Employment Solicitor

Are you an employment law specialist looking for a role where your expertise makes a real difference to the people behind patient care? Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is seeking an Employment Solicitor to provide expert legal advice across a diverse and complex workforce environment. Working closely with HR, medical workforce teams and senior leaders, you will play a pivotal role in managing employment litigation, supporting challenging employee relations matters, and helping the Trust navigate legal risk while fostering a fair, inclusive and high-performing workplace.

Main duties of the job

• Providing employment advice and support during internal disputes, investigations and processes prior to litigation and defending Employment Tribunal Claims.
• Advising upon and managing exposure to legal risk.

Job responsibilities

• To provide high-quality, timely advice to the Trust (Employee Relations and Medical Workforce Teams) and support the implementation of employment relations best practice and compliance with current employment law requirements.
• To provide general advice, as required, to the Trust on contentious and non-contentious employment law issues.
• To advise Disciplinary Hearing panel members in relation to complex disciplinary hearings and support the drafting of outcome decisions.
• To support the Trust in the development and execution of general Settlement Agreements.
• To provide day-to-day management of employment law casework on behalf of the Trust.
• To support the Trust with input into HR policy providing training as appropriate.
• To establish and maintain good relationships with the Employee Relations and Medical HR Teams, managers, clinicians and external contacts.
• To provide seminars and deliver training to the HR Teams and other NHS staff in the Trust on legal, employment and risk management issues.
• To liaise with the ER Lead for support as required.
• To undertake regular reviews of all open casework to ensure case information is accurate and up to date.
• To maintain a complete audit trail of work product and documentation by filing and indexing documents.
• To manage Employment Tribunal cases (excluding complex cases) and represent the Trust at Employment Tribunal.
• To liaise with third parties such as the Trust's external employment law team when expert advice is necessary or to instruct a Barrister for highly complex ET cases.
• To maintain oversight of external legal spend in conjunction with the Chief People Officer.
• To attend regular in-house team meetings to promote sharing of information.

Personal Development

• To comply with the SRA requirements in relation to Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

Person Specification

• Education: Law Degree & LPC (or equivalent), Registration as a Solicitor with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority or registration with CILEX Regulation as a Legal Executive.
• Experience: Employment law experience, Advocacy at an Employment Tribunal, Delivering presentations to non-legal staff, Experience in drafting documents and advice to customers.
• Special Circumstances: Able to travel to undertake duties of the post including travelling to other sites and attending Employment Tribunal locations.
• Skills: Ability to communicate in all formats, with all staff and key stakeholders, Ability to interpret legislation and adapt into local policy.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.