Job Description

About The Role
The role
We have an exciting opportunity for a talented Restructuring Associate to join our national Restructuring team, based in our Leeds office. This role is ideal for lawyers with 3-6 years' post-qualification experience who have already developed a strong foundation in restructuring and are ready to take the next step in their career.
Gateley's Restructuring team was recently crowned Legal Advisor of the Year 2025 at the annual IFT Awards, after winning the award in 2022 as well. The judges noted Gateley's commitment to the regional mid-market.
You'll work closely with Matthew Brown and Matt Leech, our Leeds partners, and the Leeds team, and collaborate with over 30 colleagues across the country, including Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, London and Reading. We're looking for individuals who are team players, ambitious, commercially minded, and committed to delivering exceptional client service.
This is a fantastic opportunity to grow your career within a high-performing team doing cutting edge work for great clients.
If you're ready to accelerate your career and make a meaningful impact, we'd love to hear from you.
Our Clients
The breadth of our Restructuring client base sets us apart from our competitors. You will be working for:

• All of the largest insolvency practices in the country as well as regional boutique and independent firms.
• The largest LPA receivership practices in the country.
• Turnaround specialists and interim advisors.
• Debt providers from the largest high street lenders to independent debt funds, including specialist funders such as asset and invoice financiers and surety providers.
• Investors in stressed and distressed businesses.
• The boards of large and small companies, assisting them to navigate challenging times.

The successful candidate will apply their experience within a leading national team, interacting effectively with colleagues and clients at every level and driving business development initiatives.
The team
Our Restructuring team includes specialists in restructuring, transactional solutions, corporate work out and contentious insolvency. We provide advice on financial and organisational restructuring, spanning issues across the full spectrum including solvent or insolvent business sales and exits; distressed M&A dispute resolution; antecedent transactions; asset recovery; disputes; financial and operational change; enforcement; stakeholder management and turnaround; financial restructuring; debt trading; directors' duties and corporate governance.
Our lawyers play an active part in industry organisations such as the Institute for Turnaround (IFT), Turnaround Management Association (TMA), the Association of Business Recovery Professionals (R3), the Insolvency Lawyer's Association and the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC). Colleagues take part in and chair various central and regional committees.
Our Restructuring team sits within the Corporate Platform at Gateley and is closely aligned to our colleagues in Dispute Resolution and Complex International Recoveries.
We invest in our people, recruiting and retaining the best in the market. We work hard in creating an enjoyable workplace culture that encourages the sharing of knowledge and experience. The Restructuring team provide a nurturing and supportive environment. There is a clear and defined pathway for long term progression for the successful candidate, including to partnership where appropriate.
The person
The ideal candidate will have a real passion for restructuring, solid experience, and keen to cement their place as a leading advisor in the market. We will build upon your existing experience in the following key areas with the ambition for you to stand out in the market and be named as a leading individual in both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners:

• Advising insolvency practitioners on their route to office and negotiating pre-packaged sales and/or unlocking disputes.
• Project managing a variety of projects and distressed works-outs.
• Transactional and/or contentious stakeholder resolution.
• Negotiating multi stakeholder and unlocking entrenched (or contentious) positions to deliver on financial and operational restructurings.
• Providing director duty advice in the board room and working alongside the wider turnaround advisor community.

Candidates will also have the following:

• Ambition to strengthen your existing network of clients.
• Confidence to shape business development initiatives with colleagues and to take ownership and drive those initiatives.
• Equipped to balance the needs of a busy case load and a variety of instructions in any given week.
• Excellent inter-personal skills and a confident manner in engaging with clients.
• Experienced in supervising junior colleagues.
• Team player who works collaboratively with colleagues, including those in our non-legal complementary businesses.
• A strong team work ethic and the ability to work effectively under pressure.
• Drive, commitment, self-motivation and a "can do" attitude.
• The ability to always exercise discretion and professionalism.
• Exceptional attention to detail.

About You
About Us
The benefits
With support, coaching and feedback from some of the most engaging colleagues around our great development and progression opportunities will reward your commitment and loyalty. We offer a competitive remuneration package where you'll be rewarded for your individual performance with an opportunity to receive an annual bonus.
In addition, we have a wide range of learning and development opportunities via our Learn platform to develop new skills and progress your career. Our My Flex comprehensive rewards package includes options covering annual leave (and the benefit of purchasing extra days), cycle to work, critical illness benefit, employee assistance programme, group personal pension, health care, season ticket loan and many more benefits (grade dependent). Finally, with Perks at Work/Home you can select a host of retail benefits that suit your needs alongside a Community Online Academy, free courses for all from fitness to coding to languages to hip hop dance.
We are Gateley
We are forward thinking and straight talking, our approach is to find solutions to the problems that our clients face. Gateley is a legal and professional services group, we are a group of formidable experts in all areas of law and business. Passionate problem solvers, we get our kicks from finding the right answers and getting our legal and business clients where they need to be. We support more than 5,700 active clients, ranging from FTSE 100 companies to private individuals, in the UK and beyond. Being part of Gateley is not just about the expertise that you bring; it's about attitude too.
The 'Gateley Story' is the story of our people and our culture. It is what has got us to where we are today as a successful business and it's the driving force behind the Gateley Team Spirit and the values that have shaped it. We have a set of shared internal values that capture what the Gateley Team Spirit is and this includes five elements that bind us all together as one Gateley: Ambitious for Success, Forward Thinking, Room to Breathe, Trusted to Do and Working Together. Every year across the group, we recognise members of our team that have gone and above and beyond and have lived these shared values. They are recognised at our annual Gateley Team Spirit awards.
Diversity, inclusion and well being
Diversity, inclusion and well being is an important part of Gateley's culture and values. We recruit talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, providing equal opportunities for all to join our team regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, disability, or culture.
We create an exciting and rewarding place to work that aims to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals. We offer flexible working patterns to help our staff achieve a good work/ life balance and we encourage candidates seeking flexibility in their next role to apply for any of our vacancies.
We are proud to have been recognised by The Law Society as gold standard for our Diversity and Inclusion Charter and to be Stonewall Diversity Champions.
Additional Information
If you are successful in receiving an offer of a role with our company a variety of pre-employment screening checks will be completed. Our screening checks can include but are not limited to your eligibility to work, professional and academic qualifications, any criminal records, your financial stability and references from previous employers. The screening that takes place will be relevant to your role and will vary from role to role.

Skills Required