Principal Environment Lawyer

Salary: £59,538  plus £6,931 Market Enhancement with the opportunity to progress to £66,643 plus £6,302 Market enhancement per annum. Plus a one off Welcome Payment of £4000. The Council contribution to your LGPS pension is 19.6% of your actual pensionable pay
Hours: 37
Location: Stevenage with hybrid working
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Resources

About the team

Herts Legal is a large, innovative and vibrant legal team providing high quality legal services to Hertfordshire County Council and a variety of other organisations including Stevenage Borough Council in which they operate a shared legal service.

We are looking a Principal Lawyer to join our team Environment Law Team.

The Environment Law Team is a key part of a diverse portfolio of legal work related to Hertfordshire’s planning, highways, environmental and rights of way work, helping the wider growth and development agenda for the County and its Districts, and supporting some of the Councils major infrastructure and community facing projects.

About the role

Principal Lawyers are instrumental in ensuring the service provided is of a consistently high quality. You will be client facing, regularly meeting with key clients and external partners to discuss service delivery.

You will support, oversee, develop and motivate the team to enable them to reach their full potential and realise their career goals. 

You will also contribute to the maintenance of Legal Services’ Lexcel accreditation

As a member of the Legal Services Management team you will, with the support of the Director and Assistant Chief Legal Officers, be responsible for budget monitoring, service planning and resourcing within the team.

Alongside these management responsibilities you will also hold an active case load and will  advise on a range of complex matters within your specialist experience.

About you

Essential  

• Recognised legal qualification as a Solicitor, Barrister, or Chartered Legal Executive
• Significant post qualification experience in Environment Law (Planning or Highways)
• Demonstrable ability in managing a team of people along with the competing demands of an active case load
• Experience of building strong working relationships with clients and internal teams
  

Desirable

• Local authority experience is beneficial but not essential

This job role is within the Corporate Services, level CORP14 job profile. Please locate this via:

Job profiles - Corporate services

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Stephen.Dorrian@hertfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

Interview Date: To be confirmed

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.