Lawyer - Social Care & Education

What's involved with this role: Interim Lawyer - Social Care & Education Reference no: Merton 5245376 Pay Rate: Up to £40.16 per hour PAYE depending on experience Hours per week: 35 Monday – Friday, normal working hours Role Length: This opening assignment is for 2-3 months City: Morden, London The purpose of the role is to provide customer focused, high quality and responsive specialist legal advice in relation to more than one of the areas of legal expertise covered by a local authority legal team. The successful candidate will deal with the whole range of local authority adult Social Care work across the 5 boroughs of SLLP. Key Responsibilities: Provide timely and effective specialist legal advice to elected members, including committees and to Directors senior managers and officers across both authorities as part of a team of lawyers, and to any other clients of the Shared Legal Service.
Be responsible for providing innovative solutions to deal with complex issues arising in connection with the work within the team and the legal issues presented by clients.
Manage a large caseload of wide-ranging work within two of the above specialisms, including but not limited to; drafting legal letters, legal agreements, deeds, notices, orders, consents byelaws as well as negotiating agreements, settlements and such matters, managing competing demands and meeting deadlines and the requirements of the Shared Legal Service.
Where relevant, to prepare and process all matters relevant to any proceedings before a court, arbitration, mediation or public inquiry and to attend such as the client’s advocate or, if
appropriate, select and instruct appropriate external legal representation.
Work proactively to maintain and improve the relationship with the clients of the Shared Legal Service.
Supervise, and be responsible for the work of, junior staff as required and to provide management and leadership to the staff working on their cases.
Undertake duties on behalf of the Monitoring Officer for all five authorities.
Keep clients informed of new legislation and case law relevant to their operations, including training seminars where appropriate and to ensure that they maintain a sound application of legal requirements.
Advise upon, draft and approve committee reports in respect of cases and legal issues.
Attend as the sole representative in order to advise and provide legal services to elected members at council Cabinets, Committees and Panels as are required.
Negotiating, on behalf of any of the five authorities, with solicitors and other professionals and liaising with outside bodies including the court service on matters relating to work of any client. NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD. To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity. Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for. Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items: Qualifications: A Solicitor, either a current practising certificate or eligible to apply for a practising certificate, or a qualified Barrister or a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, or. Possessing an equivalent qualification gained in another jurisdiction. Skills & Experience: Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
Experience in managing a litigation case load pursuant to the Mental Capacity Act in the Court of Protection and of advising on local authority obligations under the Care Act.
Preferably with local government experience but we will consider private practice background and experience of managing a case load that include local authority adult Social Care work and litigation in the Court of Protection.
Good understanding of current issues and best practice on service delivery relevant to the service areas.
Ability to work under pressure and respond efficiently to the changing needs of the clients.
Ability to be able to travel to attend client officers or courts wherever the client’s case is being considered.
Good communication skills, both orally and in writing and good numeracy and analytical skills.
Ability to provide visible support and leadership which empowers, enables and develops staff to achieve results.
Ability to be available to attend premises out of hours to attend evening meetings and in the event of emergencies or urgent management issues in relation to all 5 authorities.
Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite). S 1 Job Ref: Merton 5245376 Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent. Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates. We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed. Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs. Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.