Asylum Support Appeals Project (London) - Duty Scheme Legal Officer (maternity cover)

Asylum Support Appeals Project (London) - Duty Scheme Legal Officer (maternity cover)

Post: Duty Scheme Legal Officer (maternity cover)

Responsible To: Acting Duty Scheme Co-ordinator (maternity cover)

Salary and benefits: £39,731 p.a. starting salary (including £4319 inner London weighting) plus 6% employer pension contribution, season ticket loan

Location: Hybrid working -2 days p/w in ASAP office, East London

Status: Fixed term contract (maternity cover) for approx 9 months, ideally starting in Jan 26. We will consider secondments.

Hours: 35 hours per week (excluding lunch break) Leave: 30 days per annum plus bank holidays

This is a fixed term maternity cover role (anticipating approx. 9 months) supporting ASAP's duty representation scheme at the Asylum Support Tribunal (AST) - one of our three key strands of work.

Working within our duty scheme team, you will assist our Acting Duty Scheme Co ordinator and Duty Scheme Support Officer with key operational tasks, ensuring that the scheme is offering a quality service to appellants and referrers and that our duty scheme advocates (volunteer solicitors and barristers) are supported to provide high quality legal representation and advice.

After induction and training, you will give one off guidance and support to people within the asylum support system who self refer to ASAP, and to referring advice agencies, about the asylum support appeals process. You will also assist with decisions about which cases we represent. As with all team members, you will feed into our wider work on training, asylum support policy and strategic litigation - primarily by ensuring that colleagues are kept up to date with issues arising out of appeals at the Tribunal.

We're looking for someone passionate about helping people seeking asylum in the UK access justice. You should be well organised, a good team player, and have a solid understanding of the asylum support system-ideally from directly advising people who use it. In this role, you'll develop your legal knowledge and skills by: observing hearings, reading appeal documents and legal decisions, attending training sessions and team meetings.

You'll be joining a small, friendly, and supportive team that works closely together.

Closing date for applications by: Sunday 23 Nov at 11.59pm

Face to face interviews will be held in London on Weds 3rd Dec