Commercial Lawyer

Venn Group, London; Stevenage; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

LGPS pension 19.6% employer contrib.

Welcome payment £4,000

Job summary

Herts Legal is seeking a Commercial Lawyer to provide high quality public procurement and commercial contracts advice, primarily in a client-facing role for the County Council and its partners. The position is predominantly remote with occasional office attendance in Stevenage, offering a supportive, high-standard legal service environment.

Applicants should be a solicitor, barrister or legal executive with knowledge of public sector procurement and commercial contracts, and the ability to

Qualifications

• Qualified solicitor, barrister or legal executive.
• Knowledge and experience of public sector procurement law.
• Knowledge and experience of commercial contracts.
• Understanding of issues facing local authorities and legal services.
• Ability to manage workloads to meet timescales and budgets.
• Excellent client care and ability to build relationships with client officers and colleagues at all levels.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication and negotiation skills.
• Self-sufficiency in producing documents without reliance on secretarial staff.
• Attention to detail; pragmatic, flexible and commercial problem-solving.
• Experience in a local authority legal environment is welcome.

Responsibilities

• Manage your own caseload of routine and complex matters.
• Provide advice on public procurement and commercial contracts, including negotiation and drafting.
• Participate in training courses for Members, officers and others.
• Ensure decisions by client departments are lawful and align with policy.
• Keep abreast of relevant legislation and provide updates.
• Suggest improvements in practice and procedures to maintain pre-eminence in the practice area.

Skills

Client care

Relationship building

Communication skills

Negotiation

Self-sufficiency

Attention to detail

Local authority experience

Education

Qualified solicitor/barrister/legal executive

Job description

Commercial Lawyer

Salary up to £65,235, Predominantly remote

Salary: £53,806 + £5,691 supplement rising to £59,497 + £5,738 supplement

Welcome Paymen"t: £4000

Pension: LGPS pension Employer Contribution 19.6%

Location: Stevenage – predominantly remote working

About Herts Legal

With more than 100 colleagues in the team Herts Legal is one of the largest and most successful legal teams in local government and offers a complete legal service to clients across the County Council, District Councils and other public sector bodies.

Our lawyers are crucial to the County Council's continued success. We have high standards for our services and we are pleased to be recognised as a Centre of Excellence by the Law Society's Lexcel quality standard assessor.

Herts Legal provides a fantastic opportunity for ambitious, passionate and organised Lawyers who want to join a supportive and flourishing public sector legal team.

We offer flexible hybrid working and have recently moved to newly refurbished modern offices in Stevenage.

The Role

• The role will be a client facing role providing high quality legal services to Council officers and Members, committees, and other council bodies.
• This role is mainly focussed on the provision of public procurement and commercial contracts advice.
• You will also contribute to the maintenance of Legal Services’ Lexcel accreditation

Criteria for the Role

• A solicitor, barrister or legal executive
• Knowledge and experience of public sector procurement law
• Knowledge and experience of commercial contracts
• Demonstrable understanding of the issues facing local authorities, legal service departments and lawyers
• Ability to work collaboratively, manage and prioritise workloads to achieve Client outcomes to timescale and within budget
• Excellent client care skills and the ability to develop relationships with Client Officers and colleagues at all levels
• Excellent inter-personal, written and oral communication and negotiation skills
• Self-sufficient in the production of all documents and correspondence without the need to rely on secretarial staff
• Attention to detail and a pragmatic, flexible and commercial approach to problem solving.
• Experience of working in a local authority legal environment is welcome.

Role Responsibilities

• Manage your own case load of routine and more complex matters
• Provide quality practical advice and support to clients on public procurement and commercial contracts, including contract negotiation and drafting and contract disputes.
• Participate in training courses and seminars to Members, officers and others.
• Ensure that the decisions made by client departments are lawful, accord with County Council policy and achieve their aims and objectives efficiently
• Maintain an awareness of all relevant legislation, policy and regulations, investigate and advise on implications of changing legislation, case law and codes of practice and policy and provide training where necessary
• Make recommendations to the Principal Lawyer and Assistant Chief Legal Officer on improvements in practice and procedure in the Team to ensure that the Team retains pre-eminence in its practice area.

Working Arrangement

Predominantly remote working with occasional office attendance where required for business needs.

For more information

Contact Nik Stoate at Venn Group