Professional Support Lawyer

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Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Tuesday 29 September, and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Monday 28 September.

Salary: £93,000 - £109,000 depending on experience, with an excellent benefits package.

About Ofcom

As the UK’s communications regulator, we’re delivering vital work that helps keep the UK connected.

Our work covers everything from phones and broadband, through to TV, radio, the postal service, and wireless devices. We’re also taking on the challenge of making the online world a safer place. And we need people of all backgrounds, skill sets, and experiences to help us achieve our goal of making communications work for everyone.

About the team you’ll be part of

The Legal team is part of Ofcom’s Legal & Enforcement Group. We are a friendly, diverse team of around 100 qualified lawyers predominantly based in our London, Manchester and Edinburgh offices. We bring together a range of backgrounds and specialisms to provide first-class, proactive legal advice and support across the whole organisation.

Working closely with colleagues from multiple professions - including policy specialists, economists and technologists - we help to create, implement and enforce communications regulation and provide legal advice on Ofcom’s key decisions.

The team comprises Ofcom’s general counsel, legal directors, legal principals, senior associates, associates, plus a paralegal, apprentices and a small number of non-legal administrative assistants.

We have seen rapid expansion as a team over recent years. The majority of our lawyers are based in Ofcom’s London head office, but we have growing teams in our Manchester and Edinburgh offices. Our Manchester office is 4 years old and now home to a team of 17 lawyers. They are part of our wider Manchester office community of over 170 colleagues who work across a range of Ofcom’s specialisms including online safety and technology. We also have a team of 11 lawyers in Edinburgh who work closely with colleagues locally, on policy areas including online safety, infrastructure and competition, and across Ofcom’s wider offices.

The purpose and scope of the role

Legal work at Ofcom spans regulatory and competition matters, consumer issues, communications, media, technology, online safety, data protection, litigation, and public law. These matters are often the subject of political and public interest and debate and have the potential to raise new and significant points of law.

As our remit and team expand, we are looking for someone to establish a professional support function for the first time. You will be an integral part of the legal team, providing professional support to lawyers working on matters across the full spectrum of Ofcom’s work and across our offices. We are open to the role being carried out on either a full time or part time basis.

Your key responsibilities

This is an exciting opportunity to use your existing skills and experience to design and build a professional support function. While there is scope to make the role your own, key responsibilities include:

• Leading the training programme for the legal team, including identifying training needs, co-ordinating training delivery, budget management and liaising with Ofcom’s central learning and development function and external training providers. Our lawyers also provide some training to the wider organisation, and the role would also include managing this programme.

• Establishing systems and processes to co-ordinate the collection and sharing of legal know how across the team, for both new and existing lawyers.

• Supporting colleagues’ professional development, including their awareness of legal developments relevant to our remit.

• Identifying ways of increasing efficiency and expertise within the team and overseeing their implementation, e.g. where the development of templates, checklists, guidance or other key resources would be useful for the legal team or for wider Ofcom colleagues to use before seeking legal advice.

• Communicating with counterparts within the legal teams of other UK regulators, as part of existing networks or bilateral cooperation.

• Building on existing initiatives that are exploring the use of legal technology and AI within the team for research, training and knowledge management purposes.

• Managing relationships with providers of legal research platforms and raising awareness of existing and new tools on those platforms within the legal team.

The skills, knowledge and experience you’ll need for success

We welcome applications from qualified lawyers (solicitor, barrister or equivalent qualification) with prior experience of a professional support / knowledge lawyer role. While experience in a directly relevant area of law would be an advantage, it is not essential.

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate the following skills:

• Forming relationships: working collaboratively and building positive relationships across the legal team, with wider Ofcom colleagues and with contacts outside the organisation.

• Executing plans: being able to work independently, organise and prioritise tasks, set goals for what you will deliver and manage resources wisely.

• Articulating ideas: the ability to communicate clearly and concisely, in writing and orally, adapting your message to different audiences.

• Trailblazing ideas: generating ideas to improve processes, save time or harness existing knowledge.

• Pursuing growth: an interest in expanding your legal knowledge and skills into new areas.

Inclusive hiring at Ofcom

At Ofcom, our mission is clear: to make communications work for everyone. To achieve that, our people must reflect the diversity of the UK, in background, identity and experience.

We believe innovation thrives when difference is valued and everyone feels empowered to contribute their ideas and perspectives. That’s why we welcome colleagues of all ethnicities and races, sexes, genders and gender identities, sexual orientations, ages, faiths and beliefs, and those with apparent and non-apparent disabilities. We value socio-economic diversity, life experience and neurodiversity too. Whether you’re a carer, a parent, a veteran, or re-entering work after time away, your voice and perspective matter here.

Flexibility is at the heart of how we work because we want you to thrive in a way that suits you best. Most roles can therefore be adapted for part-time hours, job shares, or other flexible arrangements. Learn more about our Rewards, Benefits and Wellbeing on our careers page.

Our recruitment process is intentionally designed to be open and accessible. If you need adjustments, information in a different format or an alternative way to apply, contact us at [email protected] or 0330 912 1378.

As a proud Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee interviews for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for a role. You can read more about this commitment here.

Whoever you are, whatever your story, you belong at Ofcom.