Corporate Governance Lawyer

Westfield Secondary School; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid / Flexible working

Pension scheme

Annual leave and flexi benefits

Employee Assistance scheme

Job summary

Sheffield City Council is seeking a Corporate Governance (Housing) Lawyer to join the Governance and Regulatory team. The role focuses on governance, housing, and education law, with responsibilities spanning advice to Officers and Members and ensuring lawful decision-making.

The successful candidate will manage complex cases and work within a busy council legal department, offering flexible and hybrid working arrangements and opportunities within a collaborative team.

Qualifications

• Qualified solicitor, barrister, or FCILEX with full practising and advocacy rights.
• Extensive knowledge of corporate governance and local government law including housing and education.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines; team player.

Responsibilities

• Manage own caseload in governance, constitutional and housing matters.
• Provide authoritative advice to Councillors and Officers ensuring lawful decisions.

Skills

Corporate governance

Local government law

Housing law

Education law

Education

Qualified Solicitor/Barrister/FCILEX with full practising and advocacy rights

Tools

Case management software

Job description

Corporate Governance (Housing) Lawyer

Are you a qualified solicitor, barrister, or chartered legal executive with full practising and advocacy rights who has experience in Corporate Governance and Local Government (including Housing) law? Are you enthusiastic, flexible and enjoy teamwork? If so, we have a fantastic permanent opportunity as a Corporate Governance (Housing) Lawyer, and in addition we can offer some fantastic benefits:

The Governance and Regulatory team is part of a busy legal department serving the fourth largest city in the country. The team enjoys a varied and stimulating caseload which helps our client departments including Housing, achieve their key objectives fairly balancing the needs of both the Council and its service users.

We are looking to recruit a lawyer, who is has experience of Corporate Governance and Local Government law to include but not limited to decision making and statutory powers, policy and procedure and on the law and practice relating to Housing and Education, who is enthusiastic and hardworking.

We are looking for someone who will have the energy and ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines in order to help us provide a vital service for our clients.

We are open to applicants from either the private or public sector. If you want to put your experience and enthusiasm into practice as part of a hardworking, friendly and supportive team, then this is an excellent opportunity for you.

You will need to show initiative, but you will also be a key player in a team which is achieving good results and is highly regarded by the client departments.

The Successful Candidate will

• Manage their own caseload, which will include complex and interesting areas of Governance, constitutional and housing law.
• Be responsible for providing authoritative advice to the Councils Officers and Members, ensuring that decisions are lawful.

For The Role, You Would Need To Have

• Recognised Legal qualification (Solicitor, Barrister or FCILEX with full practising and advocacy rights).
• Technical knowledge in all aspects of corporate governance and local government law to include but not limited to decision making and statutory powers, policy and procedure and on the law and practice relating to Housing and education
• Understanding of legal case management systems and process knowledge.

For informal enquiries please contact the Senior Lawyer Penny Hellewell on 0114 2930768.

Benefits

• Hybrid / Flexible working but the applicant will be expected to attend in person when required.
• Pension scheme – 19% total contribution (you pay approximately 6.5%) and by joining the scheme this includes Death in service cover of 3 x your salary
• Annual leave – 26 days plus bank holidays increasing to 31 days after 5 years’ service plus bank holidays AND you can buy additional leave should you need to.
• Employee Assistance scheme, store discounts, flexi hours scheme, cycle to work scheme and much more.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.