Solicitor – Commercial Law Team (Maternity Cover)

1. The Legal Services team is a mixture of legal professionals responsible for supporting the County of Monmouthshire through the provision of a comprehensive, accurate and effective legal service to the County Council elected to represent the County.
2. The successful candidate will manage a caseload of Planning, Property and Highways work as well as assisting with the team’s wider caseload as required.
3. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to provide appropriate training and guidance to junior colleagues in relation to Planning and Property matters.

The Legal Services team is a mixture of legal professionals responsible for supporting the County of Monmouthshire through the provision of a comprehensive, accurate and effective legal service to the County Council elected to represent the County.

The successful candidate will manage a caseload of Planning, Property and Highways work as well as assisting with the team’s wider caseload as required.

The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to provide appropriate training and guidance to junior colleagues in relation to Planning and Property matters.

Expectation and Outcomes of this Role:

• To work within the Commercial Law Team providing legal advice, drafting and reviewing legal documents/correspondence and to lead on a range of transactions and projects including commencing court proceedings if necessary in the following areas of practice:

  • Planning
  • Property
  • Housing
  • Highways
  • Contract
  • Procurement Corporate and Commercial Projects

• To attend Planning Committee as principal legal advisior and work with senior planning officers to assist with more technical planning applications, challenges and enforcement issues
• To work with colleagues in the commercial law team to provide seminars and legal updates to client departments and professional development updates within the legal department.
• To work with the Head of Commercial Law to provide training to trainee solicitors and paralegals within the team.
• To maintain a personal awareness of legislative and case law developments which would or could impact upon Council services and provide updates as appropriate.
• To attend and advise Cabinet, Committees, Sub-Committees, Panels and Working Parties as appropriate.
• The postholder may be required to perform duties other than those given in the job description for the post. The particular duties and responsibilities attached to posts may vary from time to time without changing the general character of the level of responsibility entailed. Where a permanent and substantial change in duties and responsibilities occurs, consistent with a higher level of responsibility and/or additional expertise, the post may be re-assessed.

Here’s what we can provide you with:

• A great team to be part of and access to support and training to achieve these outcomes.
• A good rate of pay and pension as well as other staff benefits.
• A full case management system, electronic bundling, cloud based data sharing and appropriate research materials.
• The chance to develop your career.
• An extra days holiday at Christmas and Easter on top of your generous
• holiday allowance.
• In line with Service objectives, flexibility to work agilely and flexibly in order to achieve a positive work life balance.
• The opportunity to develop Welsh language skills.

What else you need to know…..

Our Values: Our purpose is underpinned by a clear sense of who we are as an organisation. We expect people who work with us to share a strong value set and expect that these are evident in the ways in which we work and engage with our communities.

Teamwork:

We will work with you and our partners to support and inspire everyone to get involved. We will make the best of the ideas, and resources available to make sure we do the things that most positively impact our people and places.

Openness:

We are open and honest. People have the chance to be involved and tell us what matters.

Flexibility:

We are flexible, enabling delivery of the most effective and efficient services. This means a genuine commitment to working with everyone to embrace new ways of working.

Fairness:

We provide opportunities for people and communities to thrive. We will always try to treat everyone fairly and consistently.

Kindness:

We will show kindness to all those we work with, putting the importance of relationships and the connections we have with one another at the heart of all interactions. This role will work with Monmouthshire to achieve these.

In addition:

All employees are responsible for ensuring that they act at all times in a way that is consistent with Monmouthshire’s Equal Opportunities Policy in their own area of responsibility and in their general conduct. The authority operates a Smoke Free Workplace Policy which all employees are required to abide to.