Senior Lawyer Civil Service

Overview

Why Join HMRC Legal Group? We are a diverse team of over 1,725 professionals – including lawyers, tax specialists, advocates, and administrators – who provide legal services across HMRC. Our work includes advising on tax, customs, commercial, public, criminal, and international trade law, supporting both operational decisions and major policy initiatives and advising on new legislation, including drafting secondary legislation.

As a Senior Lawyer (G6), you’ll play a key leadership role, managing high-profile legal work and contributing to the wider leadership of HMRC Legal Group and HMRC. You’ll collaborate with policy teams, senior stakeholders, and external partners to drive solutions in a dynamic legal environment.

The Role

We have multiple vacancies for Senior Lawyers in both litigation and advisory teams. You may be appointed to one of two roles:

• Mini-Team Leader – Leading a small team of lawyers within a larger Deputy Director led team, overseeing casework and/or projects, and driving strategic legal initiatives.
• Specialist Senior Lawyer – Acting as a subject matter expert on complex litigation or advisory projects, mentoring colleagues, and leading complex legal projects and driving strategic legal initiatives.

Successful candidates will be allocated a role which will be determined by business need at the time of taking up appointment.

Job Description

Senior Lawyer

Lawyers will be expected to take responsibility for leading their areas of work, be it high value litigation, leading projects or managing the delivery of a specific area of legal work. They will be accountable for the delivery and management of significant volumes of complex, high profile work and need to have the ability to work collaboratively with policy teams and senior stakeholders to achieve Departmental objectives.

In addition, we expect our Grade 6 Senior Lawyers to be able to work collaboratively across HMRC Legal Group, HMRC, the Government Legal Profession (GLP) and external stakeholders as appropriate, taking into account wider issues when delivering advice and contributing to the leadership of our organisation.

Our G6 Senior Lawyers need to have excellent legal professional skills, the ability to provide robust risk based legal advice and to effectively supervise the provision of legal advice of others they are leading.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop within two core areas, law and leadership. We have developed a structured and fully supported leadership and management development programme.

Person specification

Have substantial experience of dealing with complex legal issues relevant to one or more of the areas of work our HMRC Legal Group lawyer teams cover. Our work involves all aspects of advising and litigating issues relating to various areas including, tax, customs, litigation procedure, commercial, criminal, elements of welfare, public law, EU and international/international trade law, supporting both operational decisions and major policy initiatives and advising on new legislation, including drafting secondary legislation.

Excellent legal professional skills with knowledge of public law; demonstrate an understanding of the role of lawyers within government; possess the ability to give and oversee authoritative risk-based legal advice that is creative in facilitating practical solutions and mitigations; the ability to understand the strategic importance and impact of legal advice; the ability to communicate legal advice effectively in writing and orally.

The ability to work collaboratively with stakeholders and lawyers inside and outside their organisation; has an understanding of diverse customer needs which supports delivery of high quality and efficient legal services; can see issues in their wider context and advise accordingly.

A legal professional who values and role-models continuous self-learning and develops themselves and others to achieve goals, ensuring that development opportunities are inclusive. Someone who is comfortable with working in an uncertain environment that changing political priorities may bring.

A leader who thinks holistically about the organisation, focussing on organisational outcomes rather than just their team’s own interests, commanding credibility from senior stakeholders, who can contribute to the effective leadership of not only their team, but also the organisation that they are part of.

A leader who encourages a positive, diverse, and inclusive culture that supports wellbeing and encourages learning and development.

Essential Criteria

Solicitors, Barristers or Chartered Legal Executives must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx. Chartered Legal Executives must have a Qualifying Law Degree or have completed the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE or have passed exams (i.e. a score of 50% or above achieved) at CILEx Level 6, in all the seven foundation subjects in law: contract law, criminal law, equity and trusts law, European Union Law, land law, public law and law of tort.

You will need to be qualified as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive and able to practice as such in England and Wales.

Please indicate whether you would like to be considered for specialist roles or mini-team leader roles, or both in the Essential Criteria box. Remember that if you are successful, business need will dictate what role you will be offered and in any event, as your career in the HMRC Legal Group progresses, you will be expected to move between being a mini-team leader and a specialist advisory lawyer.

You can find more information and apply using the following link:
Senior Lawyer - Civil Service Jobs - GOV.UK