Legal Counsel - Disputes

About us

UCL's Legal Services Department, which is part of the Office of the General Counsel, is responsible for providing advice on a wide range of legal matters relating to UCL.

The Legal Services Department is headed by Alex Hall, Director of Legal Services, who reports to Natasha Lewis, General Counsel. This role will report into the Senior Legal Counsel with responsibility for disputes related matters.

About the role

In the job of Legal Counsel, you will play an important role in ensuring an effective and highly respected service.

The job will be responsible for providing legal advice in relation to the wide range of non-employment related dispute matters arising at UCL. The Legal Counsel will play an important part in managing institutionally significant litigation, as well as business as usual disputes. The caseload is very varied and will include commercial disputes, student disputes, Equality Act issues, construction related disputes, regulatory and health & safety issues, and everything in between.

A full job description is attached to this advert.

This is a Grade 10 role and will pay between £75,000 and £85,000. There may be a little more for an exceptional candidate.

This is a fixed term role for a period of 18 months.

About you

To do this job you will need to have significant post-qualification experience at a high calibre law firm, or equivalent in-house role. You'll have experience dealing with dispute matters on a self-standing basis, a willingness to take on new tasks in unfamiliar areas, and to react confidently and quickly to emerging issues.

You will also need very good knowledge of civil procedure and disputes strategy, and demonstrate strong experience in disputes across a range of areas. Experience in student disputes and Equality Act issues is desirable, as is experience in Health & Safety and construction related disputes.

You will have up to date technical knowledge, excellent analytical skills, sound judgement, and demonstrable experience operating and influencing at management level.

Appreciation of the dynamics of higher education and an empathy with academic endeavour, without necessarily having worked in the HE sector, is desirable.

Please carefully review the job description, paying particular attention to the essential and desirable criteria, and ensure these are covered in your application.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Immigration loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.