Investigations Lawyer

The Nursing and Midwifery Council; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 58,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 days annual leave

Pension scheme

Life Insurance 4x salary

Hybrid working

Maternity/Paternity leave

Employee assistance programme

Cycle to Work

Perkbox membership

Restaurant subsidy

Season ticket loans

Job summary

The Nursing and Midwifery Council seeks an Investigations Lawyer to join the Case Investigations team. You will provide expert legal advice across investigation planning, direction, and evidence assessment to protect the public as part of regulatory duties.

The role is based in London or Edinburgh with hybrid working, reporting to the Head of the directorate. A UK practising certificate and post-qualification experience in complex matters are essential.

Qualifications

• Current UK practising certificate is required.
• Experience providing high-pressure legal advice.
• Experience handling complex cases post-qualification.
• Ability to see the big picture while managing detail.
• Demonstrated mentoring or coaching of junior staff.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Self-motivated with initiative and quality focus.
• Experience working with other teams.
• Experience in politically sensitive/high-profile issues.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice on case direction, scoping, evidential considerations, risk and procedures.
• Advise at all stages from investigation planning to reviewing reports and evidence.
• Oversee applications to High Court to extend interim orders and for disclosures.
• Collaborate with registrants and their representatives as needed.
• Support management of caseloads and quantify investigative direction across teams.

Skills

UK practising certificate

Legal advice under pressure

Post-qualification experience

Big-picture thinking

Mentoring juniors

Excellent communication

Deadline-driven

Initiative

Collaborative working

Politically sensitive environment

Case handling and advisory

Job description

Investigations Lawyer

Application Deadline: 16 October 2026

Department: Case Investigations

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: London or Edinburgh

Reporting To: Matthew Twinn

Compensation: £58,022 - £62,416 / year

Description

About the team and what we do

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) investigation team gathers factual evidence to evaluate fitness to practise concerns after a referral passes initial screening. They act as neutral fact-finders rather than judges.

Your role and impact

As an Investigations Lawyer within the Professional Regulation directorate you’ll play an important role in ensuring cases are investigated in a proportionate and timely way that best protects the public in accordance with the NMC’s statutory obligations.

The role involves providing advice to case holders on a range of matters including case direction, scoping, evidential considerations, management of risk and procedural issues. The role involves providing advice at various stages from investigation planning to reviewing completed investigation reports and evidence.

As we’re working across the directorate to reduce our caseload, we’re testing some new ways of working so there may be some cases in your team that you’ll provide more direction over and there may be some cases in your team that you don’t advise on at all. There will be some cases on which you’ll need to conduct witness interviews, and engage with other external parties, such as our registrants and their representatives. Our investigations lawyers also provides oversight and support for applications to the High Court to extend interim orders, as well as applications to the High Court and Family Court seeking orders for disclosure.

What you’ll bring

• You’ll have a current UK practising certificate.
• Evidence of providing legal advice in a high pressured environment.
• You will have built up a considerable amount of experience post qualification in dealing with complex cases
• An ability to think about the ‘big picture’ as well as the detail – we’re looking for someone who can make sensible, pragmatic decisions.
• Evidence of commitment to motivating and coaching more junior members of staff. .
• Excellent written, oral and presentations skills.
• Focused approach to delivering results by working to tight deadlines.
• Self-motivated – we need someone with initiative who takes pride in the quality of their work and always strives to improve.
• Experience of collaborative working with other teams.
• Experience of working in a politically sensitive environment and dealing with high profile sensitive issues.
• Evidence of being willing to help get cases investigated. We’re looking for someone who is willing to work on cases as well as advise on them.

Benefits

• 30 days annual leave
• Enhanced Pension Contributions via our attractive Pension Scheme – with a basic 8% employer contribution as standard which increases up to 14% with optional added Employee Contributions
• Life Insurance – 4 x current salary
• Hybrid working
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• 24 Hours Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Perkbox membership
• Subsidised restaurant in our Portland Place office
• Season ticket loans

Additional Information

The role you are applying for is a flexible role, and whilst you will be posted initially to a team, this may require movement between teams as the flow of work dictates. You will of course understand that this flexible approach enables us to provide the best possible service to our registrants and reach the outcomes to our cases quickly and within a reasonable timeframe. This will not change your terms and conditions and will be discussed with you prior to you taking up the post.

Hybrid Working Policy

We are currently working to a policy of office attendance for two days per week with the rest of the time working from home. Before submitting your application, please ensure you are able to commit to working in one of our office locations twice per week. If you are applying for a part-time role, please pro-rata office attendance based on the number of days you would be working.

Our Pay Policy

It is expected that staff new to the NMC will ordinarily be appointed to the bottom of the relevant pay band. However in exceptional circumstances, it may be possible to offer a salary above the bottom of the relevant pay band but we may request proof of current earnings. Please note that we offer an annual review of salaries and adopt a generous progressive pay approach. Further details of which are available on request.

For our internal colleagues, you will be paid in accordance to our internal pay policy.

Reasonable adjustments

We will provide reasonable adjustments to support disabled candidates throughout the recruitment process. Please let us know if you need any additional support to enable you to make an application with us.

Screening and vetting

All of our roles are subject to pre-employment checks. We are in the process of introducing a vetting policy, and it is possible that this role may become subject to DBS and further vetting checks in future.