Principal Lawyer - Criminal Litigation and Licensing

Principal Lawyer - Criminal Litigation and Licensing

Permanent

Grade 6 - £50,788 - £62,801

Consultation grade - subject to formal evaluation under the Pay Equity Review

Working 36.5 hours per week

A brilliant opportunity to join a dynamic, progressive legal service where you will be given the opportunity to work on some incredible projects and cases, while learning and developing as a leading local government lawyer.

Birmingham City Council's legal service is unique and one of the largest in-house local authority legal teams. The City Council is on its journey of resetting, reshaping and restarting and everyone within legal services is essential to the Council's success and achieving beneficial outcomes for our citizens. You could be part of this.

Legal Services covers all areas of work that the Council undertakes, from employment to property, from social care to contracts. The variety of work that our team undertakes is wide and at the highest level. The work is challenging and rewarding in equal measure. Based in Victoria Square in the City Centre, you will have excellent transport links, access to Courts and tribunals, partner organisations and all the benefits that working in the wonderful City of Birmingham brings.

Birmingham City Council is committed to achieving excellence, putting our citizens first, acting courageously and being true to our word. If this resonates with you, then we want to hear from you.

We have one Principal Lawyer vacancy in our Criminal Litigation and Licensing team.

As a Principal Lawyer within the Criminal Litigation and Licensing team, you will possess exceptional leadership and legal expertise. You will lead on a variety of regulatory prosecutions, including complex multi-Defendant trading standards and environmental health cases. You will be an experienced and confident criminal advocate with an in-depth knowledge of criminal practice and procedure. You will deputise for the Head of Law and will lead on the management of Lawyers and Paralegals in the Team, offering guidance and support to all Team members and ensuring the development of the team.

Please feel free to attend the webinar on the 12th August to hear more about the role, legal and what we do: Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Key responsibilities:

• Acting as a lead legal advisor to ensure compliance with statutory duties and obligations, to protect the best interests of the Council
• Providing high quality, innovative, well researched and comprehensive specialist legal advice
• Managing a complex caseload and delivering advice within the timescales required
• Supervising and managing the work of the team to ensure that the team provides professional guidance and expertise. Ensuring work is allocated appropriately within the team
• Attending courts, tribunals, public inquiries or other meetings, undertaking advocacy where required. Representing clients in negotiations and discussions and to also to instruct and manage suppliers of external legal services
• Developing, with the Head of Law, a clear sense of direction and motivation within the team through team meetings and supervision meetings

You will need to possess a current practising certificate as a Solicitor/Chartered Legal Executive or be a member of the Bar who has completed pupillage/registered Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.

Benefits of working at Birmingham City Council

• 30 days annual leave -Increases to 33 days after 5 years and 35 days after 10 years, plus option to purchase additional leave
• Access to voluntary benefits providers that support health, wellbeing and making the most of your leisure time
• Family friendly policies e.g., maternity/adoption, paternity, shared parental leave, carers' leave
• Health and wellbeing support networkse.g., independent, and confidential employee assistance and counselling, occupational health, etc.
• Employee communities and support groupsincluding Corporate Black Workers Support Group, Disability and LGBT+ Networks, Menopause Support Forum, etc.
• We are a disability confident employer
• Membership of job-related pension scheme, West Midlands Pension Fund or Teachers' Pensions, with generous employer contributions
• Access to 'My Rewards' - over 800 individual brands providing discounts and savingsincluding high street stores, supermarkets, utility, and insurance providers, as well as great days out to name but a few!
• Opportunities to join great salary sacrifice schemese.g., Cycle to Work, Annual Travel and Car Parking, as well as making the most of Tax and National Insurance savings (additional schemes to launch soon)

Please upload an up-to-date CV and Personal Statement via the attachments part of your application. The Personal Statement should outline how you meet the essential criteria for the role through your personal qualities, skills and experience and include your motivation for applying to the post. Note the Personal Statement should be no more than 1500 words. Unfortunately, we cannot consider any applications without a CV and Personal Statement attached

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, andwe arecommitted to employing, retaining and developing all of our people.

We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.

We are dedicated to supporting internal mobility and the development of our people. As such, applications from internal employees and those under S118 will be given priority and reviewed before external applications are considered.

For any informal enquires please contact:Julia Lynch () or Deborah Carter-Hughes ()

We welcome applications from people with caring responsibilities and flexible working options will be considered.

Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements , before any employment offer can be confirmed.

Job Description and PersonSpecification

We strive to advertise all roles for a minimum of two weeks. However, due to high application volumes vacancies may close earlier than the stated deadline. We encourage you to submit your application without delay to ensure consideration.