1. SPENCER JAMES
Flat 16, 17 Hardwick Square, Wandsworth, London, SW18 4AG
0777 618 6677
spencerjames@gmx.com
Spencer is diligent, hardworking and accurate in everything he does. He is ambitious, cordial
and helpful at all times and has been a great asset to each team and company he has been
a part of. He has a genuine enjoyment of corporate law and hopes for a long and successful
career in this field with an international firm at which he can grow and fulfil his ambitions.
WORK HISTORY
Paralegal Irwin Mitchell Sept 2015 – present
In my current role as a paralegal in a real estate department, I am treated as a trainee. I am
given responsibility for managing client matters from inception through to completion, drafting
leases, licences, correspondence, memorandums, agreements, etc. I undertake due
diligence on various properties (title investigation, searches, enquiries) and draft tenancy
schedules and lease reports. I also do much of the post completion work in the department
(SDLT payments / registration of interests at the Land Registry / solvency checks). The role
has a fair amount of client interaction whether at meetings or via phone or email. I have
earned the trust of my supervisors to handle my workload without making errors.
Paralegal/Document Specialist Berwin Leighton Paisner Jan 2011 – Aug 2015
I joined BLP as a document specialist after being headhunted by an HR Manager who had
hired me previously at another firm. My technical skills and knowledge of legal documents
and house-style are extremely high and the work I produced in this role was invariably of an
excellent quality. My lowest appraisal score whilst at BLP was 4 out of 5. Due to the strong
impression I made as a document specialist, BLP created an opportunity for me as a fee-
earning paralegal whilst I studied the GDL in my spare time. I closely supported Partners on
some of the largest Real Estate transactions in the City and gained invaluable experience of
corporate/real estate law. I received very positive feedback and was given sole responsibility
for side projects such as lease renewals, licences for alteration, lease reporting and
managing large deal rooms/extranets.
Freelance Copywriter Self-employed Jan 2009 - Jan 2011
I began working as a copywriter after writing several press releases for a friend whose
company then asked me to bid for business from one of their clients. I won the project over
several established writers, acquired more clients over time and saw a variety of my copy
reach the national press.
Other
Jun 2005 – Oct 2010
Over this period I fulfilled a variety of roles at leading law firms (Clifford Chance, Linklaters,
Freshfields, SJ Berwin, etc.). These ranged from proofreading to managing an entire
department.

2. EDUCATION BPP University, 2011 – 2015
Legal Practice Course Graduate Diploma in Law
Overall grade: 69% (Commendation)
Wills and Administration of Estates (100%)
Solicitors Accounts (99%)
Professional Conduct (90%)
Business Law (82%)
Property Law (76%)
Private Acquisitions (73%)
Corporate Finance (68%)
Civil & Criminal Litigation (62%)
Advanced Property (58%)
Interviewing and advising (competent)
Advocacy (competent)
Drafting (competent)
Legal Writing (competent)
Professional Legal Research (competent)
Taxation (competent)
Distinction (71.5%)
Statute Analysis test (90%)
Independent Research Project (87%)
English Legal System test (85%)
EU law (essay and exam) (76%)
Case Analysis test (75%)
Trusts and Equity exam (71%)
Constitutional law exam (71%)
Contract law exam (68%)
Crime law exam (67%)
Land law exam (65%)
Tort law exam (65%)
Rule of law essay (58%)
I.T. SKILLS Advanced level proficiency in a variety of applications including
Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint
INTERESTS Reading and writing literature and poetry
Playing the guitar
Travelling; I regularly visit the Maldives and Seychelles. In recent
years I have been to South Africa, Australia, Mauritius, Estonia, Italy
and France and last year visited Poland and Sweden.

3. Paralegal role at Irwin Mitchell from September 2015 – Present
My role is as paralegal within the Commercial Real Estate department of a leading UK City law firm.
 Drafting legal documents:
o New leases and lease renewals;
o Licences for alterations;
o Licences for assignment;
o Novation agreements;
o Statutory declarations;
o Simple declarations;
o Rent review memoranda;
o Deeds of variation;
o Deeds of release;
o Notices (of transfer, change of name, etc);
o Transfers;
o Sitting out licences;
o Certificates of title;
o Side letters;
o Rent deposit deeds,
o Lease summaries;
o Reports on title;
o Lease reports;
o Wayleave agreements;
o Replies to enquiries;
o Engagement letters;
o Rent authority letters;
o Letters of consent;
 Negotiating and agreeing legal documents with legal representatives of other parties;
 Preparing and engrossing legal documents and sending to clients and other parties for
execution;
 Completion of signed documents via post or phone with legal representatives of other parties;
 Creating and populating tenancy schedule spread sheets of occupational leases: This
involves analysing numerous leases and tenancy documents and using legal knowledge to
extrapolate accurate information on aspects such as rights and obligations, rent and service
charge calculation, rent review, break options, security of tenure, etc);
 Pre-completion matters: e.g. Land Registry priority searches, company insolvency searches,
individual’s bankruptcy searches, calling the Royal Courts of Justice and checking with
Companies House to ensure no insolvency proceedings have been raised, checking company
details and accounts;
 Post-completion matters: e.g. Calculation of SDLT, collection and payment of the tax,
registration of lease and ancillary deeds and documents with Land Registry;
 Various Land Registry applications: e.g. noting legal interests on legal titles, removing expired
entries from legal titles (charges, leases, etc), closure of old titles, registering removing and
amending of restrictions on legal titles, merging of legal titles, registering of legal documents,
opening new legal titles;
 Corresponding on all legal matters I am given to handle: This includes physical attendance of
client meetings at offices or via conference call, making phone calls and drafting letters and
emails to solicitors, clients, legal representatives, managing agents and other parties;
 Obtaining legal undertakings and letters of consent;
 Investigating the legal title of properties including; analysis of Land Registry Office Copies,
ordering and checking suite of searches (local authority search, utilities, highways, etc);

4.  Undertaking legal research and writing notes of advice based upon the findings on topics
including:
o Planning law;
o Party walls;
o Grants awarded for repair of derelict land;
o Effect of up & down rent review;
o Consequences of an Industrial and Provident Society being deregistered – how can it
be transferred into a new special purchase vehicle;
o A council's liability for a sinkhole;
o VAT on rent paid when renting out second property as a holiday home;
o Delay-of-start insurance policies;
o Researching numerous companies and creating profiles for Partners to use to
familiarise themselves before meetings
 Responding to and resolving requisitions from the Land Registry relating to applications made
by the department I work in;
 Making applications to court in person at the Royal Courts of Justice;
 Opening and managing files, making and receiving payments to and from client accounts for
fees and disbursements. At the end of a matter, calculating and drafting completion
statements detailing all incoming and outgoing monies that have been relevant to the matter
and any sums outstanding;
 Preparation of titles, sales and auction packs. This requires legal knowledge being able to
analyse a title register and order the necessary documents for the pack, deciding what
documents to include (searches, certificates, insurance, H&S, etc;
 Extranet management. I administer several large online deal rooms. This involves
categorising and organising various legal and non-legal documents relating to hundreds of
properties and providing bespoke access rights to these documents to various different
parties;
 Deeds scheduling: employing legal knowledge to physically sort through boxes of legal and
non-legal documents to organise them so they can be stored correctly and easily accessed in
the future;
 Checking through sales particulars prepared by managing agents to ensure they accurately
reflect the information included in deal heads of terms and property deeds;
 Proofreading of legal documents.