Solicitor - Employment Law

Leicestershire County Council; Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 39,000 - 54,000; Part time

Job summary

A local government authority in Leicester seeks an Employment Solicitor to handle various employment law matters, including contractual disputes and discrimination claims. The ideal candidate will possess excellent communication skills and a strong understanding of employment law. This part-time role offers a hybrid working arrangement, promoting work-life balance. Competitive salary and flexibility options are available.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Support for equality and diversity

Qualifications

• Competent in handling complex employment law matters in a public sector environment.
• Up-to-date knowledge of employment law including unfair dismissal and redundancy.
• Ability to work accurately under pressure with minimal supervision.

Responsibilities

• Provide timely and accurate legal advice to council officers and partner organisations.
• Deal with a range of employment matters including disputes and legal documents preparation.
• Represent the Council at internal hearings and external tribunals.

Skills

Handling employment law matters

Excellent written and oral communication

Drafting and negotiation

Organisational skills

Building professional relationships

Education

Solicitor/barrister or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives

Job description

Overview

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicestershire

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £39,939 - £53,826 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 30 Hours Per Week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 12th October 2025

Interview Date(s): TBC

You will become a part-time employment solicitor dealing with a broad range of contentious and non-contentious work on behalf of the County Council and organisations with which it can trade.

You will be expected to provide timely, accurate legal advice to council officers, including qualified HR practitioners, elected members, and partner organisations including academies and schools as appropriate.

The post involves dealing with a range of employment matters including contractual disputes, discrimination claims, wrongful termination allegations, wage disputes, severance agreements, and capability and disciplinary issues. It routinely involves representing the Council at internal hearings as well as external tribunals.

In addition to contentious work, you are required to provide general employment advice and support to client departments as well as assisting with the preparation of documents such as employment contracts (variations thereof), settlement agreements and policy documents.

About the Role

The provision of legal services in relation to employment matters including advocacy where relevant to all County Council departments, together with any organisation or party with whom the Council has a contract to provide legal services.

About You

To apply for this post, you must:

• Admitted as a solicitor/ barrister or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
• Be commercially focused and be competent in handling a wide range of often complex employment law matters that face a large public sector employer. Have excellent written and oral skills. Competent with drafting and negotiation.
• Have up to date knowledge of employment law to manage a caseload of matters relating to employment law, including unfair dismissal, redundancy, discrimination, TUPE, and contractual matters generally. Undertaking some advocacy in employment tribunals, demonstrating evidence of providing quality legal advice and assistance.
• Be aware Information law (e.g. Data Protection issues). Familiar with legal based IT applications. Be reliable and take responsibility for organising own work to achieve objectives in order of priority and to deadlines.
• Be reliable and take responsibility for organising own work to achieve objectives in order of priority and to deadlines. Being able to work accurately under pressure with minimum supervision.
• Rapidly establish good working relationships of trust and confidence with professional clients by providing customer focused solutions. Be able to operate effectively individually and as part of a team.
• Have a current driving licence and access to a vehicle.

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Flexible Working

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual’s personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

Contact

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Oonagh O'Neill

Telephone: [phone]

Email: oonagh.o'[e-mail]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. A diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the "About You" section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the "About You" section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.