Legal Officer (Advocacy)

Legal Officer (Advocacy)

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Directorate: Resources

Grade: SO2

Salary: £37,443 to £39,264

Contract Type: Full-time, 2 years Fixed term

Working hours per week: 36 hours per week

Weeks per year: 52

Application Deadline: 28/10/2024

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference:1346

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led,





digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

Waltham Forest Legal Services is a high performing in house legal service which plays an essential part in the achievement of the priorities and objectives of Waltham Forest. Our objective is to provide high quality and efficient professional services that meet our clients' expectations and provides a business and solution focused approach. The Service has been accredited to Lexcel since 2005.

We are looking for a Legal Officer specialising in Housing to join our Litigation and Public Law Team. Whilst working to a generic job description we are looking for lawyers experienced in the area of Housing.





You will be responsible for a challenging caseload, you will be line managed by Principal or Senior Lawyers or solicitors and supported by other legal officers and paralegals in the team.

The ideal candidates will be experienced litigators, able to demonstrate experience in residential disrepair and one or more of the following areas: Residential Possession; challenges in relation to duties under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996; Anti Social Behaviour and other Injunctions; Public Law challenges. You will be willing and able to undertake advocacy in County and Magistrates Courts and Tribunals.

Key Responsibilities:

- To be responsible for giving legal advice,





undertaking advocacy and providing support to clients in one or more areas of the Litigation Team's work as follows; disrepair, possession, homelessness and anti social behaviour
- Responsible for conduct of litigation (including advocacy) in the areas of responsibility as assigned by the Senior Lawyer and/or Head of Law (Litigation)
- To contribute to the effective operational management of the Legal Services team in order to deliver a high quality and cost-effective legal service which includes undertaking advocacy in other areas of Legal Services where required and competent to do so.

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

- At least one years' experience in the legal profession.
- Proficiency in office software






- Qualifications are not required but the following or higher are desirable: Law Degree, FILEX (or working towards)

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

- Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
- Satisfactory declaration of interest;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:







Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

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.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population.





We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process,





which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

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 or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit .

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Glenn Craig, Principal Housing Solicitor at [email protected].

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at .

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email [email protected] so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the .

▶️ Legal Officer (Advocacy)
🖊️ London Borough Of Waltham Forest
📍 London Borough of Waltham Forest