About the job

Job summary

We are Britain’s national equality regulator and a United Nations accredited ‘A status’ national human rights institution.

We uphold people’s rights without fear or favour. We use the full force of our legal powers to defend people from unfair or unequal treatment and to challenge breaches of the law. We advise on developing laws and provide guidance, training and support to enable compliance.

We bring people together to create change. We work with employers, governments and a wide range of organisations, to promote understanding of equality and human rights and we support them to make improvements in practice.

Our strategy for 2022-25 gives us a strong platform to show that we will use our powers to protect and promote equality and human rights, and that we have identified the main challenges in society where we can make a difference in our role as a regulator.

Job description

We are looking for someone to join our legal team, who shares our values of fairness, dignity and respect and can work with us to build upon our achievements, ensuring our vision becomes a reality.

Working in the litigation and advisory team in our Legal Directorate, you will provide specialist technical expertise and advice on equality and human rights law. You will be working as part of a team who provide legal advice and support to other teams on complex issues across the Commission. This work includes providing advice on new and emerging human rights and equality issues, UN treaty monitoring, parliamentary work, responses to consultations, inquiries, and guidance. You may also lead or work with others on cutting-edge litigation and interventions across a range of appellate courts often on untested and grey areas of equality and human rights law.

You will:

• Be the legal lead on one or more key areas of the Commission’s work.
• Provide expert and authoritative advice on complex and novel issues of equality and human rights law including making recommendations to support the Commission in its decision making.
• Represent the Commission with external stakeholders, including government and those we regulate.
• Conduct litigation and/or regulatory work.
• Manage case budgets and resource in relation to funding provided by the Commission to ensure both value for money and that work remains within budget.
• Supervise and/or line manage others in the legal team as required.
• Work collaboratively as a team player both within the legal team and on cross Commission projects.

Person specification

The full list of Knowledge, Skills and Experience required for the role can be found in the Candidate Pack.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,499, Equality and Human Rights Commission contributes £15,498 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

If this sounds like the role for you, follow the link in the advert to our recruitment portal, Applied.

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.