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HM Land Registry

Deputy Director of Legal Services

London Full-Time 72000 - 108000 £ / year (est.) No home office possible

At a Glance

Tasks: Lead a dynamic team of legal experts to ensure trust in the property market.
Company: Join HM Land Registry, a key player in England and Wales' property market.
Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, flexible working, and a strong pension scheme.
Why this job: Make a real impact on the property market while developing your leadership skills.
Qualifications: Must be a qualified barrister or solicitor with significant experience in land law.
Other info: This role offers a minimum assignment duration of 3 years for career growth.

The predicted salary is between 72000 - 108000 £ per year.

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Birkenhead, North West England, CH41 6DU : Croydon, London (region), CR0 2AQ : Coventry, West Midlands (England), CV1 2WT : Durham, North East England, DH1 5TR : Weymouth, South West England, DT4 9TT : Gloucester, South West England, GL1 1DQ : Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire and the Humber, HU2 8JN : Leicester, East Midlands (England), LE3 5DR : Plymouth, South West England, PL6 5WS : Warton, North West England, PR4 1TE : Swansea, Wales, SA7 9FQ : Telford, West Midlands (England), TF3 4LR
Job Summary
When it comes to improving the property market and supporting economic growth, few organisations can match HM Land Registry. We play a role in every single purchase of land or property in England and Wales: maintaining registers for properties valued at around £8 trillion and ensuring that the right information is made available to buyers and conveyancers. In order to achieve our goal of becoming an entirely customer-focused and data driven organisation, we will be leveraging technology, including across the use of AI and data to support the property market, helping everyone to work more effectively.
Watch this video to find out more about this opportunity:
HMLR Deputy Director Recruitment
Job Description
As Deputy Director Legal Services, you will lead a team of c. 40-50 staff, including c. 30 lawyers, all specialists in differing areas of law and land registration practice. Working to the General Counsel (who is also the Director of Data & Register Integrity), your role will ensure trust and confidence in the property market and support efficient and effective conveyancing in England and Wales through expert and timely legal advice, and the nuanced leadership you will offer your team. You will be an active member of the Data & Registry Integrity leadership team and Senior Executive Leadership Team (SET), and a highly visible corporate leader.
As Deputy Director Legal Services, you will lead a team of c. 40-50 staff, including c. 30 lawyers, all specialists in differing areas of law and land registration practice. Working to the General Counsel (who is also the Director of Data & Register Integrity), your role will ensure trust and confidence in the property market and support efficient and effective conveyancing in England and Wales through expert and timely legal advice, and the nuanced leadership you will offer your team. You will be an active member of the Data & Registry Integrity leadership team and Senior Executive Leadership Team (SET), and a highly visible corporate leader.
Person specification
To be successful in this post you will be a qualified barrister, solicitor or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives with significant post-qualification experience in one of the following specialisms: land law legislation; contract law and public procurement law; digital assets, artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights; together with an in-depth understanding of land registration legislation. Highly collaborative with experience of leading a dispersed professional team to deliver at pace, you will bring the ability to build and maintain strong relationships based on trust and integrity, with a track record of providing risk-based advice on complex and high profile legal matters.
For further information or for an informal discussion about the role please contact our advising consultant at GatenbySanderson:
Louise Bickley:
Behaviours
We\’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Seeing the Big Picture
Making Effective Decisions
Leadership
Communicating and Influencing
Delivering at Pace

Alongside your salary of £90,000, HM Land Registry contributes £26,073 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
#WeAreHMLR
At HM Land Registry our vision is a world leading property market as part of a thriving economy and a sustainable future. We are unique in terms of the economic and social impacts of our work, our ability to make a positive difference to the lives of our customers, our sense of mission, and our great people. They are the foundation of all we have achieved and all we aspire to in the future. We want our people to feel proud to work for HM Land Registry and able to fulfil their full potential.
We have a strong and positive culture, a commitment to inclusivity, an emphasis on continuous learning and development, and flexible ways of working. We offer competitive pay and annual leave, attractive pension options and a wide range of other benefits.

We have integrity – we value honesty, trust and doing the right thing in the right way.
We drive innovation – we are forward-thinking, embrace change and are continually improving our processes.
We are professional – we value and grow our knowledge and professional expertise.
We give assurance – we guarantee our services and provide confidence to the property market.

You can find more information on our rewards package on our website.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
HM Land Registry has appointed executive search specialists GatenbySanderson to support us with this appointment.
To apply for this post, you will need to submit the following application documents to by no later than 23:55 on Friday 1 August 2025:

A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
A Statement of Suitability (no longer than two pages), giving examples of how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential technical skills and essential experience criteria in the person specification.
A completed Diversity Questionnaire.

We highly value diversity in all its forms and welcome applications from all sections of society. We’re committed to implementing and monitoring our equality and diversity policies with the aim of recruiting, retaining and promoting staff regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation. You will be asked a number of diversity related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select \’prefer not to say\’, but this information is very important to the Civil Service as we seek to build organisations and develop policies that reflect our society. Any information you provide is confidential and will not be used during the selection process or to inform decision making.
All applications will be acknowledged.
Failure to submit your CV and Statement of Suitability will mean the panel have only limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. Please ensure that both documents contain your full name.
Please refer to slide 12 in the attached candidate pack for full information on the selection process which will include a longlist/shortlist, staff engagement exercise and face to face interview.
The recruitment timeline is on slide 10 in the attached candidate pack.
Should you encounter any issues with your online application please contact:
devon.coates
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to share these values. Please ensure all examples provided throughout the recruitment process are representative of your own experience. For more information see Artificial Intelligence in recruitment , Civil Service Careers
HMLR is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.
If you require the panel to consider a reasonable adjustment or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you are asked to notify us of this at application stage where possible or during the process as soon as it becomes a requirement.
The successful candidate should be in a position to apply for uplifted security clearance, if required as part of the job. Find out more here: National security vetting: clearance levels
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact

Name : Louise Bickley
Email :

Recruitment team

Email :

Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance to the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from HM Land Registry then you may take your complaint to the Civil Service Commission: link to apply

Seniority level

Seniority level

Executive

Employment type

Employment type

Full-time

Job function

Job function

Legal
Industries

Government Administration

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