Senior Lawyer – Highways & Planning

Staffordshire County Council; Stafford; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in the United Kingdom seeks a qualified Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor, or Barrister for a legal role focused on Highway and Planning matters. Responsibilities include advising on planning applications, negotiating agreements, and managing client files. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of public sector law, excellent communication skills, and attention to detail. This role offers a supportive work environment with flexible working options.

Benefits

Generous holiday entitlement

Flexible working opportunities

Local government pension scheme

Employee discounts

Qualifications

• A comprehensive understanding of Highway and Planning law.
• An in-depth understanding of work within the public sector.
• Meticulous attention to detail required.
• Ability to work under competing pressures.

Responsibilities

• Advise on County Planning matters.
• Negotiate complex planning obligations.
• Manage client files per Lexcel requirements.

Skills

Understanding of Highway and Planning law

Effective communication

Attention to detail

Time management

Delegation skills

Education

Qualified Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor or Barrister

Job description

Staffordshire County Council is a modern, progressive, and forward-thinking authority that is ambitious and empowers its employees to be courageous and innovative in their approach.

Staffordshire Legal Services is a large in-house corporate legal team, offering a significant breadth of experience and expertise. We support and retain our lawyers, trainees and support staff by offering a wide variety of work, an extensive benefits package and offering training and mentoring to aide progression. We want everyone to enjoy their work, feel challenged and appreciated for what they do, and positively contribute to making a difference to the lives of the people of Staffordshire. People are often unaware that Legal Services support the Council to fulfil every function when delivering its agenda and priorities, in addition to the Staffordshire pension fund, and a wide range of external clients. This keeps the work interesting, challenging and often high value and high profile.

We genuinely recognise the benefit of achieving the right work life balance and our extensive package of benefits support this. Lots of organisations offer this however our staff survey reliably informs us that our work ethos truly delivers this. Our package includes a generous holiday entitlement, increasing significantly with service, and an additional annual leave purchase scheme. Flexible and term time only working, agile working, employee travel and entertainment discounts, a local government pension scheme, optional car lease scheme and a staff parking discount scheme. We also offer family friendly polices such as maternity, adoption, paternity, and parental leave.

Main Responsibilities

These will include delivering support in relation to Highway and Planning matters, as follows:

• Advising on County Planning matters including applications received and work generated and planning enforcement.
• Negotiating complex planning obligations on behalf of highway and education clients.
• Negotiating highway agreements on behalf of highway clients.
• Giving advice in relation to a full range of often complex Local Authority statutory Highway and Planning functions
• Managing client files in accordance with Lexcel requirements and supervising other members of the team.

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for you to be a qualified Chartered Legal Executive (with practice/advocacy rights), Solicitor or Barrister with:

• A comprehensive understanding of Highway and Planning law
• An in-depth understanding of the work carried out within the public sector, although previous local government experience is not essential.
• An ability to clearly, confidently and effectively communicate.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Effective time management, prioritisation skills and an ability to work under the demands of competing pressures.
• An ability to delegate work in order to generate capacity.

We're happy to talk flexible working.

If you are unsure if your skills and experience are suitable for this role, or for an informal chat, please contact Imran Razaq, Deputy Legal Services Manager at [e-mail] or John Rowe, Principal Lawyer at [e-mail]

Interviews will take place during week commencing 9 February 2026.

Our Recruitment Process

We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you'll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our Values

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our Benefits

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our Recruitment Process

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a GoldAward Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.