Procurement Litigation Barrister - #2129077

GOVERNMENT LEGAL DEPARTMENT

G7 Lawyer – Commercial Law Group

Location: Leeds or Manchester

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £61,124

Much more than law

The Government Legal Department (GLD) is the largest provider of legal services across government, working with all the main Whitehall departments. From healthcare to artificial intelligence, energy to national security, our work touches on most aspects of public life. Developing and drafting legislation, helping to secure economic and trade relationships, providing legal advice on polices and ensuring value from contracts, our work is as varied as it is stimulating.

The Commercial Law Group reflects the importance of commercial skills to government, as new projects and programmes are increasingly delivered through commercial arrangements. Working in small, collaborative teams, our lawyers combine legal expertise on all aspects of the government's commercial relationships with broad knowledge of public law. Our work is often at the forefront of major initiatives and involves some of the government’s highest profile and most sensitive matters.

Our friendly and welcoming Commercial Litigation team focuses on many high profile, high value cases, and regularly works with governmental colleagues on cross-cutting issues. When you join us you’ll be given your own caseload and work alongside counsel and, where required, external experts on a wide range of litigation topics including commercial contracts, public procurement, intellectual property, construction, public law and judicial review. Given the nature of the client base and the type of disputes we handle, you’ll frequently be required to advise on important questions of policy, and handle sensitive information owned by both the government and third parties.

Your role

Government legal work often involves using legal skills and knowledge not required in private practice, so when you join us in this important role you’ll commit to a rapid learning curve, supported by our thriving CPD-accredited in-house training programme. You’ll quickly develop the knowledge and expertise necessary to work on a number of different tasks. These include:

• Conducting commercial litigation on behalf of the UK Government
• Providing legal advice on litigation, disputes and contentious matters across a broad range of clients
• Working with external partners including counsel and external solicitors as you help to quality control their work and hold them to account for delivery to time and cost
• Making a valuable contribution to the wider team and the department by playing a proactive role on issues such as knowledge management, training, projects and other corporate opportunities
• Supporting the Deputy Director and your colleagues as you deliver the team’s work diligently and successfully

In order to carry out your work successfully you’ll need to have BPSS security clearance, and hold or be willing to obtain SC level clearance. More information about the vetting process can be found here. You should also be prepared to travel to meetings around the UK.

About you

To be a success in this busy role you should have significant commercial and contract litigation experience although more limited experience would be considered if the candidate demonstrates a strong ability to learn on the job. It’s important that you have proven experience of running your own case load and managing litigation matters through the Court system, and in addition to reliable legal judgement, you’ll possess excellent analytical and research skills, and a good appreciation of legal risk.

Able to think strategically and creatively, see legal issues in their wider context and advise accordingly, you should also be a collaborative team worker and strong communicator. Experience of legal project management in large scale complex commercial disputes would be desirable, as would procurement litigation and public law experience, and the ability to manage and supervise other lawyers.

You should be a qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales, and will have completed a training contract, pupillage or qualifying employment, or been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx. You’ll also need a minimum of a 2.1 honours degree in any subject in your first degree (or its overseas equivalent), or evidence of high-level academic or professional achievement, such as a Graduate Diploma in Law, Legal Practice Course or Bar Professional Training Course, any of which must be underpinned by practical experience.

Chartered Legal Executives are eligible to apply where a qualifying law degree is held or the Graduate Diploma in Law has been copleted, or where CILEx Level 6 exams have been passed at 50% or above in Contract Law, Criminal Law, Equity and Trusts Law, European Union Law, Land Law, Public Law and the Law of Tort.

Benefits

GLD encourages its people to develop their skills in a nurturing environment. Other benefits include access to a valuable civil service pension and flexible working arrangements.