Senior Lawyer

Reporting directly to the Director of Legal Services & Deputy Chief Financial Officer, the Senior Lawyer role is responsible for performing in-house legal work at a senior level and acting as a business partner to key University teams. The role requires the post-holder to handle a demanding workload which includes novel and imaginative treatment of contracts and compliance/commercial issues plus contributing expertise to the training and case-management of other University staff. No staff are managed by this post.

The Senior Lawyer is an integral part of the University’s Legal Services team which is registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority as a professional legal practice, in the same way as other practising firms of Solicitors. The team fronts most of the legal work arising from the University's varied activities such as contract and procurement issues (contract is a principal feature of much of the work), administrative law (e.g. natural justice, challenge to decisions), common law liability, statutory compliance (e.g. with Charities Act 2011, Data Protection Act 2018 / UK GDPR, Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010) and the University’s various capacities (e.g. employer, higher education provider, shareholder, tenant, premises licensing).

There is a permanent opportunity - either full-time, or at least 0.8 FTE part-time.

What Will I Be Doing?

• Performing senior in-house legal work concerning matters like contract and procurement, statutory compliance (e.g. with data protection or consumer law), intellectual property, employment law, land law, litigation, corporate law and out of jurisdiction aspects.
• Handling deadlined transactional work (some complex and urgent) and providing input into corporate processes and decision-making.
• Negotiating, verbally and in writing, on legal positions, especially for high-profile, high-value, or sensitive projects.
• Giving advice on the statutory or corporate position of the University or its subsidiaries.

What Skills Do I Need?

• Qualified as a Solicitor or Barrister with a current certificate to practise as a Solicitor/Barrister in England.
• Experience in devising robust but novel solutions to enable business change within legal and accounting rules.
• Demonstrable confidence in exercising judgement in a complex business environment.
• Strong drafting skills and the ability to speak and draft in clear, unambiguous English.

Our team has its own five-desk office within recently refurbished offices on our Headington Campus. While the principal location of work is the campus, the nature of modern in-house legal work often allows for a blend of on-campus and remote working, which can be discussed with the Director of Legal Services & Deputy Chief Financial Officer.

As an Oxford Brookes employee, you will enjoy a total of a minimum of 25 days holiday, rising with your service, plus 8 Bank Holidays and additional University concessionary days (approx. 5 per year).

We have an extremely competitive Local Government pension scheme with a 19.2% employer contribution rate, as well as providing all staff with financial education and a comprehensive employee assistance helpline.