Bristol
Full Time
Permanent
£51,846 - £56,662 per annum
The challenge
Make a real difference to the lives of students by bringing your legal skills to the Office for Students (OfS). As the independent regulator of higher education in England, we ensure the best experience and the best value – for students, for taxpayers, for the economy and for the public good. This is an opportunity to grow your legal expertise by working across our diverse and rapidly evolving organisation on a wide range of regulatory and corporate issues.
The role
You’ll lead on provision of legal advice and support for a broad range of legal matters. As well as advising on precedent-setting matters of higher education and public law, you can expect a varied and evolving caseload, where you will advise on matters of consumer protection, charity law, human rights, data protection and information law. Expect to work collaboratively with internal legal and policy colleagues, as well as external legal support.
Responsibilities may include:
Acting on a wide range of legal matters running in parallel – providing advice and support on the following legal areas and topics:
Supporting the Head of Legal Services and other senior lawyers in operating the legal function within the OfS
External and internal stakeholder management
Knowledge development
An expert knowledge and understanding of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 is developed;
A thorough knowledge and understanding of the work and operations of the OfS is established
About you
This role would suit a qualified solicitor or barrister with a strong interest in public law and regulatory issues, and a flexible, creative approach. Excellent written and spoken communication and presentation skills are essential, including the ability to influence and negotiate. While your legal career to date may have been in a different sector, you will have directly transferable regulatory and/or public law experience. We offer a supportive environment that enables you to get up to speed, but you will need experience in at least two of the following areas :
We are looking for how you made your own contribution to a scenario, why you made that contribution and what was the outcome. Assertions without evidence will, in contrast, make it difficult to evaluate your skills and how you apply them. When completing your application, please note that there is a word limit of 250 words per enabler.
The enablers for this role are:
Knowledge and Learning
Planning
Communications
Working for us
The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week. .
£51,846 - £56,662 + £5,000 allowance (and London weighting of £3,566 where appropriate)
Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension
London or Bristol
Bristol
Full Time
Permanent
£51,846 - £56,662 per annum