The role of a solicitor varies considerably across the UK, with key responsibilities largely stemming from the area of law you specialise in. Today we’re talking with Coralie McKeivor, a solicitor specialising in Real Estate. Coralie is a Director in the Real Estate team at Freeths LLP, as well as President of the Bristol Law Society. She shares with us how she got into this fascinating area of law, as well as what a typical day looks like for her.
Hi Coralie! Can you tell us a little about your career to date?
So as with many solicitors I began my career in a law degree - but my progression in a professional capacity has been very much from the ground up! I worked in a variety of law firms straight out of university, first off in the post room, then administration, then paralegal work.
I then worked at DAC Beachcroft, an international law firm, in the Real Estate team. That set my grounding in becoming a Real Estate lawyer. I then moved on to a smaller regional firm that specialised in property to qualify and then on qualification moved to Simmons and Simmons, a much larger firm. Since then I’ve worked at national firm Foot Anstey, international firms (CMS McKenna), and now I’m here at Freeths and have been for three years. Each place I’ve worked has given me a diverse range of work styles, client types, and breadth of understanding.
What does a typical day consist of for you?
So my work in Real Estate essentially covers anything to do with lands and infrastructure, and my specialism within that is energy and infrastructure work. The clients I’ll work with are often big developers, as well as energy clients (covering areas like wind turbines, battery farms, EV charging infrastructure, and solar farms). It’s all very relevant today in terms of government targets to achieve net zero and moving across to renewable energy. It also means I work across different professions and departments to achieve a goal as it’s large scale industrial projects we’re working on. It’s a lot broader than just the general drafting of contracts!
With all that in mind, my days can vary considerably! We do a lot of contract drafting, title ownership, problem solving, and managing client expectations with many parties on a call to get a deal over the line.
For example, one of my clients is Centrica PLC (part of British Gas). They’re working towards renewable energy so a lot of our work is acquiring existing projects or beginning new projects to access sites for energy production. We might be buying an existing solar farm and doing our due diligence on it, looking at their contracts, that it’s worth the money and we end up with a functioning farm. We might alternatively be doing a brand new scheme, where a land owner or a farmer wants to make profit from their land by selling or leasing it to an energy provider, who will use the land for solar farming or wind turbines. My work would be covering due diligence to ensure the land is viable for the energy firm, is workable, and can access a grid connection and electricity supply needed for equipment to run and send the energy back to grid. I might also be doing collaborative contract drafting and investigations into property titles to ensure ownership is where it should be.
As a director I’m also responsible for managing my team, so that will include supervision of colleagues too in my days.
What brought you into working in real estate law?
So when I was at university I actually found Real Estate law quite dry! It was all very theoretical and I think without seeing the actual work in person it seems quite abstract. That changed quite dramatically when I began working in Real Estate in practice.
In my work as a paralegal I started specialising in Real Estate and I realised how different it was in a firm than it was studying it academically. I found I absolutely loved the practical problem solving involved in supporting big real estate projects and land clients. I was involved in the Westfield London and Westfield Stratford construction, getting all the shop contracts in place - then when it was complete I got to go and visit the site and see what all my work had gone into. That was so exciting and really secured my decision to specialise in this area once I went into my formal training contract.
What advice do you have for someone just starting out in their legal career?
I think when you’re trying to work out which area of law to specialise in, consider what your natural skills and interests are. What do you find you are particularly good at? For me it’s problem solving and there’s plenty of that in Real Estate. That’s not to say that skills can’t be gained along the way - you can learn anything you put your mind to - but if you’re not sure which area of law would be best for you, assessing your more natural abilities and working out which sector aligns with that best is a great way to narrow things down.
Thank you, Coralie, for sharing your experience and knowledge with us!
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