Lawyer

National Crime Agency; London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 49,000; Full time

Job summary

The National Crime Agency is seeking a capable lawyer to provide critical legal support for serious and organized crime operations. Candidates must possess excellent legal skills, the ability to think strategically, and ideally hold qualifications as a Solicitor or Barrister. This role offers competitive salary packages along with benefits including pension contributions and annual leave. Join a team dedicated to making a significant impact in law enforcement.

Benefits

Civil Service pension scheme

26 days annual leave

Training and development opportunities

Flexible working arrangements

Qualifications

• Must have completed a training contract/pupillage.
• Experience in managing legal risks is essential.
• Understanding of public law principles is necessary.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice and assistance to support NCA functions.
• Draft legal documents and manage litigation including negotiations.
• Conduct thorough case management for ongoing legal matters.

Skills

Legal Professional Skills

Strategic Thinking

Public Law Awareness

Reliable Judgement

Education

Solicitor or Barrister qualified in England and Wales or Northern Ireland

Chartered Legal Executive qualification

Job description

Job Description

The NCA Legal Department comprises of the following teams: Data and Operational Advisory Team, Civil Litigation Team, Financial Disruptions Litigation Team, Disruptive Actions Litigation Team and Commercial and Employment Team. We are looking for individuals with experience in operational delivery, data and information, asset denial and financial disruptions, high value complex litigation or disruptive actions litigation or who have the aptitude and experience to pick up new areas of law quickly.

As an NCA lawyer you will advise on the most complex challenging aspects of serious and organised crime. You will be expected to use your legal skills and judgement to contribute to the strategic direction of operations and shape the legislative landscape, ensuring the delivery of high quality, timely and fit for purpose legal advice to support the NCA in its mission.

**You will need to successfully complete SC enhanced clearance before commencing the role.**

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Overview

Provide legal advice

Provide legal advice and assistance to enable the business to carry out its functions.

Draft legal advice

Draft legal advice in appropriate style for internal clients and draft instructions for external counsel or solicitors.

Conduct litigation

Conduct litigation, including any appeals against orders made. Conduct settlement negotiations and mediation where appropriate.

Case management

Carry out effective case management

Person Specification

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Description

Professional legal skills

Ability to identify and manage legal risk, as well as, being able to manage multiple stakeholders

Strategic thinking

The ability to think strategically and creatively, seeing legal issues in their wider context and advise accordingly.

Public Law

A good understanding of public law/awareness of public law principles

Essential Criteria

You must meet the essential criteria and evidence this within your application to be considered for the role.

Entry Requirements

In order to progress to the next stage, you will need to pass the following criteria:

Stage 1 - Sift

Statement of Suitability

Please explain your suitability in no more than 750 words demonstrating the below

• Please explain your suitability for the role as described above including evidence demonstrating the technical criteria below:
  

Legal Professional Skills - reliable judgement and appreciation of legal risk. The ability to think strategically and creatively, seeing legal issues in their wider context and advise accordingly.

CV - Outlining your work history, skills and experience.

Your CV should set out your career history including training and qualifications, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure that each entry of your career history also has a few sentences outlining a description and the key elements of that role, and that you provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

Stage 2 - Interview

Candidates who pass the sift process will then be invited to the interview process, this will consist of a Role Play exercise which will assess the following:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Role Play Exercise - an hour before your interview you will be sent a scenario and you will need to review this and prepare your verbal response. You will then join the interview panel and give your advice where follow-up questions may be asked (15 mins).

This will be followed by the interview questions which will assess the following:

Behaviours

• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Technical Criteria

1. Legal Professional Skills - reliable judgement and appreciation of legal risk. The ability to think strategically and creatively, seeing legal issues in their wider context and advise accordingly.

2. A good understanding of public law/awareness of public principles.

Qualifications, Membership and Licences

You must meet the essential criteria below to apply for this role.

