About the job

Job summary

The Legal Division is the in-house legal function at UKEF and is part of the Legal and Compliance Group.  It provides legal advice on all aspects of the Department’s work in accordance with the Department’s legal obligations and risk appetite and in a manner that achieves the Department’s commercial objectives as an export credit agency.

The work is varied on a daily basis, including entering into and managing banking and finance agreements with banks, exporters and overseas buyers in support of UK exports and overseas investments. Products range from short-term trade finance and trade credit insurance on standard terms to complex arrangements for the financing of high value infrastructure projects and assets involving multiple commercial parties and other national export credit agencies and multi-lateral institutions.  Although UKEF’s agreements are governed by private law, the methods of operation of the Department and its decision-making processes are governed by public law. 

The Legal Division is currently headed by the Co-Heads of the Legal Division, who alongside the Director of Legal and Compliance, are responsible for managing all legal advice and legal risk for the Department.  The 15 or so other Legal Advisers and two paralegals maintain a busy work load consisting of transaction and advisory work for the Department and are organised into small teams, each reporting to a Team Leader.  We are recruiting to increase the size of the Legal Division.  The Division is supported by a Legal Support Team, which comprises the Office Manager/PA to the Co-Heads of the Legal Division, and a legal support assistant.

Job description

The post-holders (Legal Advisers) will be required to provide high-quality commercial, financial and public law advice over a wide range of areas of legal practice, with minimal supervision. 

Banking and finance focused roles

Although individual Legal Advisers may have a focus on areas of finance such as syndicated lending, asset finance (including aviation and shipping), project finance and trade finance, Legal Advisers are required to operate in a wide range of areas of legal practice.  These could include:

• export finance, general banking and trade finance matters;
• trade credit and investment insurance;
• public and private debt restructuring, claims and recoveries and reinsurance work;
• debt capital markets, Islamic financing, swaps and derivatives;
• public and private law litigation and judicial review;
• 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.

Public law focused role

In addition to the above, the Legal Division is looking for an individual with demonstrable experience in providing legal advice on public law matters including statutory powers, policy compliance, state aid and subsidies and/or public law litigation such as judicial review. It is anticipated that this postholder will devote a majority of their time in the Legal Division working on these matters though they will, under appropriate legal supervision, also advise on the broader areas outlined above and depending on the needs of the team.

 

In all Legal Adviser roles, knowledge of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters as they relate to finance transactions and/or public law issues would be advantageous.

Legal Advisers are required to provide high-quality legal advice and support clients at all stages of transactions, from structuring, negotiation, signing and completion through to all aspects of post-issue transaction management, including amendments, claims and recoveries and litigation.  This also involves responsibility for managing relationships with key clients within the Department and a variety of external stakeholders.

Assistance may also be needed for other aspects of the Legal Division’s legal work and amendments to existing products to reflect changes in law or policy as well as contributions to cross-Department projects.  The roles in Legal Division are varied and the post-holders must therefore be willing to learn about areas of law with which they are unfamiliar.

Legal Advisers must have strong interpersonal skills to work as part of a team and to interact with Departmental colleagues, counterparties and other external stakeholders.  They need to be able to prioritise work effectively and work to deadlines.

Legal Advisers are expected to contribute to the enhancement of the Legal Division’s reputation both internally and externally.  This includes participating in Department-wide projects, training and initiatives in furtherance of the Department’s strategic and policy objectives.

Person specification

• Providing (and managing the provision) of high-quality legal advice; providing representation and support in relation to and managing transactions, occasional litigation and other matters in which UKEF is involved, including drafting relevant correspondence and legal documentation, and conducting negotiations. Some travel (including international travel) for work purposes may be required depending on the transactions and from time to time.
• Drafting and managing the drafting of transactional documentation based on UKEF templates (based on LMA standards) including Departmental specific policies.
• Instructing and managing law firms, counsel and other external legal advisers, both in the UK and overseas, and supporting the procurement of the Department’s Panel law firms.
• Carrying out (and managing the carrying out of) legal research and presenting results.
• Utilising, supervising and developing the paralegals and Legal Support Team in the Legal Division.
• Identifying training requirements, and devising, contributing to and delivering training to a range of clients and stakeholders, and organising training by external training providers or law firms.
• Contributing to Divisional and Departmental meetings and committees and cross-Departmental projects.

 

This list is not exhaustive. The roles may involve additional duties according to business need.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £76,000, UK Export Finance contributes £20,520 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, Experience and Technical skills.

You will be invited to complete the online application form.  The application form must be completed by 23.55 on the day of the closing date for it to be accepted.

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

You will be asked in the relevant sections of the application form to provide examples of evidence against a range of the success profiles (refer to appendix 1).  Where applicants are asked to apply with a personal statement, you should fully articulate in 1000 words how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification within the Information Pack

For the initial sift your application will be evaluated against:

• Experience
• Technical
• Behaviours

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

• Behaviours/Technical/Experience - a formal panel interview where you will be interviewed across all five behaviours highlighted and your technical ability to successfully carry out the role.
• Technical - a short presentation (this will be on a topic determined by UKEF and will need to be prepared in advance).

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 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.