Legal Advisor

Division Overview

The CCPC's Legal Services provide a centralised support function to the organisation. It comprises an in-house team of talented and motivated solicitors and barristers who have joined the organisation from a diverse range of backgrounds. Legal Services works on a collaborative basis providing support to the Commission Members, the Directors and the Divisions.Successful candidates will have the opportunity to be directly involved in a range of the organisation's high-profile and interesting work, as well as help shape and develop the legal team.

The Role

The CCPC is seeking to recruit a Legal Advisor, at Higher Executive Officer (HEO) grade to work in the Consumer & Product Safety legal team.

The Legal Advisor will be primarily focused on providing legal advice to the Commission and its various Divisions on administrative, civil and criminal enforcement of consumer and product safety law (a separate legal team is responsible for competition law matters).It is envisaged that the successful candidate will take an active role in all legal aspects of the CCPC's consumer law functions.This is an exciting opportunity for a lawyer to be at the forefront of the consumer regulatory landscape in Ireland and to make a significant contribution to the delivery of legal services in a dynamic organisation with a wide range of enforcement and regulatory powers.

The Legal Advisor will also have opportunities to gain experience of other areas of law which impact the CCPC, including legislative development, EU Law, public procurement, AI, data protection and Freedom of Information law. This position offers a fulfilling and responsible role in a busy and challenging environment dealing with interesting and varied legal issues.We strongly promote and support the personal development of every one of our lawyers and on the job training and education are provided to help you grow your expertise and skills.

The Successful Candidate

As a member of the legal team, the successful candidate will help to ensure that the CCPC receives high quality, user-friendly and practical legal advice and be passionate about achieving effective outcomes for consumers and businesses.This entails working with specialist colleagues to be inventive and forward thinking in how we can best use our regulatory tools to meet our ambitions in our Strategy Statement . The successful candidate will be fully supported by the experienced legal team around them and will have their own workload, working collaboratively with colleagues.As a legal team we work collectively learning and sharing with each other so that as a team we can provide the best legal service to the CCPC.

In addition to the immediate appointment from this campaign, an order of merit may be established. This may be used to fill any future vacancies at the same level within this or other Divisions of the CCPC where roles have similar responsibilities and/or similar skills are required.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide high quality, clear and timely legal advice on all aspects of the CCPC's consumer law functions including policy, investigations and enforcement action.
• Support the management of civil, administrative and criminal legal proceedings concerning the CCPC's consumer law and product safety functions.
• Provide proactive legal advice and support to the CCPC's enforcement case teams and build and develop relationships within CCPC to further embed cross-divisional working.
• Liaise and maintain effective and professional working relationships with external parties, including external legal counsel, government officials, other enforcement agencies and the European Commission.
• Represent the CCPC at both national and international level at meetings and conferences e.g. the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN).
• Assist in making proposals or recommendations to Government Ministers regarding legislative changes which will promote consumer protection.

Essential

• Candidates must have been called to the Bar in the State and entered on the Roll of Practising Barristers maintained by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) or have been admitted and are currently enrolled as a solicitor in the State.
• Excellent legal skills and the ability to learn new areas of law quickly.
• Practical and delivery focused approach.
• Positive communicator who can work with colleagues and partners from varied backgrounds and levels of seniority.
• Readily give and respond positively to constructive feedback.
• Organisational and administrative skills.
• Oral and written fluency in the English language.

Desirable

• Knowledge of Irish civil and criminal court practice and procedure.
• Experience in litigation, criminal prosecutions or applying public law principles.
• Experience of advising in a regulated or regulatory environment.