Howard Kennedy LLP
Associate - Corporate, Capital Markets

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The Role
This is an exciting opportunity for an Associate to join a growing and ambitious Capital Markets practice within our Corporate Transaction Services team, with a focus on listed closed-ended investment funds. You will work alongside experienced partners on a wide range of transactions, which are technical and interesting.
The foundation of our practice is our market-leading Venture Capital Trust (VCT) offering, where we have the ability to act as both legal advisor and sponsor, providing our staff with unique experience for a City law firm. This has been expanded in recent years to be a wider listed closed-ended investment funds practice with the addition of investment trust and REIT clients. The focus of your role will be assisting on the work we do for our listed closed-ended investment funds, however we have a much wider ECM practice which acts for a variety of companies across a wide range of sectors and there will also be opportunities for you to gain experience in this work.
While advising the non-executive Boards of VCTs will be the core of your work, we are actively developing our wider closed-ended investment funds practice. You will be encouraged to play an important role in this development giving you the opportunity to work with large investment trust Boards and some of the leading asset managers and investment managers in the UK. This will give you exposure to a wide range of transactions including IPOs, secondary fundraisings, mergers, and placings.
As well as being a growing and ambitious practice, we are already well established. Adviser Rankings Ltd has recently confirmed Howard Kennedy as the law firm acting for the highest number of Main Market listed company clients. We are also ranked 7th in the FTSE Financials & Real Estate client count rankings, placing us ahead of four of the five Magic Circle firms.
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Role Responsibility
- Advising listed closed-ended investment funds clients on a wide range of transactions, including IPOs, secondary fundraisings, and mergers.
- Advising listed companies on ongoing disclosure obligations and compliance with applicable market regulations including listing rules and AIM rules.
- Drafting and reviewing transaction documentation, including admission documents, prospectuses, placing agreements, shareholder circulars, and announcements.
- Verification of public documents.
- Liaising with non-executive Directors, brokers, investment managers, accountants, and other professional advisers.
- Managing matters efficiently and providing commercially focused legal advice.
About You
Ideally you will be able to demonstrate:
- Post qualification experience gained within corporate or capital markets. Experience of listed closed-ended investment funds would be preferable but not essential.
- Strong understanding of UK capital markets regulations and listed company advisory work.
- Excellent drafting, technical, and analytical skills.
- Strong project management capabilities and attention to detail. Coordinating internal and external parties.
- The ability to build effective relationships with clients and colleagues.
- Commercial awareness combined with a proactive and collaborative approach.
- Commitment to delivering exceptional client service and developing innovative solutions for clients.
- An interest in contributing to the continued growth of the Capital Markets practice.


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At Howard Kennedy we believe that everyone deserves the space to thrive. We’re committed to creating an inclusive recruitment experience that reflects the diversity of both our people and our clients.
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and identities, and we’re committed to ensuring that our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and accessible to all.
We understand that every candidate’s needs are different. If there’s anything we can do to make your application journey more comfortable—whether for interviews, assessments, or onboarding—please let us know. We’ll work with you to remove any barriers and ensure our recruitment process is comfortable for you.
Contact our recruitment team at recruitment@howardkennedy.com to discuss any support you might need.
Agency Introductions
Please note that we are not accepting applications via agencies for this role at this time. Before sharing any named candidate CVs, please contact your recruitment representative. If any named CVs are sent from agencies without approval from our recruitment team, they will not be deemed valid introductions, and no agency fee will be paid.
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