Legal Counsel - Disputes

UCL AI Centre; London; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

UCL is seeking a Legal Counsel to provide expert legal advice on a variety of disputes, including commercial and student issues. This fixed-term role is crucial for managing significant litigation, with a competitive salary and extensive benefits offered. Ideal candidates will have substantial legal experience and strong analytical skills.

Benefits

41 Days holiday

Defined benefit pension scheme

Cycle to work scheme

On-Site nursery

On-site gym

Employee assistance programme

Discounted medical insurance

Qualifications

• Significant experience at a high calibre law firm or equivalent in-house role.
• Experience in student disputes and Equality Act issues is desirable.
• Ability to react confidently to emerging issues.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for providing legal advice on non-employment related disputes.
• Manage institutionally significant litigation and usual disputes.
• Handle a varied caseload including commercial and regulatory disputes.

Skills

Knowledge of civil procedure

Disputes strategy

Analytical skills

Sound judgement

Education

Post-qualification experience in law

Job description

Ref Number B27-00103 Professional Expertise Legal, Governance and Secretariat Department Office of General Counsel (B27) Location London Working Pattern Full time Salary See advert text Contract Type Fixed-term Working Type Hybrid Available for Secondment No Closing Date 03-Aug-2025

About Us

UCL’s Legal Services Department, which is part of the Office of the General Counsel, is responsible for providing advice on a wide range of legal matters relating to UCL.

The Legal Services Department is headed by Alex Hall, Director of Legal Services, who reports to Natasha Lewis, General Counsel. This role will report into the Senior Legal Counsel with responsibility for disputes related matters.

About The Role

In the job of Legal Counsel, you will play an important role in ensuring an effective and highly respected service.

The job will be responsible for providing legal advice in relation to the wide range of non-employment related dispute matters arising at UCL. The Legal Counsel will play an important part in managing institutionally significant litigation, as well as business as usual disputes. The caseload is very varied and will include commercial disputes, student disputes, Equality Act issues, construction related disputes, regulatory and health & safety issues, and everything in between.

A Full Job Description Is Attached To This Advert.

This is a Grade 10 role and will pay between £75,000 and £85,000. There may be a little more for an exceptional candidate.

This is a fixed term role for a period of 18 months.

About You

To do this job you will need to have significant post–qualification experience at a high calibre law firm, or equivalent in-house role. You’ll have experience dealing with dispute matters on a self-standing basis, a willingness to take on new tasks in unfamiliar areas, and to react confidently and quickly to emerging issues.

You will also need very good knowledge of civil procedure and disputes strategy, and demonstrate strong experience in disputes across a range of areas. Experience in student disputes and Equality Act issues is desirable, as is experience in Health & Safety and construction related disputes.

You will have up to date technical knowledge, excellent analytical skills, sound judgement, and demonstrable experience operating and influencing at management level.

Appreciation of the dynamics of higher education and an empathy with academic endeavour, without necessarily having worked in the HE sector, is desirable.

Please carefully review the job description, paying particular attention to the essential and desirable criteria, and ensure these are covered in your application.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Immigration loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance
  
  

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

Available documents

Attached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.

• download: Legal Counsel - Disputes.docx