About the job

Job summary

Assistant Head of Legal Services

 

Fixed term: Up to two years.

£91,697 - £100,461 + £12,000 additional allowance (and London allowance of £3,566 where relevant)

Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

London or Bristol

 

 

Play a key senior managerial role in an organisation that’s shaping policy and regulation

 

About the OfS

 

Make a real difference to the lives of students by bringing your legal skills to the Office for Students (OfS). As the independent regulator of higher education in England, we ensure the best experience and the best value – for students, for taxpayers, for the economy and for the public good. This is an opportunity to grow your legal expertise by working across our diverse and rapidly evolving organisation on a wide range of regulatory and corporate issues.

 

Job description

About the role

 

We now have an exciting vacancy for a senior regulatory lawyer with team management experience to perform a leading role within OfS’s legal function. This fixed term position provides a unique opportunity for an experienced regulatory professional to gain experience of another regulated sector, at a particularly interesting time, where you will be leading on the provision of legal advice in novel areas of law and setting the precedent for a new approach to regulating higher education providers.

 

Utilising your extensive experience of working in a regulatory body and managing other lawyers on legal support for multiple and complex projects, the successful candidate will assist the Head of Legal Services in operating the OfS’s legal function and managing the delivery of first-class legal advice throughout the organisation, with personal responsibility for the ongoing management of multiple major portfolios of work. This will include managing and leading on advisory work on a broad range of regulatory matters, handling litigation/appeals, and dealing with more practical tasks relevant to the ongoing management of a large team of lawyers.

 

The role will also involve providing parental leave cover for the Deputy Head of Legal Services for a period of six months, which may include providing managerial oversight of OfS’s team responsible for data protection, freedom of information and records management matters.

 

 

Person specification

About you

 

The successful candidate will be a qualified solicitor or barrister with significant managerial experience. They will have a proven track-record of taking a proactive and hands-on approach to the delivery of legal tasks, as well managing the delivery through others. They will be able to demonstrate a sensitivity to politics, the ability to adopt an innovative approach to legal issues and to influence and negotiate, as well as excellent verbal and written communication skills.

 

In particular, the successful candidate will have significant legal experience from previous roles, dealing with many legal practice areas, including:

• Public law matters
• Litigation cases involving judicial review and/or regulatory appeals
• Consumer protection law
• The interpretation of regulatory rules such as licence conditions or equivalent
• The interpretation and application of sector specific legislation which relates to a regulatory body;
• Information law matters, such as data protection, freedom of information and record management; and
• Investigation and enforcement in a regulatory context.

 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £91,697, Office for Students contributes £27,784 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Working for us

 

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

 

At the OfS, we recognise that flexibility can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working and part time working apply to this role.

 

In addition, our Total Reward Framework offers a range of benefits to suit your way of life. These include comprehensive learning and development, annual leave starting at 25 days per year (plus public holidays), access to the highly regarded Civil Service pension scheme and a variety of health benefits.

 

Closing date for applications: Sunday 11 February

 

 

 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.