Senior Associate, Legal

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Friday 19 September, and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Thursday 18 September.

Salary: £75,000 - £85,000 depending on experience with an excellent benefits package

About the Team

Ofcom’s Legal team is part of our Legal & Enforcement Group. We are a friendly and diverse team, based in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, bringing together each of our own strengths and specialisms to provide first-class, proactive, and focused legal advice and support across the whole organisation.

Working closely with colleagues from a range of disciplines and professions, we help Ofcom create, implement and enforce communications policy and regulation and provide legal advice on all its key decisions.

The team consists of around 80 qualified lawyers, with a range of legal backgrounds, experience and expertise. The structure of the team comprises comprises Ofcom’s General Counsel, Legal Directors, Principal Legal Advisors, Senior Associates, Associates, plus a paralegal, apprentices and a small number of non-legal administrative assistants.

Over the last few years, Ofcom’s remit has expanded to encompass telecoms and cyber security and online safety. We also have important new legislation to implement, including the Media Act 2024. We have been growing our legal team to reflect this new work and we are now looking to recruit more lawyers at Senior Associate level.

Purpose of the Role

As a Senior Associate legal advisor, you will provide expert legal advice across the full spectrum of Ofcom’s work. Our Senior Associate lawyers will typically work as part of a team of lawyers on a big project, or with a more senior lawyer acting as a peer reviewer, ultimately reporting to our Legal Directors and General Counsel. Our Senior Associate lawyers will work with more independence than at Associate level and will be expected to take on a greater degree of ownership of their work. As a Senior Associate, if appropriate for the work and your experience level, you may also peer review more junior lawyers.

You will work on complex and high-profile matters which are often the subject of political and public interest and debate, and which have the potential to raise new and significant points of law. You will work collaboratively with colleagues and experts from a range of disciplines and professions.

You will have the opportunity to work on projects throughout their life cycle, including helping with the early-stage policy development, advising on consultation processes, decision-making and any subsequent litigation or enforcement.

Your key responsibilities

Taking ownership of and advising on a portfolio of legal work across diverse projects in a range of sectors, working independently and with other lawyers in the team.

Assessing and resolving legal risk in the context of Ofcom’s overall strategy, including through:

• Providing risk-based analysis and strategic advice on matters which raise new and significant points of law, as well as Ofcom’s policy and programmatic work more generally
• Helping to produce clear and well-structured written documents
• Drafting regulatory conditions, rules, codes and guidance and statutory instruments
• Helping to conduct litigation
• Working collaboratively with colleagues across Ofcom from a range of disciplines and professions
• Liaising with external stakeholders, including central government, other regulators and regulated industries
• Supporting more junior lawyers, including in a peer review capacity where relevant
• Contributing to the strengthening of Ofcom as an organisation by identifying challenges and where appropriate helping to implement solutions

Ofcom has a range of statutory duties which are designed to protect people in the UK from harmful material, including on TV, radio and on-demand programming, and our new role protecting citizens from harm presented by content on regulated online services. As a result, applicants should be aware that this role may involve work with potentially distressing content and material and/or themes. Ofcom is committed to safeguarding our colleagues who undertake this type of work and offers a range of tailored support options, including annual psychological assessments for those in high risk roles and 24-hour access to counselling services.

The skills, knowledge and experience you will need for success

We welcome applications from qualified lawyers (solicitor, barrister or equivalent) with post-qualification experience in private practice, in-house or at a public authority advising on one or more of the legal areas relevant to Ofcom’s remit, including: regulatory or competition matters, consumer issues, media, technology, online safety, data protection or public law. You do not need to have experience across all areas of Ofcom’s remit, but you should be prepared to work in a regulatory environment on new areas of law, sectors and technologies and with greater levels of independence than our associate lawyers, but with the support and oversight of principal legal advisors and legal directors.

We’re interested in people who can demonstrate the following:

• Articulating ideas: Communicating your ideas, thoughts and information in writing and orally in a clear and concise manner, ensuring that messages are understood by everyone. You give clear and accessible legal advice in writing, and orally when presenting to groups or in discussion.
• Building Solutions: Developing knowledge to analyse problems in new areas of the law, new sectors and technology, and providing robust advice on contentious areas. You think strategically and creatively to solve problems.
• Forming relationships: Working effectively as part of a team, and collaborating successfully with others by building relationships with colleagues from a range of disciplines. You review documents and input into projects constructively in order to drive high quality, successful outcomes.
• Owning accountabilities: Taking responsibility for your actions, decisions and their outcomes, committing to get the job done and further Ofcom’s interests. You work with increasing independence, escalating key issues for more senior legal input as needed.
• Embracing change: Taking a structured but flexible approach to managing and prioritising your workload. In particular, you anticipate and manage risks to project deadlines where there are competing demands on your time.

Inclusivity Statement

Ofcom has a clear mission: to make communications work for everyone. To be able to deliver on this, we want our organisation to reflect the diversity of background, experience, upbringing and thought that exists across the UK. We aim to recruit from the widest pool of candidates possible – no matter your social background, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or disability. We also warmly welcome applicants who are returning to the workforce after a break – for whatever reason. If you have taken time away and are ready to rejoin, we look forward to reviewing your application.

Where positions are listed as full-time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares, and other flexible working options. From day one, we champion flexible work arrangements to accommodate individual needs. You can read more about our Rewards, Benefits and Well-being on our careers page.

Our recruitment processes prioritise accessibility and inclusivity. If you need adjustments, information in an alternative format, or prefer to apply in a different way, please contact us at [email protected] or call 0330 912 1378.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we offer interviews to disabled applicants who meet essential criteria for advertised roles. Learn more about this scheme here. https://careers.ofcom.org.uk/careers/how-we-hire/