Principal Lawyer

A brilliant opportunity to join a dynamic, progressive legal service where you will be given the opportunity to work on some incredible projects and cases, while learning and developing as a leading local government lawyer. Birmingham City Council's legal service is unique and one of the largest in‑house local authority legal teams. The City Council is on its journey of resetting, reshaping and restarting and everyone within legal services is essential to the Council's success and achieving beneficial outcomes for our citizens. You could be part of this.

Legal Services covers all areas of work that the Council undertakes, from employment to property, from social care to contracts. The variety of work that our team undertakes is wide and at the highest level. The work is challenging and rewarding in equal measure. Based in Victoria Square in the City Centre, you will have excellent transport links, access to Courts and tribunals, partner organisations and all the benefits that working in the wonderful City of Birmingham brings.

Birmingham City Council is committed to achieving excellence, putting our citizens first, acting courageously and being true to our word. If this resonates with you, then we want to hear from you.

We have one Principal Lawyer vacancy in our Criminal Litigation and Licensing team.

• Acting as a lead legal advisor to ensure compliance with statutory duties and obligations, to protect the best interests of the Council.
• Providing high quality, innovative, well researched and comprehensive specialist legal advice.
• Managing a complex caseload and delivering advice within the timescales required.
• Supervising and managing the work of the team to ensure that the team provides professional guidance and expertise. Ensuring work is allocated appropriately within the team.
• Attending courts, tribunals, public inquiries or other meetings, undertaking advocacy where required. Representing clients in negotiations and discussions and to also to instruct and manage suppliers of external legal services.
• Developing, with the Head of Law, a clear sense of direction and motivation within the team through team meetings and supervision meetings.

You will need to possess a current practising certificate as a Solicitor/Chartered Legal Executive or be a member of the Bar who has completed pupillage/registered Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.

• 30 days annual leave - Increases to 33 days after 5 years and 35 days after 10 years, plus option to purchase additional leave.
• Access to voluntary benefits providers that support health, wellbeing and making the most of your leisure time.
• Family friendly policies e.g., maternity/adoption, paternity, shared parental leave, carers' leave.
• Health and wellbeing support networks e.g., independent, and confidential employee assistance and counselling, occupational health, etc.
• Employee communities and support groups including Corporate Black Workers Support Group, Disability and LGBT+ Networks, Menopause Support Forum, etc.
• Membership of job‑related pension scheme, West Midlands Pension Fund or Teachers' Pensions, with generous employer contributions.
• Access to 'My Rewards' - over 800 individual brands providing discounts and savings including high street stores, supermarkets, utility, and insurance providers, as well as great days out to name but a few!
• Opportunities to join great salary sacrifice schemes e.g., Cycle to Work, Annual Travel and Car Parking, as well as making the most of Tax and National Insurance savings (additional schemes to launch soon).

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people.