Senior Lawyer - Highways and Planning (Level 1)

Staffordshire County Council is a modern, progressive and forward-thinking authority that is ambitious and empowers its employees to be courageous and innovative in their approach.

Staffordshire Legal Services is a large in-house corporate legal team, consisting of lawyers, trainees and support staff, with a key focus on staff training, retention and progression. The services supports the County Council in the delivery of its objectives by providing quality services to support every single function in the Council including Staffordshire pension fund, as well as to a wide range of external clients.

The successful candidate will undertake a rewarding varied caseload of planning and highways related matters so previous experience of assisting/managing a planning and highways caseload is essential, within either public sector or private practice.

There are a number of benefits to working at Staffordshire County Council including generous holiday entitlement, flexi time, annual leave purchase scheme, employee discounts, local government pension scheme, optional car lease scheme and a staff parking discount scheme.

We understand the importance of a work-life balance and currently offer remote working with attendance at our Stafford office on flexible patterns and in accordance with business need. We are also happy to consider requests for part-time working.

Main Responsibilities

Your main responsibilities will include:

• Providing complex legal advice to clients on a variety of planning and highways transactions including (but not limited to) agreements under s106 Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (including for minerals and waste developments) and s278 Highways Act 1980
• Advising on planning and highways enforcement matters
• Undertaking legal input into strategic legal advice and risk, including drafting Cabinet and Committee reports and attendance at meetings where required
• Supervising junior staff and delivering training where necessary
• Adhering to the Legal Services Unit’s LEXCEL quality standards
• Contributing to Staffordshire Legal Services’ marketing and selling services

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for you to be a qualified Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor or Barrister with:

• Sound planning and highways knowledge
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise a varied workload.
• Local authority knowledge preferred but not essential.
• Strong I.T skills

If you are unsure if your skills and experience are suitable for this role or for an informal discussion please contact John Rowe, Team Senior on 01785 276186 or at heather.morgan@staffordshire.gov.uk

We’re happy to talk flexible working.

Interviews will be held week commencing 16 December 2024.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too. 

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. 

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.