About the job

Job summary

From energy to security, health to human rights, we help the Government deliver life changing law for citizens.

The Government Legal Department is the largest provider of legal services across government, working on high profile matters that are frequently scrutinised in Parliament and the media. Our work includes:

• Developing and drafting legislation
• Providing legal advice on policies
• Securing our economic and trade relationships
• Ensuring value from commercial contracts worth billions of pounds
• Providing the Civil Service’s employment law advice

We are at the heart of delivering the Government’s priorities and our success depends on our people.

GLD is a non-ministerial government department, sponsored by the Attorney General. We are headed by the Treasury Solicitor, our Permanent Secretary and employ nearly 3000 people, including over 2000 legal professionals. Our offices include London, Leeds, Bristol, Croydon and Manchester as well as overseas. We provide specialist legal services including Litigation, Employment and Commercial Law as well as advising most Government Departments on the policies and services they deliver.

GLD also depends on a range of vital corporate services. These are essential to the smooth and efficient running of the Department and provide the foundation to enable GLD to deliver outstanding legal services. Our corporate functions include Strategy, HR, Finance, Digital, Data and Technology, Communications, Security, Commercial and Project delivery. 

Our vision is to be an outstanding legal organisation and a brilliant place to work where everyone can thrive and fulfil their potential. This is an exciting time for GLD, with cutting edge legal work on global issues and a transformation agenda which is ensuring the Department exemplifies the Modern Civil Service.  

To find out more about what we do visit the Government Legal Department’s webpage or have a look at this short film which showcases the breadth of work government lawyers and legal trainees are involved in.

Job description

About the Employment Group

The Employment Group provides employment advice and litigation services to all GLD clients, supporting a workforce of over 450,000 and underpinning the delivery of a vast range of public services.

Our work covers everything from Employment Tribunal claims and the conduct of complex multi-party litigation to advising on staff policies and terms and conditions, TUPE, collective bargaining and departmental re-organisations.  The interest and range of employment work undertaken is second to none – we handle litigation up to the Supreme Court and provide employment advice in the context of Ministers’ political and operational drivers and the unique constitutional position of the civil servants. Along the way we learn about the environment and conditions of the vast range of public servants and office holders, including prison officers, judicial office-holders, border force officers, the armed forces and other sector specialists as well as policy officials.

The Group comprises around 135 employment lawyers.  We have 8 legal teams, 6 in London, 1 in Leeds/Manchester and 1 in Bristol.  We are supported by our Business Management Team, with colleagues based in across all four offices.  

The Employment Group is a great place to work, with excellent resources, a tailored training programme and a really strong culture of mutual support and collaboration.   D&I is at the core of how we manage our people and teams.

“The employment group is simply the best place to work for an employment lawyer, we only have one client – the whole of government – and yet we have an incredible variety in the work we do.  The culture is supportive and collaborative.  I was in private practice for 12 years before I came to GLD, I would never go back.” 

 - Sophie Williams Legal Director

Employment Group Recruitment Open Evening

We will be holding a recruitment open evening session on Microsoft Teams from 6:00pm – 6:45pm on Thursday 23rd May 2024.

Candidates will have the opportunity to hear from lawyers working in the Employment Group about what they do and their experiences of working in Government. It is also an opportunity to hear from members of the Employment Group’s Senior Leadership Team and to ask question about the roles and the process.

Candidates interested in attending the information session should register their interest in advance by emailing amrit.uppal@governmentlegal.gov.uk.

The Role

We are recruiting up to 16 employment lawyers into Grade 7 or Legal Officer posts. These posts are varied and can be litigation focused, advisory focused or within the Employment Group’s TUPE Hub. The post holder will be expected to have the skills to manage a litigation caseload, mainly Employment Tribunal claims but also claims in the High Court and the County Court, and to advise clients on employment matters.

