Legal Assistant

Legal Assistant

CATHOLIC EDUCATION SERVICE

5 minutes walk from Victoria Station, London SW1

Circa £30,000 dependent on experience

Do you support the Church’s provision of high quality education for children across the country? Are you interested in supporting teachers, schools and colleges to achieve this mission? If so, we are seeking to appoint a Legal Assistant for the Catholic Education Service (CES).

The CES represents and promotes the national education policy of the Bishops in relation to the 2,300 Catholic schools, colleges and universities which the Church is responsible for across England and Wales.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated individual to provide support to the CES legal team.  The successful applicant will ideally have an interest in employment, education, equalities or land law and will be looking to develop their advisory skills in these areas.  They will be sympathetic to the teachings of the Catholic Church and supportive of Church schools.

This is a unique role that will allow the applicant to engage with high level policy, working with the Department for Education, Local Authorities, national Trade Unions and diocesan colleagues.  The work will provide a broad and varied experience of legal practice, and support and training will be provided.

The CES is a family friendly charity that encourages a good work life balance, with working outside of normal office hours a rarity. We offer a range of benefits including a matched pension scheme, generous holiday allowance and a TOIL policy.

Key Responsibilities:

• To assist in the provision of high-quality legal advice to the organisation, diocesan colleagues and others on matters relating to Catholic education, employment, equalities and land law, as directed by the Assistant Director (Legal) and supported by the CES Legal Adviser.
• To provide support for a telephone help-line on legal/statutory queries from our diocesan colleagues, schools and religious orders/trustees.
• To monitor and disseminate developments in education policy and draft legislation (UK, European and Canon Law), circulars and statutory instruments which could affect Catholic Schools or Colleges, or the Catholic position within lifelong learning.
• To monitor legal changes and produce summary documents to support the production of a monthly ‘legal updates’ newsletter for issue to dioceses.
• To prepare and edit correspondence, communications, presentations and other documents, file and retrieve documents and reference materials.