This is an exciting opportunity to join Barking and Dagenham Council, winner of the LGC awards for Council of the Year and Growth Council of the Year 2018, thanks to its impressive commercial growth and transformation plans. Barking and Dagenham is the capital’s next big growth opportunity, with plans to build 50,000 homes and create 10,000 jobs over the next 20 years.

The Council is now delivering its ambitious growth plans, through local authority trading companies, such as the flagship Be First and Reside which deliver regeneration, new housing, school improvements and infrastructure. Our regeneration and procurement teams are at the heart of supporting these ambitious plans. You will have the opportunity to be involved with high profile schemes town centre regeneration, major housing schemes and film studio/cultural hubs.

The Legal Practice has been a pioneering trading practice generating income since 2011 and plays an important role in the growth and transformation journey. We were a finalist in the Municipal Journal Awards 2017 and aim to build further on our successes. We are seeking a suitably qualified and experienced senior regeneration lawyer (a solicitor, barrister, or fellow of CILEx) to lead a team of regeneration / property lawyers within our busy, collegiate and well-regarded legal practice. The successful candidate will join an innovative and collaborative team of professionals working in a mixed economy service dedicated to making a positive contribution to our internal and external clients, and their ambitious corporate agendas.

You will be a credible professional with a proven track record in your specialist field of property and regeneration and demonstrable experience of advising on delivering complex regeneration and housing projects. Strong knowledge and experience of public law and local government governance is essential for this key role. You will be comfortable working at senior levels of local government, inspiring confidence with your strong judgement and clear guidance to ensure the Council makes sound decisions on complex development and investment projects.

You will manage a busy and complex workload providing high quality, client and focussed advice and solutions to a range of internal and external clients, including the Council’s trading companies, and other public bodies. You will have access to and advise senior officers of the Council, and our client organisations.

As a senior/team leader, reporting directly to Deputy Head of Legal Services, you will lead your team by example to deliver high quality advice on varied caseloads and play a key role in contributing to the achievements of the Legal Practice: -

• maintaining exemplary Lexcel standards and establishing best practice
• supporting the growth and business development activities, in order to generate new sources of income
• raising the profile of the Legal Practice

A collaborative and commercial approach is at the heart of our service. Therefore, the ability to work collaboratively and build positive working relationships with team members, peers and client officers at all levels is essential. Your influence will extend beyond the possibilities of a traditional in-house service and provide exposure to unparalleled opportunities to work with public sector and commercial clients.

You will be committed to working flexibly including outside normal office hours when the role necessitates this. In turn, we offer a supportive and collaborative environment, the opportunity to lead your own team, high calibre projects and competitive benefits including a generous holiday allowance, a local government pension and flexible working arrangements.

For an informal discussion of this role, please contact Suzan Yildiz, Deputy Head of Legal Services (Commercial), on 0208 227 5364