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Grade 7 Employment Lawyers

Employer
The Government Legal Department (GLD)
Location
London, Bristol or Leeds
Salary
£50,500 - £61,000 (London) Or £48,985 - £58,000 (National)
Closing date
9 Dec 2021

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Practice area
Employment
Contract type
Permanent
Hours
Full time
PQE
1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 6 years, 7 years+
Position
Solicitor
Sector
Public sector/Charities

Job Details

Grade 7 Employment Lawyers
Government Legal Department
Salary: £50,500 - £61,000 (London) Or £48,985 - £58,000 (National)
Location: London, Bristol or Leeds

Use your talent to shape the UK’s future

Who we are

The Government Legal Department (GLD) is the largest provider of legal services across government. We work with all the main Whitehall Departments and our work touches on nearly all aspects of public life, from roads and rivers to health and human rights.

The department has more than 14 client-facing advisory teams who provide legal advice on the development, design and implementation of government policies and decisions, draft secondary legislation, and work with Parliamentary Counsel on primary legislation.  Our expert service groups for Litigation, Employment and Commercial Law provide specialist legal services to a wide range of government departments and public bodies.

GLD’s Employment Group provides employment litigation and advisory services to central government, with a client base of over 55 government departments and other public bodies.

We’re recruiting up to 12 Employment Lawyers where you’ll have the opportunity to work on high-profile litigation, to advise at the heart of government on effective employment practice and to join a Division which has a supportive and collaborative culture, putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of all it does.

The role

GLD’s Employment Group is one of the largest employment law teams in the UK, comprising over 170 lawyers and administrators, currently divided between 8 teams. The teams’ work falls into the following main areas:

  • HR advice and litigation including on individual cases, on collective and strategic HR issues such as departmental restructuring and on major departmental policy issues such as departmental and agency reforms
  • Conduct of large scale multi-party litigation including that involving pensions and equal pay.4
  • Advice to Cabinet Office and HM Treasury on overarching Civil Service employment issues.
  • Transactional employment work (insourcing and outsourcing contracts involving staff transfers)

The majority of our litigation work is in the Employment Tribunal although we also handle appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and relevant claims in the High Court.

The Employment Group is often involved in the leading employment law cases of the day.

Recent examples in the Supreme Court include ‘Gilham v Ministry of Justice’ on whistleblowing protections and O’Brien v Ministry of Justice on part time workers discrimination and in the Court of Appeal McCloud v Ministry of Justice on age discrimination, McNeil v HMRC on equal pay and Heskett v Secretary of State for Justice on indirect discrimination.

Our people are supported by excellent knowledge management, a rich training programme and a supportive culture of leadership and management at all levels of the organisation.

About you

A qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive with license to practice in England and Wales, you’ll have a sound understanding of public law, reliable legal judgement and a sound appreciation of legal risk. You will be able to think strategically and creatively, see legal issues in their wider context and produce timely and fit for purpose advice. As a strong communicator, you’ll be able to make effective decisions, manage conflicting pressures and work to challenging deadlines. Ideally you will have experience of working on an Inquiry or similar inquisitorial process, though this is not essential for the role provided you have a good understanding of the role of lawyers in government.

This role requires candidates to obtain an SC clearance before joining. You must have lived in the UK continuously for the last 5 years in order to clear the SC level checks, therefore, applications from candidates who haven’t lived in the UK continuously for that period will not be considered.

For more information or to apply, click the 'APPLY' button.

Company

The Government Legal Department (GLD) is the largest provider of legal services across government, working with all the main Whitehall Departments.   From roads to rivers, and health to human rights, our work touches on most aspects of public life.

The department has more than 14 client-facing advisory teams who provide legal advice on the development, design and implementation of government policies and decisions, draft secondary legislation and work with Parliamentary Counsel on primary legislation.  Our cross-cutting expert service groups for Litigation, Employment and Commercial Law provide specialist legal services to a wide range of government departments and public bodies.

We are a non-ministerial government department with more than 2,300 employees, around 1,800 of whom are solicitors or barristers. The department is based primarily in London but has teams in Bristol, Manchester, and Leeds. 

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