Lawyer - Property, Planning & Employment

Lawyer Property, Planning & Employment

Location: London Road, SM4 5DX
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Duration: 3+ 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 but not limited to Employment, Planning, and Property.
• Deliver a variety of types of legal work expected within the specialism, providing creative legal solutions to support service transformation and change.
• Manage an extensive caseload of complex and sensitive matters, representing the interests of the service within the wider council organizations and with external clients.
• Provide support and supervision to legal and non-legal junior staff, and deputize for senior legal positions as required.
• Provide timely and effective specialist legal advice to elected members, committees, directors, senior managers, and officers.
• Manage a large caseload of wide-ranging work, including drafting legal letters, agreements, deeds, notices, orders, consents, byelaws, and negotiating agreements and settlements.
• Prepare and process all matters relevant to any proceedings before a court, arbitration, mediation, or public inquiry, and attend as the client’s advocate or instruct appropriate external legal representation.
• Work proactively to maintain and improve relationships with clients of the Shared Legal Service.
• Supervise and manage the work of junior staff, providing leadership and management to staff working on their cases.
• Undertake duties on behalf of the Monitoring Officer for all five authorities.
• Keep clients informed of new legislation and case law relevant to their operations, including conducting training seminars where appropriate.
• Advise upon, draft, and approve committee reports in respect of cases and legal issues.
• Attend as the sole representative to advise and provide legal services to elected members at council Cabinets, Committees, and Panels as required.
• Negotiate on behalf of any of the five authorities with solicitors and other professionals, and liaise with outside bodies including the court service on matters relating to the work of any client.
• Perform any other duties as may be 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 the decision-making processes and procedures.
• Good understanding of current issues and best practices on service delivery relevant to the service areas.
• Demonstrable analytical legal skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and respond efficiently to the changing needs of clients.
• 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, and good numeracy and analytical skills.
• Ability to provide visible support and leadership which empowers, enables, and develops staff to achieve results.
• Availability to attend premises out of hours for evening meetings and in emergencies or urgent management issues in relation to all five authorities.
• Performance-oriented, able to manage and monitor performance effectively, and set clear objectives for the review of individual and service level performance.

 
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