Successful candidates will be expected to play an active role in their Team, the Employment Group and wider GLD, including contributing to client training, diversity and inclusion activities, knowledge management and the supervision of less experienced members of staff. Whilst there will be vacancies for appointed candidates to work out of GLD’s offices in London, Leeds, Manchester or Bristol, candidates should be aware that their line management may be provided out of different location from that where there are based, at least initially.

Person specification

Experience - Essential Criteria

• You will have a sound understanding of employment law gained through advising clients and conducting cases in the Employment Tribunal across a broad range of employment law issues.

Behaviours

Below are details of the Success Profiles that make up this role.

You will be expected to provide evidence to show how you meet the criteria at interview and/or selection stage.

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

Behaviour: Making Effective Decisions

• Clarify your own understanding and stakeholder needs and expectations, before making decisions.
• Analyse and accurately interpret data from various sources to support decisions.
• Make decisions confidently even when details are unclear or if they prove to be unpopular.

Behaviour: Working Together

• Actively build and maintain a network of colleagues and contacts to achieve progress on shared objectives.
• Build strong interpersonal relationships and show genuine care for colleagues

• Create an inclusive working environment where all opinions and challenges are taken into account and bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptable.

Behaviour: Managing a Quality Service

• Demonstrate positive customer service by understanding the complexity and diversity of customer needs and expectations
• Make clear, practical and manageable plans for service delivery.
• Create regular opportunities for colleagues, stakeholders, delivery partners and customers to help improve the quality of service.

Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing

• Communicate with others in a clear, honest and enthusiastic way in order to build trust.
• Explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand.
• Deliver difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity, bring persuasive when required.

Technical Legal Skills

• An ability to approach legal issues applying sound legal research and reliable legal judgement;
• An ability to see legal issues in their wider context and advise accordingly;
• An understanding of how to assess and approach legal risk.

Motivational fit

• Motivation for a career in the Civil Service and GLD in particular
• An understanding of the role of lawyers in Government.
• A keen interest in employment law

For further information about Civil Service recruitment processes and Success profiles, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £59,200, Government Legal Department contributes £14,283 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

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

Application  

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the Civil Service Jobs. This should be completed no later than 12:00pm Midday on Tuesday 4th June 2024:

Applicants will be asked to complete an online CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements which will be scored and assessed. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years, as part of the online application form. This will be used to assess Experience as set out in the Person Specification.

A statement of suitability of no more than 1250 words, outlining how you have demonstrated the Technical Legal Skills (maximum 475 words) Making Effective Decisions (maximum 475 words) and Motivational Fit (maximum 300 words) as listed in the Person Specification.

You should refer closely to the above essential criteria mentioned when completing your application, and wherever possible, demonstrate through your examples how your skills match the person specification. It will not be sufficient to reiterate the criteria; you are expected to illustrate how you have met the requirements.

Selection Process

A panel shall assess candidates’ suitability for the role based on evidence provided in their application against the behaviours and experience outlined in the person specification.

Interview

Should you be successful in being invited to interview, you will be assessed on your performance in all criteria as listed in the Person Specification, alongside a written exercise which will be used to assess your Technical Legal Skills and the Behaviour of Communicating and Influencing as set out in the Person Specification beforehand which will be assessed with follow-up questions at interview, behaviour questions and strength-based questions. Candidates invited to interview will be given further information.

At interview you will be assessed on:

• Technical Legal Skills
• Behaviour: Making Effective Decisions
• Behaviour: Working Together
• Behaviour: Managing a Quality Service
• Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Interviews will probably take place remotely via video conference, full details of the interview format will be provided to shortlisted candidates prior to interview. The timeline later in this pack indicates the date by which decisions are expected to be made, and all shortlisted candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter.

Offer

Regardless of the outcome, we will notify all candidates as soon as possible after the final interview.

We appoint in strict order of merit. If you meet the minimum criteria for this position but are not successful for a post, you will be placed on the reserve list for up to 12 months. We then may contact you to see if you are interested in a post at the same, or a lower grade, in GLD should one arise.

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. 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.