Housing and Litigation Lawyer

Brighton & Hove City Council; Hove; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 56,000; Full time

Job summary

Brighton & Hove City Council's Legal Services team is seeking a talented barrister, solicitor or legal executive (England and Wales) with advocacy experience to handle housing litigation and related work. You will advise, prepare and present cases in the Courts including injunctions and possession orders.

Join a progressive, award-winning team that values collaboration, inclusivity and service excellence for Brighton and Hove residents and businesses.

Qualifications

• Qualified in England and Wales with advocacy experience.
• Experience handling housing law and related litigation.
• Strong communication and client-relations skills.

Responsibilities

• Advise, prepare and present housing law cases in Courts including injunctions and possession orders.
• Advocate on behalf of clients and manage complex case files.
• Deliver professional legal services inclusively to residents, businesses and staff.

Skills

Advocacy

Negotiation

Client relations

Education

Qualified in England and Wales (Barrister/Solicitor/Legal Executive)

Job description

Job description

Are you looking for an exciting and challenging new opportunity in legal services?

Do you have strong advocacy skills, negotiation skills and client relation skills?

Would you like to deliver a variety of litigation and housing law work in a professional and friendly legal team?

If so, we would like to hear from you.

Our award winning dynamic and innovative Local Authority legal team are seeking a talented barrister, solicitor or legal executive (qualified in England and Wales) with advocacy experience.

Contract type: This role is permanent

Interviews to be held: Week commencing 16th November 2026

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact [e-mail] or [e-mail]

About the role

Brighton & Hove is an established Unitary Authority and is a major economic, social, and cultural force in the southeast region, with a vibrant, dynamic and diverse community which makes the city of Brighton & Hove truly unique.

We have a progressive legal team delivering an exceptional legal service on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council.This legal team values imagination, creativity, a strong work ethic as well as championing and working collaboratively with its diverse communities. This has led the Legal Services team to have achieved many awards and successes, including winning the 2024 LLG Legal Team of the year and being recognised by Lexcel as an excellent, well-led service. We are a professional, friendly, and rewarding team.

You will advise, prepare and present housing law cases in the Courts including injunctions and possession orders.

have strong advocacy skills and client relationship management skills

have effective communication skills and be able to explain complex legal issues

Deliver professional legal services inclusively to our residents, businesses, visitors and staff

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?

As a council, we want to:

• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for uswhich gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

AI advice for candidates

We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.