Osborne Clarke
Planning Associate Director

How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Role profile
"An excellent, client-focused team with broad and deep experience and a range of lawyers of different styles." - Chambers & Partners
We have an exciting new vacancy for an Associate Director to join our highly regarded Planning team based in either our Bristol or London office.
This is a fantastic opportunity to join a well-respected team with a wide variety of interesting contentious and non-contentious work and clients and a real opportunity to grow and develop your own practice.
The practice
Our planning practice is truly comprehensive in scope and features leading work on a national scale.
We are trusted advisers to national and international clients across sectors, especially the built environment and energy & infrastructure sectors. Projects include regeneration and iconic development projects, mixed use and residential development, commercial and logistics projects, major retail developments, in addition to regional scale and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in the energy transition and infrastructure space. We also advise on contentious planning matters together with environmental compliance, permitting and the contaminated land regime. Our approach is to work hand-in-hand with colleagues across practice areas, to provide a comprehensive and holistic advisory service to our clients.
Our clients are leaders in their fields, including Marq, SEGRO, British Land, Patrizia, Unite Students, Marks and Spencer, St Modwen Developments, Mirastar, Fiera Real Estate, Welbeck Strategic Land Strategic Land, Gleeson Land, M&S, Barratt and David Wilson Homes, Vistry Homes, Taylor Wimpey, Sovereign Housing, and Richborough Estates.
To find out more about the practice, please see the link below.
https://www.osborneclarke.com/services/real-estate/planning/
The team
The team is led by partners John Baird, Neil Bromwich and Christian Silk and operates as one team across our London and Bristol offices. It is also made up of 2 Associate Directors, 3 Senior Associates, 3 Associates, 2 Trainee Solicitors and 1 Solicitor Apprentice.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
See breakdownIt searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
The work
- We continue to act for Marq on several state-of-the-art logistics facilities such as Magna Park Lutterworth, and Magna Park Corby.
- Advising Gleeson Land on their proposed development in South Aylesbury for 1400 homes.
- We are advising BDW and Davidsons on an urban extension to the north-east of Daventry including circa 3,400 dwellings.
- We are advising GLi, a joint venture between Patrizia and Kingston Space Property on the development of large last mile logistics sites within the M25.
- We continue to advise Welbeck Strategic Land on their proposals for 2,200 homes to be built in a major new urban extension in South Worcester.
- We advise M&S on planning aspects of its retail estate portfolio.
- We are advising Vistry Homes as the partner of Chichester District Council in the development of a significant strategic land site for 1,500 new homes at Tangmere, near Chichester.
- Advising Revantage on their large brownfield regeneration site at Llanwern (the former 600-acre Llanwern Steelworks).
- Advising NextEnergy Capital on the re-determination of a planning application for a major solar farm development with a 132kV Distribution Network Operator at Woodington.
Technical Skills And Experience
Due to the nature of the work and the structure of the team, we are looking to recruit an ambitious Associate Director experienced in advising clients across sectors, particularly the built environment and possibly environmental matters and who will be interested in maintaining a broad sector-led practice.
Your career development
Like All Our Lawyers, You Will Benefit From Our Multi-award Winning Career Development Programme. At Each Stage Of Your Career This Provides You With
- clear expectations of your role and what it takes to progress;
- high quality clients and work, with early responsibility and client exposure;
- thorough assessment and individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues;
- robust technical training with early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you; and
- reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.


Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Our recruitment process
We welcome direct applications for our opportunities - if you would like any further information about this role or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Angharad.jenkins@osborneclarke.com
Please note we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.
We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.
About Us
Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations*. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success.
At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.
Services in India are provided by a relationship firm
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills
Location