Have you got what it takes to drive and support change across two ambitious, innovative and transforming Councils?

The Southampton and Fareham Legal Services Partnership is an outcome focused service recognised for its dedication to improving the communities in which we live and work and delivering professional excellence. Winner of the Lawyers in Local Government Awards ‘Project Team of the Year’ in 2017, winner of Legal Team of the Year in 2018 and a finalist for Legal Team of the Year in 2020, we are growing and currently have exciting opportunities for lawyers within our Place (Planning and Highways), Litigation, Adults & Housing and Child Protection teams.

Two lawyers specialising in child protection law are required to join our Child Protection Team. We want you to join our dynamic and growing team dealing with high profile and challenging cases, covering all aspects of public family proceedings, supporting the Council's priority of ensuring children & young people get a good start in life and safeguarding families within our local community.

A new lawyer is required to join the Place: Planning and Highways team. The team covers all aspects of planning, highways, transport, regeneration, environmental, CPO, rights of way and commons law. Your role will focus on development management in planning but you will be expected to work across all areas of the team and on wider council projects. Applications from legal executives or NQ solicitors with experience in planning law will be considered.

A further lawyer is required to join our Litigation Team. The role covers wide ranging litigation both criminal prosecution work and civil disputes. This includes prosecutions for environmental health, trading standards and licensing. Civil disputes include contractual disputes and employment issues. The role also provides advice to the licensing committees of both councils.   

Required: Experienced Cilex with substantial subject area experience, Practicing Solicitor or Barrister with strong advocacy, negotiating and advisory skills and competence with IT and case management systems. You will need an enabling, positive approach to finding solutions to complex problems and have good appreciation of risk management / the ability to work flexibly across a multi skilled team. Please note that depending on your level of expertise, you will appointed to either Grade 10 (starting salary £38,813) or Grade 11 (starting salary £43,662).

In addition to the Lawyer posts we also have an opportunity for a Legal Assistant in our Adults & Housing Team, supporting the work of the Lawyers in public and private sectors housing, trespass, anti-social behaviour, court of protection and adult social care work. The starting salary for the Legal Assistant position is £24,799.

If you feel you have the necessary background, experience and skills to undertake this any of these roles we would like to hear from you. 

For further information about any of these roles please view the relevant job descriptions on our website. 

For all recruitment queries please our Recruitment Team: recruitment@southampton.gov.uk

Additional information:

• The child protection posts require an Enhanced DBS check.
• For any posts that require a DBS check, if you have lived outside the UK within the last 5 years, you will be required to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct or a police certificate from the country/countries you have resided in. Kindly note that this is at the expense of the candidate, as well as any costs involved for translating into English
• Please note the salary quoted is based on full time hours (37 hours).  
• It is usual for successful candidates to start at the bottom of the pay grade.

The supporting statement section of the application form must be completed unless there are specific criteria questions for you to evidence against. Applications are shortlisted against the essential and desirable criteria found within the job description for the post. Please refer to the job description when completing your application form and evidence how you meet the required criteria/questions. A CV on its own will not be considered.

Unfortunately we are not able to accept applications that are made through a third party agency. We cannot guarantee that any correspondence sent from third party agencies will be responded to. To ensure your application is received please apply online at www.southampton.gov.uk/jobs 

For more details and to apply for these positions please visit our website by clicking ‘Apply for this job’.

We are proud to be #DisabilityConfident and support fair recruitment practices. Find out how you can get involved at gov.uk/disability-confident