Senior Legal Officer (Prosecutions/Litigation)

Bexley is an outer London Borough with the best of both worlds, located between the hustle and bustle of London and the Garden of England, Kent. Within the borough we have award winning parks, open spaces and listed heritage sites.

The Legal Services Department is looking to recruit to a role that predominantly supports the Prosecutions function of Bexley Council.  This is a role supports the work of our specialist prosecutor and other staff in the litigation team.  The role requires the consideration of cases referred to the prosecutions team,  opening of files, then preparation of, official paperwork to be submitted to Court and Defendant.  This will be done in consultation with the officer that is assigned the case Prior experience of bringing Local Authority Prosecutions is desirable.  The work is predominantly concerned with proceedings before the Magistrates Court but does occasionally also involve Crown Court proceedings.  The role does not require advocacy although the successful candidate will be able to explore areas for development which may include other areas of the wide range of litigation work and/or to undertake some limited advocacy.

You will have conduct of a limited caseload as the work predominantly supports the cases assigned to other staff in the Legal Team. You will need to manage a Court diary, identify and prioritise work to limitation and direction dates.  It is essential that you possess good communication skills and have the ability to work effectively as part of a busy team. It is essential that you are confident in the use of ICT as the role requires the use of case processing and case management systems and accessing external sites.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Mr. Guy Atkins, Principal Solicitor (Litigation) on (020) 3045 3924.

We will offer you in return a package that includes a competitive salary, an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays. For more information on the benefits package on offer please refer to the Candidate Information document attached.

We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date.

This role may be available as a development opportunity through secondment for the Council’s existing employees.  The Council’s Secondment Scheme can be found here. If this option is of interest, please contact the recruiting manager.

You will have experience of work in a litigation department or be a qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Legal Executive. Previous local government experience is desirable but not essential. You must be able to handle a substantial caseload, often working to strict deadlines and on short notice.

Excellent written and oral communication skills are essential as are organisational skills. The role requires you to have a strong customer focus.

The role may involve advising in respect of other of the Council’s functions, as and when required. Other training will be provided as necessary.

For the full list of essential and desirable criteria for this role then please refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description attached.

This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the JD/Person Specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.    

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Anticipated Interview Date: TBD

Please note that the system has a one-hour time limit. We would advise you to prepare your answers separately and then copy and paste into the online form once finalised and have your CV and/or Supporting statement ready to upload. Please check your Junk email for any correspondence.

Additional Information

As a disability confident employer Bexley welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including hidden disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on  recruitment@bexley.gov.uk

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.