Governance And Executive Support Officer

Governance and Executive Support Officer

Salary: £33,480 - £38,200 per annum/pro-rata (depending on skills and experience)

Location: High Holborn, London (Hybrid working, up to 3 days per week working from home).

Hours: 35 hours per week - Full-time

The Vacancy

The Bar Council represents the nearly 17,000 barristers in England and Wales. It promotes the Bar’s high quality specialist advocacy and advisory services; fair access to justice for all; the highest standards of ethics, equality and diversity across the profession; and the development of business opportunities for barristers at home and abroad.

The Bar Council is the governing body and the Approved Regulator for the Bar of England and Wales. It discharges its regulatory functions through the independent Bar Standards Board.

As Governance and Executive Support Officer, you would play a key role in the executive office by supporting the Bar Council’s corporate and representative governance functions. You would provide efficient, effective, and comprehensive first-line secretariat and administrative support to the entity’s joint corporate committees and representative committees (including forward agenda planning, collation of papers and drafting accurate and high-quality minutes of meetings in line with the Bar Council’s governance framework).

You would act as secretary to the Joint Audit Committee, Finance Committee and Chair’s Committee to include preparing and circulating agendas; proofreading meeting papers; taking accurate minutes for approval and distribution and tracking forward actions. Working with Committee Chairs and colleagues, you would identify risks to committee effectiveness and take appropriate steps to manage or mitigate as they should arise. 

You’d also be responsible for submitting statutory company filings and supporting the general administration of the department to make sure the right people are in the right place, having the right conversations at the right time.

The ideal candidate would be educated to degree level or have equivalent experience in a senior administrative or governance role, preferably with an understanding or desire to learn about the legal profession. They should also have a good understanding or experience of corporate governance issues, risk and compliance, statutory filing and contextual issues impacting public organisations, with significant experience of providing support to executive meetings or committees and working with senior staff.

In return the Bar Council offers excellent terms and conditions of employment, including:

• Up to 31 days annual leave
• Up to 12% employer’s pension contribution
• Hybrid working (up to 3 days per week working from home)
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
• Access to discounts at 100s of retailers through our Member Benefits portal
• Access to an online Wellbeing Centre with free fitness videos, healthy recipes, and guided meditation
• Life cover, and more

All candidates are required to apply online with a CV and Cover Letter. Candidates are strongly advised to address the essential criteria as specified in the person specification.

Candidates with a disability who require reasonable adjustments should contact, Josephine on 0207 242 0082. The Bar Council is Disability Confident.  Candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role will be guaranteed an interview under this scheme.

Closing Date:  Sunday 25 February 2024 at midnight.

Proposed Interview Date:  Week commencing 04 March 2024

The Bar Council aims to recruit a talented workforce and values the diversity in background, skills and experience of its staff. We are committed to providing equality of opportunity for all job applicants irrespective of race, sex, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, maternity or pregnancy, marital or civil partnership status or gender re-assignment