Working Hours: 35 hours per week - hybrid working

Salary: £49,498 - £61,379 per annum pro rata (bars at £50,512, £55,301 and £60,142)

 Contract Type: Permanent, Full Time

Closing Date: 13 September 2024

We are looking for a qualified Barrister or Solicitor/CILEx Advocate to join our team of In-House Advocates within the Children and Families Legal Group which offers expert legal advice, support and representation to local authority clients in all areas of child protection law. 

Our In-House Advocacy Service is in now in its 14th year of operation!  We have achieved some incredible results given the quality of our work and the support of In-House Advocates.  We pride ourselves on providing comprehensive and proactive legal advice and representation for Manchester, Salford and Rochdale Councils and the range of legal work is both interesting and challenging.  Joining a well-regarded and established team of 7 In House Advocates we are looking to fill vacant positions with investment to take our already outstanding results to a new enhanced vision for the future. 

We are a large, dynamic and very supportive team who work collaboratively to meet the clients’ aims and objectives. 

To pursue our goal of expanding our in-house advocacy resource further, we have an exciting opportunity to join our team of experienced professionals as a Career-Graded In House Advocate. We are looking for a qualified Barrister, Solicitor or FILEx/CILEx Advocate with a current practising certificate to play a vital role in helping to deliver focused, high-quality advice and representation to our clients. 

This is a career graded In House Advocate role which covers Grades 10 through to Grade 12. The role will therefore be suitable for advocates of differing experience and skills. The level of support provided with regard to your role will be commensurate with the grade.  

Whilst previous local authority experience would be an advantage, we are also open to candidates who have private practice experience, are counsel who have completed their pupillage or who have experience in other in-house roles where they have transferable skills and would be a good fit.

Career development is important to us.  We recognise the value of mentoring, training, coaching and development.  We provide support to enable our In-House Advocates to pursue higher rights of audience and the management, support and quality of our work has also enabled several former In House Advocates to transfer to the Bar without pupillage!

About the Candidate

We are looking for enthusiastic individuals with initiative, a proactive approach to problem-solving, and a real commitment to the job. You will work within a friendly, welcoming and supportive team environment where your professional development will be nurtured and appreciated. 

The successful candidates whilst demonstrating a good working knowledge of local government law, will have the abilities to formulate and present quality legal argument to the Courts on behalf of our clients, both orally and in writing, within hearings of varying lengths and complexity.  You will have a sound and proven knowledge of the law relating to children and families.  The successful candidates will also be able to evidence personal commitment to continuous self-development.  

Your brief, received from internal team members, is also growing.  As an already effective team of lawyers, legal officers and business support team who produce incredible, outstanding results their vision for the future is also being enhanced.  Aligning ourselves with Children’s Services to deliver safe, efficient, and effective services to families, the enhanced vision is supported by a new “small teams” structure, an enriched training, mentoring and coaching tool and a new Case Management System.  Highly valued by our clients, our excellent relationships and continual looking for better ways of doing things and achieving greater heights produces an innovative, responsive, inclusive and transparent legal service. 

You will be a qualified Barrister, Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive with Advocacy Certificate, able and committed to working in a flexible manner including outside normal office hours, when the role necessitates the same.  You will be a key member of the group, confident and able to work independently and act upon your own initiative.   

Why work with us? 
We recognise that working in child protection law can be challenging. We offer our lawyers flexible start and finish times (subject to court hearings and workload) with an effective hybrid working-practice model, so that you can find the balance that empowers you to do your best work. There’s opportunity for development and variety thanks to the way our teams practise in our Lexcel-accredited and supported legal service. 

Legal work for public services in Manchester, Salford and Rochdale Councils and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority puts you among the few practitioners in England’s first, and biggest, devolved region, where major decisions are now taken in-house rather than in Whitehall and by NHS administrations.  

For more information and to apply, please visit https://tinyurl.com/34schds5