Principal Lawyer - CLU

Herts Legal Service - Hertfordshire County Council; Stevenage; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 71,000; Full time

Job summary

Hertfordshire County Council in Stevenage invites applications for a Principal Lawyer - Childcare Litigation. You will jointly lead the Child Litigation Unit, guiding a team of lawyers and paralegals while ensuring high-quality service to Children’s Services.

The role combines client-facing responsibilities with budget monitoring, capacity planning and occasional caseload. You will liaise with external partners to shape efficient legal service delivery.

Qualifications

• Significant experience handling a diverse range of child litigation matters.
• Experience in managing a team of lawyers and support staff.
• Proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships with clients and stakeholders.
• Exceptional time management and workload prioritisation skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Child Litigation Unit alongside two other Principal Lawyers.
• Manage budget monitoring, capacity planning and service resourcing for the team.
• Maintain a reduced but active caseload of child litigation matters where appropriate.
• Engage with external partners (private practice, CAFCASS, Judiciary) to improve service delivery.

Skills

Experience in child litigation

Team management

Client relationship mgmt

Time management

Job description

Job Introduction

Job Title: Principal Lawyer - Childcare Litigation

Starting Salary: £63,471 plus £7,333 market enhancement progressing to £71,045 plus £6,666 market enhancement per annum

Hours: 14.5 per week with feasibility to offer up 18.5 per week

Location: Stevenage with hybrid working opportunities

Contract Type: Permanent

Directorate: Resources

About The Team

The Childcare Litigation team deals with all child protection and adoption litigation on behalf of the Local Authority, as well as supporting the client department with conduct of pre-proceedings PLO matters and ad-hoc advice on any matters relating to children.

About The Role

Jointly leading the Child Litigation Unit with two other Principal Lawyers, you will have responsibility for management of a team of lawyers and paralegals/ trainees.

This role is instrumental to ensuring that the service provided to Children’s Services is of a consistently high quality, and you will be client facing and regularly meet with key clients and external partners to discuss service delivery. You will supervise and where necessary develop the team to provide this service.

Sitting on the Legal Services Management team you will with the support of the Director and Assistant Chief Legal Officer for Litigation, be responsible for budget monitoring, capacity and resourcing within the team. Alongside these management responsibilities you will also hold or oversee a reduced but active case load of child litigation matters.

There is an opportunity to shape the way legal services are delivered and liaise with colleagues in private practice, CAFCASS, the Judiciary and other external partners to ensure efficiency.

About You

Essential

• Significant experience in holding a diverse range of child litigation matters
• Experience in managing a team
• Demonstrable ability to build and maintain strong relationships with clients and stakeholders
• Exceptional time management skills, demonstrating the ability to prioritise and organise workload

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 14. Please locate the job profile here:

Job profiles - Corporate services

Interview Date: to be confirmed

Additional Information

We are changing

Hertfordshire County Council is undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) principles.

LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/

Disability Confident

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

English Fluency

The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.