Head of Legal (Senior Lawyer - Business Support)

As one of the Heads of legal team and as a Senior lawyer, you will be jointly responsible for leading, line-managing and developing the team, influencing and ensuring delivery of Social Work England's strategic objectives, and facilitating the provision of high quality internal and external legal advice across the organisation.

You will provide legal and strategic input into our project, policy and strategy work, to ensure that we comply with the law, protect the organisation, and seek any legislative amendments we need. You will work closely with the Executive Leadership team, Assistant Directors, other heads of functions, the board, the Department for Education sponsor team and external legal providers to manage legal risk and drive a culture of legal awareness and compliance.

What you will do

• Support the Executive Leadership team and senior leaders by providing or procuring timely, accurate and high quality privileged legal and strategic advice in respect of areas of law, including commercial and contract law matters, date protection and employment law, with an understanding of the context of our regulatory remit, statutory framework and public law.


• Lead and set the strategic direction for the legal team, including managing the legal budget, planning the allocation of work and resources, supporting and performance managing members of the team, and ensuring they are suitably trained and facilitated to undertake relevant CPD activities. Be a visible and accessible head of legal, participating in the decision review group and other project groups and working groups as necessary.


• Provide specialist legal and regulatory insight into the setting of our strategic aims and the legal feasibility of new projects, including advising on how to devise and implement them in a legally compliant way.


• Liaise with key stakeholders in our work, both internal and external, including the Department for Education, and deputise for Executive Directors as required.


• Demonstrate a sound understanding of the business, building collaborative relationships with senior leaders and Executive Directors across the organisation in order to advocate for, develop, and embed appropriate and legally compliant policies, processes and frameworks.


• Ensure that the decisions we take are legally robust by identifying risks early and work with other teams, ELT, the Board and Sponsor team to ensure that these are managed appropriately, including giving advice on high risk, high profile and strategic matters, report as appropriate.


• Undertake reserved legal activities such as direct instruction of Counsel and giving solicitors undertakings.


• Commission advice and manage relationships and contracts with external legal firms and Counsel on a wide range of legal issues, including defending legal actions against our regulatory decisions, judicial reviews and other legal challenges and ensuring the organisation takes a strategic, expertly informed approach to managing legal risks.


• Oversee and advise on the drafting of policy, operational guidance for decision makers,, developing internal training content on legal compliance (as required).
  
  Significant experience as a qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.


• Substantial experience advising in relation to at least one (essential) or two (desirable) of the following areas of law: commercial and contract law, data protection, or employment law.


• Excellent legal analytical and problem solving skills and the ability to work in a politically sensitive environment, dealing with high profile, sensitive issues.


• Excellent written communication skills, with ability to draft clear, concise and comprehensive correspondence for a range of stakeholders.


• Excellent strategic thinking and collaboration skills to develop our organisational objectives and internal and external stakeholders.


• Excellent organisation and time management skills and the ability to manage different tasks calmly and flexibly while maintaining a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.


• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, with ability to work with others and lead and respond positively, creatively, and supportively to a variety of colleagues.


• A track record of respectful, open and honest behaviour including a demonstrable commitment to inclusion and diversity.


• Keep up to date with relevant legal, policy, sectoral and strategy developments and your own continuing professional development.
  
  Social Work England are the specialist regulator for social work in England, focused on enabling positive change in social work. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We are taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate - to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people's lives.


The role and purpose of the legal team is to deliver legal services and legal advice across the organisation in relation to our statutory functions and over-arching objective of public protection. The legal team ensures that we act within its legal powers (the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and the Social Workers Regulations 2018). It also provides legal advice on the interpretation/application of our rules, standards, guidance and policies to ensure they are legally compliant and adhered to.