Legal Counsel (Construction)

Job summary

The Department for Education’s Education Estates Directorate (“Education Estates”) is one of the largest construction clients in England. Education Estates delivers over £2bn of capital works each year, providing new school places and rebuilding and refurbishing the existing school estate. Education is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life.

The work of Education Estates has a transformative impact on children and students, enabling them to realise their potential in high quality learning environments. We carefully utilise capital funding to ensure the education estate is safe, sustainable, suitable, sufficiently sized and resilient. We are at the forefront of innovation in terms of design standards and framework delivery.

The Legal Counsel (Construction) team sits within the Estates, Legal Land and Planning Division of Education Estates and provides legal and commercial support and assurance for construction activity across all regions and programmes. The team works closely with project teams and other internal and external professionals.

As a Legal Counsel (Construction) you will provide expert legal advice and support over the whole life cycle of your projects in procurement, contract management and on post-completion issues and disputes. As business need dictates you will also provide support to Education Estates as a whole. This could include, for example, assisting with the procurement of DfE frameworks or advising on programme-wide issues as they arise.

Job description

We are looking for an experienced construction lawyer to lead on complex and high value procurements and negotiate key issues with private sector bidders whilst ensuring value for money and protecting Departmental policy positions.

You will form part of a team of c.40 Legal Counsel specialising in procurement, construction and property advice, and will be required to work closely with colleagues on complex property and construction transactions.

Using your experience of working on large-scale construction projects, you will provide in-house legal and commercial input across a large portfolio of education construction projects. This will involve working with internal project teams and other specialist advisors. You will also work closely with external technical and legal advisors to tender, negotiate and manage construction contracts, including claims management. The role offers a unique opportunity to be involved in projects from feasibility stage through to final account and beyond.

Alongside this you will provide expert in-house construction legal advice and recommendations to DfE colleagues across all capital programmes.

The role would suit either a contentious or non-contentious construction lawyer as there is flexibility to adapt the role to the skillset of the successful candidate.

Main Responsibilities

You will have a flexible, collegiate and responsive mindset and be willing to provide commercial advice, challenge using evidence, and develop creative solutions to the most demanding problems. You will be able to cut through complex issues to find a commercial solution whilst working within an evolving legal and policy framework. You will be able to manage a range of projects and stakeholders with competing priorities.

In respect of programme delivery your role will involve:

- Leading the delivery of construction, legal and commercial input into individual projects.

- Drafting, reviewing, negotiating and updating template and bespoke construction documents.

- Acting as client and handling the services provided by our retained external legal advisers.

- Negotiating key issues with private sector bidders and advisers and liaising with stakeholders.

- Advising on the initial stages of claims and disputes on individual schemes and on cross-programme contentious matters (more involvement and potential to lead on escalated disputes is an option for those with a construction disputes background).

In addition to programme delivery work, there will be opportunities to work on cross-cutting projects as they emerge. In recent years this has included the development of a new Further Education capital delivery programme, construction and procurement support for the procurement of the Department’s £15bn Construction Framework and its accompanying Technical Advisor Framework, responding to Contractor insolvencies and supporting the Department’s RAAC response.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

• Construction lawyer with substantial post-qualification construction experience and in-depth knowledge and proven experience of JCT Contracts.
• Experience as lead lawyer on commercial construction transactions.
• Experience of dealing with construction contract claims, disputes or other contentious matters. Note that this does not need to extend to significant adjudication/litigation experience.

Desirable criteria:

• Experience of educational construction work.
• Experience of other standard forms of construction contract, in particular NEC4 and/or alliance contracts.

Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview, in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.

Qualifications

Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive (FCILEx) qualified to practice in England and Wales.

Memberships

Membership of Solicitors Regulation Authority
OR
The Barristers’ Register
OR
CILEX Authorised Practitioners Directory

Technical skills

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

• Legal - Construction

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £70,854, Department for Education contributes £20,526 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

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 Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Step 1: Application

At this stage, we will assess Experience. Candidates will be sifted through their CV and a personal statement.

Your personal statement should be no longer than 500 words and display how your experience meets the essential criteria of the role (listed in the person specification section above).

The sift will be restricted to just assessing personal statements only in the event of a large volume of applications.

More guidance on personal statements can be found here – completing your application.

Step 2: Interview

If successful at sift, candidates will be assessed via interview.

At interview, you will be asked questions relating to your Experience, Strengths and Technical Skills.

Strengths are a way for Hiring Managers to understand what motivates you and what you enjoy doing, which helps the panel to understand your areas of strength. Evidence shows that people do better work when a job aligns well with what they enjoy and find motivating. We don’t advertise which strengths we are going to assess you on as we want to be able to assess your first, natural response to the questions.

For more information on the selection process, including guidance on how to write a personal statement, answer behaviour and strength-based interview questions, and the STAR approach click here: Top tips for acing the application.

Interviews are expected to take place in the week commencing 6 July or 13 July 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.

Other Information

Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title

• educational institutions

• age

• gender

• email address

• postal address

• phone number

• nationality/immigration status

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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 : Rob Goût
• Email : rob.gout@education.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk

Further information

The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages

Attachments

DFE Terms & Conditions - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 215kB)Reasonable Adjustments guide 05_2025 - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 723kB)OGD Transfer Supplementary information - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 327kB)