Adult Social Care Lawyer

Leicestershire County Council; Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in Leicester is looking for an experienced solicitor to join their Adult Social Care team. The role focuses on promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, with responsibilities including court representation and legal advice on mental capacity and safeguarding. Candidates must be qualified solicitors or barristers with substantial experience in public law. This position offers a flexible hybrid work model and an attractive benefits package.

Benefits

Generous leave entitlement

Local government pension scheme

Employee benefits and discount scheme

Career development support

Qualifications

• Recent experience in local authority work, including mental health law.
• Experience conducting complex public law litigation.
• Ability to assimilate information rapidly and provide effective solutions.

Responsibilities

• Support vulnerable adults in the Court of Protection.
• Produce high-quality legal advice documents.
• Provide dedicated paralegal support in case management.

Skills

Litigation skills

Legal research

Advocacy

Communication

Organisation

Education

Qualified Solicitor, Barrister, or Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives

Job description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester, LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £38,700 - £52,155 per annum (pro rata for part-time) plus a Golden Hello lump sum payment equal to 10% of salary on appointment

Working Hours: 37 Hours per Week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 10th August 2025

Interview Date(s): TBC

Are you a qualified and experienced solicitor keen on promoting the equality and independence of vulnerable adults, alongside safeguarding and protection from abuse? If so, come and join our dedicated team of in-house Adult Social Care solicitors in this challenging and rewarding area of practice.

About the Role

Are you an experienced lawyer, whether solicitor, barrister, or fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, working in private practice or at a local authority? Do you have a keen interest in supporting the work of a large local authority in promoting the equality and independence of some of the most vulnerable members of its community, alongside safeguarding and protection from abuse? Are you someone looking to develop your experience in adult social care work? Are you ready for your next challenge? If so, please read on; we would like to hear from you.

We are looking for an experienced lawyer to join us in this challenging and rewarding area of practice. You will have sound litigation skills, preferably within the welfare jurisdiction of the Court of Protection, together with the ability to undertake advocacy from time to time. Excellent legal research skills are also required for advice work on mental health and mental capacity, safeguarding, ordinary residence, community care funding and responsibilities, including no recourse to public funds, finance issues, as well as providing guidance on policy and practice in response to changes in the law.

You are not expected to be an expert in all these areas; however, broad experience and a keen willingness to find out are definite advantages, as is a dynamic and solution-focused approach.

Joining a friendly and supportive team, where different skills, knowledge and experiences are valued as an important resource, you can expect a collaborative working environment that includes:

• The opportunity to undertake some of the most complex and important case work supporting vulnerable adults in the Court of Protection.
• The opportunity to exercise your legal analysis skills with the production of high-quality written and verbal advice.
• An opportunity to enhance /develop advocacy skills appropriate to the role and your experience.
• Provision of dedicated paralegal support.
• Guidance from a highly regarded and experienced manager (job share).

Additional benefits of working for Leicestershire County Council include:

• Attractive benefits package including leave entitlement of up to 32 days depending on grade and length of service, plus public holidays and leave buy-back scheme, generous local government pension scheme, free on-site parking, restaurant and food outlet, employee benefits and discount scheme. Payment of required professional fees.
• Employee-friendly policies, including career support and comprehensive wellbeing support services. The council is a ‘Mindful Employer’ and committed to the well-being of its staff and workplace equality initiatives.
• Career development support: The council recognises the value of mentoring, training, and development. All legal services managers are experienced and highly regarded legal practitioners, both within the council and externally.
• Work-life balance: Hybrid working policies to promote work-life balance and effective remote home working.

Want to know more about what it's like to work for Leicestershire? If so, click on the link below, paste it into your browser, or visit www.leicestershire.gov.uk/jobs.

https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/sites/default/files/field/pdf/2019/11/28/working-for-leicestershire-county-council.pdf

Next steps? If you have any queries, please contact Catherine Gorry on 0116 305 6160.

We look forward to your application.

Closing date: Midnight, Sunday 10th August 2025

About You

To apply for this post, you must:

• Be qualified as an admitted Solicitor, Barrister or Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.
• Have recent and substantial experience of dealing with local authority work to include at least two of the following specialist areas: mental health law, deprivation of liberty safeguards/Mental Capacity Act, court of protection work including welfare proceedings, judicial review, and adult protection/other adult social care issues.
• Have experience in the conduct of complex public law litigation to include drafting chronologies, statements, position statements and briefs.
• Have knowledge of public sector and/or administrative law/judicial review, and the functions of an Adult Social Care Services Department, including mental health, mental capacity, court of protection, adult protection, and community care law, both in relation to individual cases and wider policy issues.
• Be able to assimilate information rapidly and present effective solutions, appropriate advice, and guidance in a timely manner.
• Be able to communicate effectively with colleagues, customers, and internal and external stakeholders to persuade and influence appropriate outcomes.
• Have excellent organisation and prioritisation skills, IT skills, and written communication skills to enable the drafting of legal documents.

You must also understand and commit to equal opportunities and be able to apply this to all situations.

In addition, we expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to provide evidence when you demonstrate them during the interview process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees in balancing their working lives with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual’s personal circumstances while still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style that determines where it can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories on the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Name and job title: Catherine Gorry

Telephone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity, and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services, we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the ‘About You’ section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click ‘Apply Now’. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application, which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the ‘About You’ section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the ‘ this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when applying for this post, please contact our Employee Service Centre at https://emss.org.uk/support

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.