Lawyer

Lawyer

Location: London Road, SM4 5DX
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Duration: 4+ Months
Working Hours: Mon – Fri, 09:00 – 17:00, 37 Hours per week
Pay rate: £ 40.16 per hour
Job Ref: (phone number removed)
 
Responsibilities

• Provide customer-focused, high-quality, and responsive specialist legal advice in multiple areas of legal expertise covered by a local authority legal team, including Children's Social Care, Adoption, Adults Social Care, Education, Employment, Planning, Housing, Debt Recovery, Judicial Review, Highways, Property, Procurement, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Finance, Elections, FOI, Licensing, and Environment.
• Deliver a variety of types of legal work within the specialism, providing creative legal solutions to support service transformation and change, meeting client needs, and delivering advice on a broad range of areas.
• Manage an extensive caseload of complex and sensitive matters.
• Represent the interests of the service within the wider council organizations in any of the five authorities and with external clients.
• Provide support and supervision to legal and non-legal junior staff and deputize for senior legal positions as required.
• Offer timely and effective specialist legal advice to elected members, committees, directors, senior managers, and officers across both authorities as part of a team of lawyers, and to other clients of the Shared Legal Service.
• Provide innovative solutions to complex issues arising within the team and legal issues presented by clients.
• Manage a large caseload of wide-ranging work within two specialisms, including drafting legal documents, negotiating agreements, managing competing demands, and meeting deadlines.
• Prepare and process all matters relevant to proceedings before a court, arbitration, mediation, or public inquiry, and attend as the client’s advocate or instruct external legal representation when appropriate.
• Work proactively to maintain and improve relationships with clients of the Shared Legal Service.
• Supervise and manage junior staff, providing leadership and support on their cases.
• Undertake duties on behalf of the Monitoring Officer for all five authorities.
• Keep clients informed of new legislation and case law, including providing training seminars where appropriate, ensuring they maintain a sound application of legal requirements.
• Advise upon, draft, and approve committee reports in respect of cases and legal issues.
• Attend council Cabinets, Committees, and Panels to advise and provide legal services to elected members.
• Negotiate with solicitors and other professionals, liaising with outside bodies including the court service on matters related to client work.
• Perform any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Person Specification

• Qualified solicitor, barrister, chartered legal executive, or equivalent legal experience with a background in local government.
• Good knowledge of relevant legislation to the service area and decision-making processes and procedures.
• Strong understanding of current issues and best practice on service delivery relevant to the service areas.
• Demonstrable analytical legal skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and respond efficiently to changing client needs.
• Ability to travel to attend client offices or courts wherever the client’s case is being considered.
• Commitment to the principles and development of the Shared Legal Service.
• Ability to contribute to the ongoing development of the Shared Legal Service.
• Good communication skills, both orally and in writing, along with good numeracy and analytical skills.
• Ability to provide visible support and leadership, empowering, enabling, and developing staff to achieve results.
• Availability to attend premises out of hours for evening meetings and in emergencies or urgent management issues related to all five authorities.
• Performance-oriented, able to manage and monitor performance effectively, setting clear objectives for individual and service level performance review.

 
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