Employment Lawyer

Job summary

This is a new standalone role to provide expert legal advice and support on all employment law matters within the organisation, advising on compliance with UK employment law and mitigating associated legal risks across the business. This role will primarily be working with the Human Resources Division. The postholder will also develop and maintain strong working relationships with Government Legal Department (GLD).

Job description

Legal Advice & Compliance

• Advise HR and leadership teams on employment law issues including contracts, policies, disciplinary actions, grievances, redundancies, and restructures.
• Advise on compliance with evolving UK employment legislation and workplace regulations.
• Monitor and interpret regulatory changes and communicate implications to stakeholders.

Contracts & Documentation

• Drafting, reviewing, and updating employment contracts and reviewing, and providing legal input to, template letters, staff handbooks, and any related documentation.
• Negotiate and prepare settlement agreements and severance packages.

Transactions and Dispute Resolution

• Advise on transactional work in connection with employment aspects of the Department.
• Manage Employment Tribunal claims and other employment-related disputes.
• Liaise with external counsel and oversee litigation strategy when necessary.

Strategic Support

• Provide employment law input on mergers, acquisitions, and organisational changes.
• Identify potential legal risks in workforce decisions and propose mitigation strategies.

Training & Development

• Coordinate, arrange and deliver training sessions to HR and management, translating employment law into practical day-to-day application.
• Support internal investigations and compliance initiatives.

Other

From time to time, the post holder may be required to advise generally on the wider activities of the organisation which may cover:

• public law matters;
• public procurement law matters;
• international agreements governing the provision of export credits and public international law matters;
• information law, including the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations requests and the UK GDPR

This list is not exhaustive, and you may be required to carry out additional duties according to business needs.

Person specification

Essential

Qualifications

• Qualified to practice law in England & Wales as a solicitor or barrister (A)
• A 2.1 degree in law or other subject (A)
• Must hold LPC, BVC or equivalent (A)

Knowledge

• Working knowledge of public law and the workings of Government (A,I,P)

Skills/Ability

• Effective drafting, negotiation, and communication skills (A,I,P)
• Ability to provide pragmatic, business-oriented legal advice (A,I,P)
• Sound powers of legal analysis and research, coupled with strong judgement and decision making (A,I,P)
• Evidence of strong interpersonal skills, combined with an ability to manage and prioritise workloads (A,I)
• Commercial awareness and ability to balance legal risk with business objectives (A,I,P)

Experience

• Significant post qualifying experience with a solid focus on employment law (contentious and non-contentious) in a reputable law firm and/or in-house team (A,I,P)

Qualifications

• o Qualified to practice law in England & Wales as a solicitor or barrister (A)
• o A 2.1 degree in law or other subject (A)
• o Must hold LPC, BVC or equivalent (A)
• Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Questions - this will be questions to assess your suitability for the role in relation to the requirements of the role.
• Presentation - this will be a topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates in advance of their interview.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £87,204, UK Export Finance contributes

£25,262 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

We are assessing candidates using Success Profiles (see Appendix 1) and across the whole process we will assess your Experience, Technical and Behaviours as highlighted below.

The application must be completed by 23.55 on the day of the closing date for it to be accepted.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Please ensure that you read through the Candidate Information Pack attached to this advert, before applying.

All applications will be sifted against our essential criteria outlined in the personal specification.

• Qualifications: • Qualified to practice law in England & Wales as a solicitor or barrister (A)
• CV

For the initial sift your application will be evaluated against:

• Experience - CV

If you are successful following the sift stage, you will be invited to an initial technical interview, to be held via MS Teams ; this will include the following assessment:

• Technical - you will be assessed across your technical expertise and acumen, in relation to the essential criteria • Questions - this will be questions to assess your suitability for the role in relation to the requirements of the role.

If you are successful following the initial technical interview, you will be invited to a panel interview, to be held onsite at 1 Horse Guards Road ; this will include the following assessment:

• Behaviours/Experience - a formal panel interview where you will be interviewed across all five behaviours highlighted in Appendix 1 .
• Technical - you will be assessed across your technical expertise and acumen, in relation to the essential criteria • Presentation - this will be a topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates in advance of their interview.

Details of interview panel members will be e-mailed to all successful candidates who are invited for interview.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) .

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the

Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window)

and the

Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available.

You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk
• Email : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Further information

Should you have a complaint or wish to raise any concerns regarding the recruitment process, please e-mail your complaint to the Head of Pay and Resourcing (UKEF) at Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk and include “Complaint” in the subject heading. Should you remain dissatisfied following UKEF’s investigation then you can refer your complaint to the Commission - http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/making-complaint.

• Attachments
• Candidate Information Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1805kB)
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