To apply for this role you must be either (or about to become) (a) Solicitor or Barrister qualified to practise in England and Wales or Northern Ireland; or (b) Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales. Upon appointment, Barristers and Solicitors qualified in Northern Ireland will be registered by the NCA with the respective professional bodies in England and Wales, to enable them to practise in both jurisdictions. (There is no minimum level of PQE but we would anticipate candidates would be between 0 and 2 years' PQE).

You must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx.

Professional entry criteria for Chartered Legal Executives (i.e. Fellows): Chartered Legal Executives are eligible to apply where (i) a Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) is held; or (ii) the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) / Common Professional Examination (CPE) has been completed: or (iii) where exams have been passed (i.e. a score of 50% or above achieved), at CILEx Level 6, in all of the following seven foundation subjects in law:

1. Criminal Law

2. Equity and Trusts

3. Law of the European Union

4. Obligations 1 (Contract)

5. Obligations 2 (Tort)

6. Property / Land Law

7. Public Law (Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Human Rights Law)

Additionally, Chartered Legal Executives may need a Practice Rights Certificate depending on the role.

Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on, are entered on to your CV.

Solicitors should also include their roll number.

Any applications from candidates not meeting this eligibility criteria will not progress

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Working Together
Delivering at Pace
Seeing the Big Picture
Making Effective Decisions
Communicating and Influencing

Technical Skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process: Legal Professional Skills - reliable judgement and appreciation of legal risk.
The ability to think strategically and creatively; seeing legal issues in their wider context and advise accordingly.
A good understanding of public law/awareness of public law principles.

Assessment stages

Stage 1 Assessment

Interview assessing Behaviours and Technical Skills. The interview process will consist of a role-play exercise which will assess Seeing the Big Picture and Communicating & Influencing. Full details will be provided to the successful candidates.

Salary and Benefits Benefits Offered benefits for this role

Alongside your salary, NCA contributes £15,421 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

All officers in the NCA are members of the UK Civil Service. You will be eligible for:
Civil Service pension scheme 26 days annual leave rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service.

• If qualifying criteria is met new joiners to the NCA from UK Police Forces or UKIC will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for Annual Leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).
• Training and development opportunities
• Special leave
• Flexible working and family friendly policies
• Cycle to work scheme
• Blue Light scheme
• A range of sporting and other activities on offer
• We can provide flexible working arrangements if the role in question is suitable. This includes flexi-time, job sharing, and compressed hours (working contracted hours over a shorter period).

For further details on benefits please visit our benefits and support page.

If applying on Secondment and you are the equivalent grade you will remain on your current salary for the duration of your Secondment. Current terms and conditions will remain. If applying on promotion, conditions will reflect the promoted salary within the candidates home force.

If you are applying on secondment, whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Agency.

Learning and Development:
Access to a range of learning and development activities, and opportunities to support career progression.
Paid time off to facilitate continuous professional development, and access to Civil Service Learning up to 5 days per year.

Well-being and Inclusion:
Occupational sick pay and access to occupational health services.
A network of qualified Mental Health First Aiders and Workplace Support Officers, who can provide advice, signposting and support to all our officers.
On site facilities including fitness centres and canteens (where available).
Access to a variety of active staff network groups.

Further Salary Information Roles based in London will receive an additional London Weighting (Annually)of £4040

Allowances are reviewed annually.

Selection Process

Selection Process Details

If you wish to apply for this vacancy, you must submit your application by 16/06/2025, 23:55 This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical Skills.

Application Process

In your application you may be asked to provide a selection from among the following: A statement outlining your suitability for the role, Answer specific questions about behaviours, experience, and technical skills, Upload a copy of your CV. You will be asked to set out your career history, including relevant training and qualifications, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please provide reasons for any gaps in employment within the last two years. Please ensure that the dates of any accreditations you are relying on are entered. For further application guidance please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/applying-and-onboarding Once submitted, receipt of your application will be acknowledged.

Sift Process

Candidates must pass this criteria for their application to be progressed. A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Entry Criteria section. Failure to address any of all of these may affect your application.

