Employment Lawyer

Job summary

About us

MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing, and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

Job description

The role
As one of our Employment Lawyers, you’ll join a team of specialists working across a diverse portfolio of unique, challenging cases. You’ll provide expert advice on employment and people-related matters, ranging from staff policies and contracts, HR strategy and litigation, through to more sensitive matters such as mitigating risks to national security. In doing so, you’ll provide vital support at the heart of our organisation.

This is an opportunity to use your skills and experience in ways you’d expect, in a context you wouldn’t. You might be advising on recruitment, vetting and day-to-day HR matters. Or, you could be taking on advisory work across disciplinary, capability and grievance issues. From Employment Tribunal claims and wider litigation to advising on ethics, communications and security matters, you’ll provide reliable and trusted legal support on a range of internal casework. Plus, with no client time recording or billable hour requirements in this role, you’ll be able to focus on delivering sound legal advice and meaningful solutions that support our national security mission.

Some aspects of the role might require travel around the country or internationally, but this is infrequent and not an expected day to day aspect of the job.

If you’re curious about how national security shapes an organisation’s response to employment law, this is the role for you.

Person specification

About you

You’ll be a qualified solicitor or barrister, with a minimum of around 2 years’ PQE experience, qualified to practice in England and Wales. Previous employment law experience in either the public or private sector is essential and in-house legal experience is preferred.

You’ll have the ability to explain complex employment law matters clearly and simply to those without a legal background. With a pragmatic approach to problems, you’ll think creatively to find solutions, both independently and as part of our small, collaborative team. Proactive and conscientious, you’ll be adept at handling complex and sensitive queries with credibility and build relationships with a broad range of stakeholders.

Benefits

Training and development

Upon joining, you’ll receive an initial induction as well as on-the-job training. Your manager will provide feedback, guidance and support via regular catchups, and you’ll be surrounded by a small, welcoming team who can provide additional help and advice as you settle in.

Plus, you’ll have access to courses in our internal training academy, giving you the chance to further your professional development and gain wider support in a collegiate environment. You’ll be encouraged to take responsibility for your own training and development, as you seek to identify and take advantage of opportunities appropriate to your own goals and needs. We’ll provide you with a dedicated development budget to support you in doing this.

Rewards and benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of: £86,779 to £96,097 (depending on experience), plus other benefits including:

• 25 days of annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years’ service, and an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• a dedicated development budget
• an interest-free season ticket loan
• an excellent pension scheme
• a cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars
• paid parental and adoption leave

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

Equal opportunities

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions' Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• you'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation
• be able to demonstrate the skills referenced for the role and an ability to find creative solutions to difficult legal problems - assessed at application sift
• able to demonstrate an ability to think creatively to deliver practical outcomes - assessed at application sift

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. Initial online application form.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios.
3. Full online application form.
4. Application sift, looking at your evidence against the essential criteria above and motivation for the role and the organisation.
5. If successful, you will receive an invitation to attend an in-person competency-based interview.
6. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read our full eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you manage your application with us more discretely.

The role is based in Central London so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in‑person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to close applications early
Please be aware that we reserve the right to close applications once a certain number have been received. Please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing out. If you have a disability (as defined under the Equality Act 2010) and need additional time to complete your application, please submit your initial application. Then, contact us via the email provided as soon as possible, using the subject line "Reasonable adjustments extension" and briefly outline the support you require.

Please note, it is this organisation's policy not to provide feedback at any stage of the recruitment process. This may be contrary to the messages below

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.

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

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 : careers@recruitmentoffice.org.uk
• Email : careers@recruitmentoffice.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : careers@recruitmentoffice.org.uk