"Legal Counsel"

About the role:

The Legal Counsel will be responsible for providing high quality, considered and pragmatic legal advice across a diverse range of matters. However they will have a specific focus on advising on student litigation matters, education contracts, academic partnerships, dispute management and regulatory compliance, as well as delivering training and guidance materials to staff.

Working with staff at all levels, the role holder will manage their own challenging and varied caseload of legal matters with minimal supervision.

The Legal Counsel will report to the General Counsel and Director of Legal Services and support the other Legal Counsel in the continued development of a legal team recognised for delivering excellent advice and support for the College.

This is a full time role (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Qualified to practice as a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales.
2. Post qualification experience in a broad range of areas of law such as education, contract, charity, and intellectual property law but with a particular specialism in education, or consumer law.
3. Experience and in-depth knowledge of the Equality Act.
4. A well-developed understanding of legal issues relating to education, research, enterprise and professional services in a Higher Education context.
5. Highly developed and accurate legal skills including drafting complex legal documents, researching, negotiation, advocacy and interviewing.
6. Enthusiasm and ability to liaise effectively with internal and external clients, exploring their respective needs, adapting the service, and setting expectations.
7. A self-motivated approach to planning and prioritising workloads with good organisational and time management skills.
8. Demonstrable team working experience, including ability and willingness to take on new tasks in unfamiliar areas and to react confidently and rapidly to emerging issues.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience working as education solicitor, responding to complaints and appeals, drafting pre action correspondence and court documentation, liaising with OIA and OfS.
2. In depth understanding of the legal and regulatory environment relating to the higher education sector.
3. Experience working in an in-house team or university in house team.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our How we Recruit pages.

Interviews are due to be held on the week of 17th November 2025.

Grade and Salary: £65,091 - £74,613 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Job ID: 127825

Close Date: 31-Oct-2025

Contact Person: Tammy McDermott

Contact Details: Tammy.mcdermott@kcl.ac.uk