Principal Lawyer

Leicester City Council; Leicester Forest East; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexi-time

LGPS membership

Generous holiday entitlement

Hybrid working

Job summary

Leicester City Council is seeking two experienced lawyers to join the legal management team as Principal Lawyers for the Child Protection unit. You will lead and develop a growing team, provide senior legal advice, and work in partnership with Children’s Services to secure positive outcomes for vulnerable children.

The role involves strategic leadership, advocacy at senior meetings, policy and procedure development, and delivery of training.

Qualifications

• Significant post-qualification experience undertaking complex child protection cases.
• Experience supervising and mentoring other team members.
• Strong advocacy, negotiating and advisory skills.
• Excellent communication and organisational skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Child Protection legal team and provide supervision and high‑quality legal advice.
• Attend senior leadership meetings and contribute to strategy.
• Develop policies and procedures to shape service delivery.
• Undertake advocacy on behalf of the Council where required.
• Deliver training and professional development opportunities.

Skills

Child protection law

Leadership

Team supervision

Advocacy

Risk management

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for two experienced lawyers to join the legal management team of the Council as Principal Lawyers for the Child Protection legal team. Working within a friendly and supportive environment, you will lead a team that has benefited from continued investment and growth in recent years, helping to shape its future development whilst building upon the existing close partnership with the Children’s Services to secure positive outcomes for vulnerable children across Leicester.

You will manage, motivate and develop our growing team of specialist lawyers providing supervision, support and professional leadership whilst fostering a positive and collaborative team culture. As Principal Lawyer, you will manage the teams more complex cases, providing quality legal advice and support including undertaking advocacy on behalf of the council. Your role will be diverse and rewarding and will include regular attendance and advice at senior leadership meetings, the provision of training where required, responsibility for the development of policies and procedures and you will play a key role in shaping the future direction of the service.

What you will need

We are seeking a lawyer with significant post qualification experience of undertaking complex child protection cases alongside experience of providing supervision, mentoring and guidance to other team members. You will have strong advocacy, negotiating and advisory skills together with a good appreciation of risk management. You will be highly motivated with strong organisational skills and a pro‑active approach which will ensure that you are able to successfully prioritise work. Your excellent communication skills, both written and oral, will ensure that you are able to work with a wide range of people and represent the service in a professional and client focused manner.

What we can offer you

Leicester City Council is an exciting and innovative place to work. We offer a competitive salary and an excellent benefits package. This includes a flexi‑time scheme, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and a generous holiday entitlement. Foran illustrative value of your benefits package, take a look at our benefits calculator. We work hard to ensure that our people are well supported, both at a senior level and by your peers. We will also give you the chance to both use your professional skills and expertise and develop new ones with a variety of trainingand development opportunities. Hybrid working arrangements are available, mixing both home and office working, though time spent at the office with colleagues is encouraged.

We are committed to recruiting a diverse and highly talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. That’s why we have designed our recruitment process to put you at your ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you.We will do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible. To help you with your application,take a look at the ‘our approach to recruitment’ page.

If you are a Child Protection Solicitor looking for your next role and this sounds like your kind of place, then please get in touch. I look forward to working with you. We would consider candidates with relevant transferable skills and willingness to undertake advocacy.

If you would like an informal chat about this post, please contact Susan Holmes, Head of Law, Social Care & Safeguarding on 0116 454 1402 or email [e-mail]