Independent Football Regulator – Legal Advisor

The Independent Football Regulator

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been established to protect and promote the sustainability of English football, for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

The IFR will help improve financial sustainability of clubs, ensure resilience across the leagues, and safeguard the heritage of English football. It will operate a licensing regime; set corporate governance standards and monitor, protect, and promote financial resilience. It will also enforce compliance with requirements on financial regulation, club ownership and directors, fan engagement, and heritage protection.

The IFR will also have powers to prohibit clubs from joining competitions that are not fair or meritocratic, or that threaten the heritage or sustainability of English football.

The Legal Team

The IFR’s legal team plays a core role in advising and supporting all areas of our functions.

This work will include advising, amongst other issues, on the IFR’s powers and obligations, current and future consultation exercises, the legal risks attaching to different regulatory strategies and approaches, regulatory investigations and enforcement, litigation and appeals, the IFR’s decision-making obligations, corporate governance and wider public law issues.

The Role

The IFR is looking to add 1 to 2 additional lawyers with significant post-qualification experience of advising on statutory regulatory regimes and/or insolvency law.

For the avoidance of doubt, candidates do not need to demonstrate experience in both the above areas, we welcome applicants from lawyers with relevant expertise in either area.

The team currently comprises 9 lawyers with a range of public, regulatory, commercial and litigation skills/backgrounds.

The role will be based in either our Manchester or London office, depending on the preferred candidate.

Essential Requirements

We expect candidates with a background advising on statutory regulatory regimes to meet the following:

• Significant post qualification experience advising on the application of regulatory regimes of UK regulators or public bodies, either in financial sectors (preferable) or other regulated sectors.

This experience can be demonstrated either by experience working for a regulator or experience gained advising regulated entities.

We expect candidates with a background in insolvency law to meet the following:

• Significant post qualification experience advising on both contentious and non-contentious English law insolvency matters.
• Strong technical knowledge across corporate and personal insolvency, including corporate restructuring.

We expect all candidates to demonstrate:

• The ability to work effectively in a wider team and build trusted relationships with colleagues, clients and others.
• Have a track record of picking up new and complex areas of legal work quickly and providing context-appropriate corporate advice in high-profile and fast-moving situations.
• The ability to effectively managing legal risk, providing sound legal direction, leadership and oversight to ensure quality outcomes.
• Creative thinking and excellent judgement to deliver authoritative and credible legal advice, at pace, to facilitate practical solutions.

Desirable Skills

• For statutory regulatory regime candidates, experience of advising on licensing regimes.
• For insolvency law candidates, experience of advising on public law.
• For both types of candidates, working knowledge of data protection law and/or the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Academic and Professional Qualifications

Applicants should have a minimum of a 2:2 honours degree in their first degree, in any subject. Where an applicant holds an overseas degree qualification this should be equivalent to a 2:2 degree. We will consider applicants who do not have a 2:2 degree but only where satisfactory evidence of equivalent high level academic and/or professional achievement can be provided (e.g. via relevant experience and results achieved for the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE, Legal Practice Course (LPC), Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC)).

Applicants must be qualified to practice as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales. We also accept applications from overseas qualified candidates, but please note that the IFR is not able to sponsor applicants. You must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board or CILEx.

Professional entry criteria for Chartered Legal Executives (i.e. Fellows): Chartered Legal Executives are eligible to apply where (i) a Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) is held; or (ii) the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE has been completed; or (iii) where exams have been passed (i.e. a score of 50% or above achieved), at CILEx Level 6*, in all of the following seven foundation subjects in law: Contract Law; Criminal Law; Equity and Trusts Law; European Union Law; Land Law; Public Law; Law of Tort.

*Note: There are specific requirements relating to academic achievement in the CILEx Level 6 exams where these are being used to demonstrate 2:2 degree equivalence. Chartered Legal Executives should note that we will be willing to accept an overall average score of 65% or above across exams passed in the seven foundation subjects in law (where studied at CILEx Level 6) as demonstrating 2.2 degree equivalence, where a 2.2 degree is not held.

Information Session

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by members of the IFR legal team, and will take place on:

-Wednesday 18 November at 1pm

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest by filling out this form and you will be sent an invitation. The invites will be sent the night before the session. The sessions are not recorded.

Please note that the session will not focus on the IFR recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to careers@footballregulator.org.uk

Terms and Conditions of Employment

If successful you will join a Non Departmental Public Body and will be employed as a Public Servant.

If you are an existing Civil Servant or a DCMS employee you will no longer have access to Civil Service benefits including the Civil Service pension.

The terms and conditions of employment include:

• Pension 12% An employee contribution of 5%, with an employer contribution of 7%.
• Flexible Benefit 8% Employees can choose to invest 8% of their base salary into their pension, or take as cash (post tax)
• Reward we will have a performance based reward programme.
• 31.5 days annual leave
• Flexible and hybrid working, 40% in office attendance
• Occupational sick pay
• 9 months paid Maternity Leave + generous paternity and adoption leave.
• A bespoke L&D programme to help you achieve your personal CPD, including paid membership fees
• Cycle-to-work scheme and much more!

How to Apply

To apply for this vacancy, you will need to submit the following documents which will assessed against experience:

➔A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.

➔A Statement of Suitability (a maximum of 500 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted and explain how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience evidence your suitability. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed however these will not be considered in the assessment of your application except in circumstances where there are a high number and calibre of candidates.

For the shortlist, we will select applicants demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial review will be conducted on the statement of suitability only. Those who are successful in the initial review will then be scored on all elements of the application.

The Interview

The interview process will consist of a presentation with a Q&A session followed by competency-style questions. The presentation title and competency questions will be sent out in advance of the interview.

Depending on the outcome of this interview, the interview panel may request candidates to attend a second interview to discuss the candidates application/suitability.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

The IFR has a location neutral pay scale. For more information on this, please see the ‘Candidate Information Pack’ attached.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. To request an adjustment, please email careers@footballregulator.org.uk

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility difficulties with any of the attachments, please contact us. Contact details can be found in the 'contact point for applicants' section of the job advert.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check and complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

To work at the IFR, you will need:

• To reside and have the right to work in the UK.
• To possess a National Insurance Number.
• To not require sponsorship.

Diversity and Inclusion

The IFR is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

Contact point for applicants

Email: careers@footballregulator.org.uk