Interview Details

You will then be asked to attend an interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. There will be one round of interviews, and you will be assessed against the criteria as listed in the Person Specification above. Interviews will take place throughout 7 July 2025 and 18 July 2025 - locations to be confirmed. Please be advised that the type of interview (eg. virtual/face-to-face) may be subject to change and successful candidates will be notified of this prior to attending. However the interview is conducted, the interview criteria will remain as detailed within this advert. The above sift and interview dates are an indicative timeline. Should you be successful at sift but cannot attend on the interview date(s) listed the recruitment team cannot guarantee an alternative date. Please contact the recruitment team. Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words.
Any instances of plagiarism including copying of examples/answers from internet sources will result in a withdrawal of your application.
Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates.
Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants

Interview Outcome

In the event of a tie-break at interview, then the panel will use the lead criteria (behaviour/technical /experience) to determine merit order.
If the leading scores are still tied, the panel will then assess desirable criteria to determine merit order.
If scores are still tied following the review of desirable criteria, then the panel will revert to sift scores to determine merit order. Candidates will be alerted of the outcome of their interview via the Agency's recruitment portal. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. We will be retaining a candidate pool of successful applicants to draw from as vacancies arise for up to 12 months If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our reserve list. If over the next 12 months we are able to offer you a position, we will contact you as soon as possible. Once we make you an offer you will then go through our vetting and pre-employment checks processes.

Eligibility, Pre-Employment Check and Vetting National Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:
• UK nationals

Further information on nationality requirements You will be required to participate in digital right to work and address checks as part of the recruitment process.

Security and Vetting

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks [URL: www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-baseline-personnel-security-standard]. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is SC Enhanced For more information on security vetting please visit: UK Security Vetting guidance for applicants and Demystifying Vetting and see our vetting charter at: The Vetting Charter

Vetting requirements SC Enhanced

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK. The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected. If you require SC Enhanced clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements. Checks will be made against:
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Security Services records
• UK criminal record and identity checks
• Credit reference checks
• Relevant personnel and medical checks (if required) For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

***You will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance before commencing the role***

Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.

Occupational Health

Successful candidates will be expected to have an occupational health assessment. Some successful candidates may be required to undertake an In-Person medical. If required, the medical will take place in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.

Things you need to know Multi

Location Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application. Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted to one location, please confirm one location only. If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role. Please note, only advertised locations can be offered. Notes populated in a free text box will not be taken into consideration.

Near Miss If you are not found appointable at the advertised grade you may be offered the lower grade role if you are considered to meet the skills, experience and behaviours for the lower level. The benchmark for appointing to the lower grade is set at the start of each campaign. All offers will be made in merit. If you are found appointable at the higher grade but there are no positions available you may be offered an appointment at the lower grade.

Hybrid Working Here at the National Crime Agency we have a hybrid working arrangement in place enabling officers to work a proportion of their role remotely. Eligibility and the degree of home working will vary depending on the requirements of the role. Further details can be discussed at offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustments We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. As part of our application process you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process that you may need. If you have a disability or long-term condition (a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, please contact [e-mail] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Please ensure you complete the ‘Equal opportunities’ and 'Reasonable Adjustments' sections in the application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Inclusion and Accessibility We are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we are committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process. For details please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/benefits-and-support In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency's Diversity & Inclusion strategy, we require certain personal details about you on submission of your application for statistical and monitoring purposes only. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact [e-mail]

Additional Information The National Crime Agency is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours. If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted. You will remain on the reserve list for a max of 12 months If preferable, alternative contract types may be available. Please review the green bar of this advert to view all available contract types for this role. Where Loan or Secondment options are available, these would be for existing Civil Servants (Loan) and applicants from accredited NDPBs or any other employer (Secondment). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Working for the Civil Service: The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy. The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Planand the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

Apply and Further Information This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veteransinitiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered by the candidate pack, please contact:

Name : Central Recruitment Team
Email : [e-mail]

Further Information If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint in relation to any stage of the recruitment and selection process please email [e-mail]. please ensure that you refer to the campaign reference number. If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your complaint you have the right to contact the Civil Service Commission to pursue it further.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Recruitment Complaints We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA careers page for further information.