Employment Lawyer

Job summary

The Legal Division is the in-house legal function at UKEF and is part of the Legal and Compliance Group. It provides legal advice on all aspects of the Department’s work in accordance with the Department’s legal obligations and risk appetite and in a manner that achieves the Department’s commercial objectives as an export credit agency.

The Legal Division is currently headed by the Co-Heads of the Legal Division, who alongside the Director of Legal and Compliance, are responsible for managing all legal advice and legal risk for the Department. The 15 or so other Legal Advisers and two paralegals maintain a busy workload consisting of transaction and advisory work for the Department and are organised into small teams, each reporting to a Team Leader. The Division is supported by a Legal Support Team, which comprises the Office Manager/PA to the Co-Heads of the Legal Division, and a legal support assistant.

About the Role

To provide expert legal advice and support on all employment law matters within the organisation, advising on compliance with UK employment law and mitigating associated legal risks across the business.

Job description

Main Activities

• Legal Advice & Compliance

• Contracts & Documentation

• Transactions and Dispute Resolution

• Strategic Support

• Training & Development

• Other

From time to time, the post holder may be required to advise generally on the wider activities of the organisation which may cover:

• public law matters;
• public procurement law matters;
• international agreements governing the provision of export credits and public international law matters;
• information law, including the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations requests and the UK GDPR

This list is not exhaustive, and you may be required to carry out additional duties according to business needs.

Person specification

Essential

Qualifications

• Qualified to practice law in England & Wales as a solicitor or barrister (A)
• A 2.1 degree in law or other subject (A)
• Must hold LPC, BVC or equivalent (A)

Knowledge

• Working knowledge of public law and the workings of Government (A,I,P)

Skills/Ability

• Effective drafting, negotiation, and communication skills (A,I,P)

• Ability to provide pragmatic, business-oriented legal advice (A,I,P)
• Sound powers of legal analysis and research, coupled with strong judgement and decision making (A,I,P)
• Evidence of strong interpersonal skills, combined with an ability to manage and prioritise workloads (A,I)
• Commercial awareness and ability to balance legal risk with business objectives (A,I,P)

Experience

• Significant post qualifying experience with a strong focus on employment law (contentious and non-contentious) in a reputable law firm and/or in-house team (A,I,P)

Qualifications

oQualified to practice law in England & Wales as a solicitor or barrister (A)
oA 2.1 degree in law or other subject (A)
oMust hold LPC, BVC or equivalent (A)

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Presentation - this will be a topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates in advance of their interview.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £85,238, UK Export Finance contributes £24,693 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

We are assessing candidates using Success Profiles (see Appendix 1) and across the whole process we will assess your Experience, Technical and Behaviours as highlighted below.

The application must be completed by 23.55 on the day of the closing date for it to be accepted.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Please ensure that you read through the Candidate Information Pack attached to this advert, before applying.

All applications will be sifted against our essential criteria outlined in the personal specification.

• Qualifications:
  • Qualified to practice law in England & Wales as a solicitor or barrister (A)

• Statement of suitability - you should fully articulate in 750 words how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification within the Information Pack.

For the initial sift your application will be evaluated against:

1. Experience - Application and Statement of Suitability

In the event of a high volume of applications an initial sift will be carried out on the following criteria:

• Significant post qualifying experience with a strong focus on employment law (contentious and non-contentious) in a reputable law firm and/or in-house team (A,I,P)

If you are successful following the sift stage, you will be invited to an initial interview, to be held onsite at 1 Horse Guards Road; this will include the following assessment:

1. Behaviours/Experience - a formal panel interview where you will be interviewed across all five behaviours highlighted in Appendix 1.
2. Technical - you will be assessed across your technical expertise and acumen, in relation to the essential criteria
   1. Presentation - this will be a topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates in advance of their interview.

Details of interview panel members will be e-mailed to all successful candidates who are invited for interview.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : UKEF Resourcing Team
• Email : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Further information

Should you have a complaint or wish to raise any concerns regarding the recruitment process, please e-mail your complaint to the Head of Pay and Resourcing (UKEF) at Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk and include “Complaint” in the subject heading. Should you remain dissatisfied following UKEF’s investigation then you can refer your complaint to the Commission - http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/making-complaint.

Attachments

Candidate Info Pack - Employment Lawyer Opens in new window (pdf, 4334kB)