Senior Planning Lawyer
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Job Description
Senior Planning Lawyer
Salary: Band 12, £49,497 to £53,658 per annum
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time (37 hours per week, core office hours with minimum two days per week in office)
Closing date: Sunday 22 September 2024, 23:59
Qualifying Practising Certificate or CILEX Certificate required. You will need to be a qualified solicitor, barrister or CILEX.
Why come to live and work in Portsmouth?
Portsmouth is a great waterfront city and a vibrant place to live and work. It is an island city with an "inner city" feel, a seaside location packed with attractions and events, and the advantage of fantastic countryside on its doorstep. With fast road and rail links to London, Brighton and major airports, and ferry links to Europe, it is the perfect place to live and work. Portsmouth has a strong history of partnership working and has successfully integrated several local services.
The Service:
Portsmouth Legal Services is a friendly hardworking and dedicated team of approximately 40 lawyers and assistant staff who provide commercial and litigation support to the Council departments. We are committed to ensuring an excellent service in all aspects of our work.
Your New Role:
You will work on progressing a caseload of section 106 agreements, section 278/38 agreements and general planning advice for our busy Planning and Highways Departments. You will deal with Judicial Review advice with the assistance of litigation colleagues, and practise across the spectrum, adding value and assisting others providing focussed and insightful advice, comment and consideration. You may also prepare and (if you wish) conduct planning appeals, enforcement and all matters relevant to CPO's and assets of community value. You will provide focussed advice with respect to Cabinet reports along with Committee papers, and deliver updating training to officers and to members.
Please read the job profile for the full details of this role.
What you'll need to succeed:
You have a proven track record of professional achievement and an excellent knowledge of planning law, policy and guidance. You can work on more complex matters and demonstrate an interest in developing inter-disciplinary legal skills. You have excellent communication skills, excellent organisational skills, and good influencing skills. You have a consistent, supportive, inclusive, proactive, pragmatic, flexible and commercial approach to problem solving. You are a qualified solicitor, barrister, or legal executive, and can identify legal problems and provide pragmatic solutions to them. You are adaptable and understand working in a politically sensitive environment., and you take responsibility for delivering your personal tasks. You work effectively with colleagues and are committed to team success with a positive and energetic attitude. You are committed to continuing professional development and developing skills and knowledge of additional legal disciplines relevant to the work of the Corporate, Commercial, and Regeneration Team. You have a working knowledge of Lexcel and are comfortable with using a case management system and billing. You take pride in your and our successes in delivering exceptional legal services.
Please read the job profile for the full details of this role.
You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.
What you'll get in return:
We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:
- Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
- A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
- Flexible working options including hybrid working with a minimum of two days office based per week pro rata, giving you the flexibility to work up to three days at home every week. Hybrid working is dependent on the role and service needs, exact details will be discussed with you at interview.
- Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
- Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme
- Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
- Discounts on a wide range of goods and services - access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.
Staff rewards: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council/
Additional Information:
The full job profile is attached here.
Contact Details for an Informal Discussion:
Peter Baulf, City Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, peter.baulf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk, 023 82 834 041
A commitment to our values:
We are committed to our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, inclusivity and being people-focussed. These values set out how we can contribute to the success of the council and our own success as individuals. Learn more about our values and behaviours.
Application process:
How to complete your application: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/how-to-apply/
We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.
Please submit both a CV and a cover letter/personal statement. Remember to demonstrate in your cover letter/personal statement why you are suitable against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile, using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had.
If you upload a CV without a cover letter/personal statement, it is unlikely that your application will be successful.
We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.
We look forward to speaking with you soon.
Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.