Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation, Barnsdale Way, Grove Park, Enderby, Leicestershire LE19 1ES

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £52,413 - £57,774 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 37 Hours Per Week 

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 29th April 2024

Interview Date(s): TBC

Team Leader / Commercial Lawyer Role (permanent, full-time)

Leicestershire County Council’s in-house Legal Services has an exciting opportunity for a commercial lawyer to join its friendly, supportive and experienced team supporting ESPO.  

ESPO is the commercial arm of a consortium of local authorities so successful candidates will enjoy the benefits and security of working in a public sector setting whilst undertaking a broad range of commercial work. 

Eligible candidates will have qualified as a solicitor, barrister or chartered legal executive in England and Wales and possess relevant experience in commercial contracts and public procurement law, together with an enthusiasm to provide wider non-contentious legal advice in support of ESPO’s business. 

Leicestershire County Council is a high performing authority that offers: - 

• An attractive benefits package.  Excellent annual leave, a generous local government pension package and free parking. 

• A positive work life balance. We will support you to achieve a positive work-life balance and there are no fee earner time recording targets. ESPO provides a flexible working environment that combines the opportunity to work in its modern offices and work from home.

• A supportive and stable working environment. The health and wellbeing of our staff is important to us. We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.  

About the Role

To lead the delivery of high quality legal services within ESPO to ensure customers and stakeholders’ expectations are managed and meet with the relevant corporate plans, strategies, change programmes and the County Council's constitution

About You

To apply for this post, you must:

• Be qualified as Barrister/Solicitor or Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.
• Experience of dealing with Public Procurement and complex contractual matters at an appropriate level in light of the above qualification. 
• Knowledge of Procurement Legislation.
• In addition to managing their own case load of Contracts and Commercial Matters, the successful candidate will be responsible for supervising work undertaken by an Assistant Solicitor.
• Ability to solve complex problems with sound practical solutions. Ability to effectively manage relationships with internal customers and external partners. Excellent verbal and interpersonal skills.  In particular negotiating and persuading stakeholders and shareholders to a mutual resolution. Excellent written communication skills to enable the production of legal documents and reports. Ability to develop awareness of department, stakeholders and customer budgets to enable effective monitoring and management. 
• Builds relationships with individuals and teams both internally and externally to achieve results and improve performance in line with the corporate and departmental service plan.  Utilise and maximise the use of ICT and other technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness of own area of responsibility. Meet regularly with internal and external partners to discuss corporate and service requirements in line with achievements and future developments. Supports and develops individuals and teams to meet objectives whilst setting challenging but realistic targets to help identify and tackle poor performance.
• Must be able to perform all duties and tasks with reasonable adjustment, where appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Equality Act 2010

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Patrick Taaffe, Assistant Head of Law

Telephone: 0116 305 6042

Email: patrick.taaffe@leics.gov.uk

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on 'Apply Now'. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible. 

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home. 

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a Stonewall Top 100, Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it’s like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us