Legal Advisor

The Independent Football Regulator; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension 12% - employer 7% + employee 5

Flexible Benefits 8%

Performance-based rewards

31.5 days annual leave

Hybrid working - 40% in-office

Cycle-to-work scheme

Job summary

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) is seeking a Legal Advisor to join its legal team in a permanent role based in London or Manchester. The role focuses on advising on statutory regulatory regimes and insolvency law, with opportunities to influence regulatory strategy and enforcement actions.

We welcome lawyers with substantial post-qualification experience in either regulatory regimes or insolvency matters.

Qualifications

• Extensive post-qualification experience advising on regulatory regimes for UK regulators or public bodies.
• Experience in either financial sectors or other regulated sectors.
• Significant post qualification experience advising on both contentious and non-contentious English law insolvency matters.
• Strong knowledge of corporate and personal insolvency, including corporate restructuring.
• Ability to work effectively in a wider team and build trusted relationships with colleagues, clients and others.
• Track record of quickly learning new legal areas and providing practical corporate advice in high-profile situations.
• Ability to manage legal risk and provide leadership to ensure quality outcomes.
• Creative thinking and sound judgement to deliver credible legal advice at pace.

Responsibilities

• Provide regulatory and insolvency legal advice to IFR and its teams.
• Support regulatory investigations, enforcement, litigation and appeals as needed.
• Assist with corporate governance and decision-making obligations within a public body.

Skills

Regulatory experience

Insolvency knowledge

Team collaboration

Legal drafting

Risk management

Education

Qualified lawyer

Job description

Legal Advisor

Closing Date: 27/11/2026, 23:55

Location: London, Manchester

Business Unit(s): Legal

Position Type: Permanent

Salary: £64,700 to £77,480 per annum

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been established to protect and promote the sustainability of English football, for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

The IFR will help improve financial sustainability of clubs, ensure resilience across the leagues, and safeguard the heritage of English football. It will operate a licensing regime; set corporate governance standards and monitor, protect, and promote financial resilience. It will also enforce compliance with requirements on financial regulation, club ownership and directors, fan engagement, and heritage protection.

The IFR will also have powers to prohibit clubs from joining competitions that are not fair or meritocratic, or that threaten the heritage or sustainability of English football.

The IFR's legal team

The IFR's legal team plays a core role in advising and supporting all areas of our functions.

This work will include advising, amongst other issues, on the IFR's powers and obligations, current and future consultation exercises, the legal risks attaching to different regulatory strategies and approaches, regulatory investigations and enforcement, litigation and appeals, the IFR's decision-making obligations, corporate governance and wider public law issues.

The Role

The IFR is looking to add one to two additional Lawyers with significant post-qualification experience of advising on statutory regulatory regimes and/or insolvency law.

For the avoidance of doubt, candidates do not need to demonstrate experience in both the above areas. We welcome applicants from Lawyers with relevant expertise in either area.

The team currently comprises nine Lawyers with a range of public, regulatory, commercial and litigation skills / backgrounds.

The role will be based in either our Manchester or London office, depending on the preferred candidate.

Essential Requirements

• Significant post qualification experience advising on the application of regulatory regimes of UK regulators or public bodies, either in financial sectors (preferable) or other regulated sectors.
• This experience can be demonstrated either by experience working for a regulator or experience gained advising regulated entities.
• Significant post qualification experience advising on both contentious and non-contentious English law insolvency matters.
• Strong technical knowledge across corporate and personal insolvency, including corporate restructuring.
• The ability to work effectively in a wider team and build trusted relationships with colleagues, clients and others.
• Have a track record of picking up new and complex areas of legal work quickly and providing context-appropriate corporate advice in high-profile and fast-moving situations.
• The ability to effectively managing legal risk, providing sound legal direction, leadership and oversight to ensure quality outcomes.
• Creative thinking and excellent judgement to deliver authoritative and credible legal advice, at pace, to facilitate practical solutions.

Desirable Skills

• For statutory regulatory regime candidates, experience of advising on licensing regimes.
• For insolvency law candidates, experience of advising on public law.
• For both types of candidates, working knowledge of data protection law and/or the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Terms and Conditions of Employment

If successful, you will join a Non-Departmental Public Body and will be employed as a Public Servant.

If you are an existing Civil Servant or a DCMS employee, you will no longer have access to Civil Service benefits including the Civil Service pension.

• Pension 12% - An employee contribution of 5%, with an employer contribution of 7%.
• Flexible Benefit 8% - Employees can choose to invest 8% of their base salary into their pension or take as cash (post tax).
• Reward - We will have a performance-based reward programme.
• 31.5 days annual leave.
• Flexible and hybrid working - 40% in office attendance.
• Occupational sick pay.
• 9 months paid Maternity Leave and generous paternity and adoption leave.
• A bespoke L&D programme to help you achieve your personal CPD, including paid membership fees.
• Cycle-to-work scheme and much more!