Attorney

Commercial Real Estate and Finance Associate | Charlotte, NC | $310,000 to $455,000 plus bonus

Most lawyers who want New York pay assume a New York mortgage comes with it. This Charlotte office pays the New York scale. The difference in living costs stays in your pocket.

• I’m Clark Pollins, a recruiter at Distinct Recruitment. I’m hiring for a national law firm’s real estate team in Charlotte.
• I placed an attorney here earlier this year. So if you ask me what it’s really like inside, you’ll get a straight answer.
• The need is live. They want someone in the seat soon.

What lands on your desk

Finance

• Lender counsel work for institutional lenders, investment banks and CMBS platforms.
• Drafting and negotiating loan agreements, notes, mortgages, deeds of trust and guaranties.
• Structuring commercial mortgage loans so they survive rating agency and securitization review. Cash management, ground lease treatment, the details that decide whether a loan sells.

Real estate

• Acquisitions and dispositions, plus the diligence behind them: title, survey, zoning, leases and third party reports.
• Leasing and ownership issues across office, retail, multifamily, hospitality and industrial assets.
• Running closings and setting the timeline everyone else works to.

Why it’s worth the call

• The real estate practice is Chambers ranked, and the work is already in the building. You start on live deals.
• Your clients sit on the capital side. You advise the people who set the terms.
• Five asset classes, both the finance and the property side. Every deal adds something new to your toolkit.
• You run matters from term sheet to closing. That’s how you learn to see where a deal will break before it does.

The numbers

• $310,000 to $455,000 base on the New York scale, with bonus on the same scale.
• The range is wide because they’re hiring at two levels: midlevel associates around four years in, and senior associates. Your class year sets the figure.
• 1900+ Billable target

You’ll fit if

• You have four or more years in commercial real estate, real estate finance or real estate capital markets. Lender side experience will stand out, and CMBS or CLO work is a strong plus.
• You write tightly. You’d catch a defined term drifting between the loan agreement and the guaranty.
• You have a strong academic record. The firm asks for transcripts.
• You’re licensed in North Carolina.

Want to ask a few questions before you apply, or talk it through first? Call me, Clark Pollins at Distinct Recruitment, on , email , or find me on LinkedIn at .