post qualification experience

Benefits

Click here for a full overview of our brilliant reward package and find out more about the benefits of a legal career with Burges Salmon, here.

We're committed to finding the right person for this role and we're open to discussing flexible working, full time or part time working patterns.

It's important to us that our organisation represents the diverse community in which we operate and we encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and identities. As a Disability Confident employer we will provide a fully accessible recruitment process.

Get in touch!

If you would like to learn more about this opportunity, please contact Chris Jenkinson - 0117 307 2246 - for an informal and confidential conversation.