Associate / Senior Associate | Planning & Environment | Melbourne

• Experienced Lawyers
• Melbourne

• Permanent / Full Time

• Recognised in the AFR BOSS Magazine's Best Places to Work 2025

• Join a modern, market-leading law firm that puts its people first
• Be part of a collegiate and supportive Real Estate team

About you

To be considered for this role, you will be someone who thrives in a vibrant and dynamic team environment. You will have a strong planning and development background with approximately 3-5 years PQE.

You will ideally have worked in a mid or top tier law firm across a broad range of planning, development and environmental matters and also compulsory land acquisition. You will have a keen interest in developing client relationships and be driven to provide outstanding client service.

You will have a strong understanding of the property development sector and take a commercial approach to issues. You will demonstrate the ability to provide outstanding service to clients and work within a team environment. You have excellent verbal and written communication skills and are looking to join a friendly, social and collaborative team.

Your role

Gadens' Real Estate & Construction practice is a 'one stop shop' covering all aspects of property acquisition, planning and environmental issues, development and construction, sales and leasing. The team has a strong pipeline of broad and interesting planning and development work across a range of clients.

The Planning and Environment team also advises in relation to compulsory land acquisition matters acting specifically for landowners and lessees. In this role, you will have considerable client contact and participate in a broad range of firm wide activities. You will receive outstanding mentoring across all aspects of your professional development including marketing and business development, practice and client growth and business acumen.

You will have the opportunity to build your career working in one of Australia's most dynamic and leading Planning & Environment practices.

About Gadens

Gadens is the only law firm to be recognised in AFR BOSS Magazine's Best Places to Work 2024, which ranks Australia and New Zealand's best workplaces across nine different industries. We are a leading, independent Australian law firm, with a clear vision and strategy for the future. We help people achieve their purpose in a complex world, by leading by example, inspiring others, innovating and building something we are all proud of. We have an aggressive growth strategy and as part of our evolution and journey, we are creating a modern law firm and will present to the market a new, exciting offering that will rival Australia's top tier firms.

At Gadens, we:

• Develop and inspire our people
• Do the right thing and make an impact
• Work with quality clients in our chosen markets
• Solve problems with people and technology working seamlessly together
• Are a widely recognised and respected brand.

We are always on the lookout for star performers to join our growing firm. To find out more please visit

What we offer

• A friendly, down-to-earth, and supportive team environment.
• Truly flexible work practices.

• Progressive and market-leading Parental Leave support including:

• 30 weeks' Paid Parental Leave

• Superannuation contributions while on Parental Leave, for up to 52 weeks (based on 5 days/week, regardless of your working days)
• An external coach to support our people through the various stages of the parental leave journey (Launch, Leave and Landing)
• A supported and staggered return
• Budget relief for fee earners upon landing/return

• Support and paid leave for Surrogacy and IVF treatment

• Ongoing professional development opportunities.

• Health and wellbeing initiatives.
• And much more

At Gadens, we engage with all of our people to create a work environment that encourages and promotes inclusion and diversity, while instilling pride in the firm and our values of collaborate, authentic, responsible and excellent. Our values and culture assist us in creating a cohesive environment in which we are committed equally to professionalism and personal fulfilment. We strive to create a culture where the principles of sustainability and corporate social responsibility are embraced and lived by our people every day. This includes respecting and connecting with First Nations people and providing access to justice to those in need through our pro bono practice. This is what makes Gadens a great place to work.