Paralegal
Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Directorate: Resources
Grade: Scale 6
Salary: £32,925 - £34,491
Retention Bonus/ Market Supplement: N/A
Contract Type: Full time
Working hours per week: 36
Weeks per year: 52
Application Deadline: 10/09/2024
Proposed Interview Date(s): w/c 15/09/2024
Reference:1402
About Us:
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.
We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.
London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.
About the role:
Legal Services is looking to recruit a paralegal to work for the Commercial Law Team. You will have experience of supporting or working in commercial law in the legal profession. You will support the work of the whole Commercial Team so will have experience in at least one of property law, planning law, contract law or regeneration projects.
In addition to your experience, you will have excellent communication skills and the ability to work under pressure to meet demanding deadlines. You will be proactive in your work and have the drive and energy to deliver for our clients. You will have good IT skills to deal effectively with the legal case management system, Microsoft Office applications and other relevant IT systems.
As a paralegal you will have a key role in supporting the lawyers in the Commercial Team so it is important that you are a team player who maintains good, professional working relations with your team members and across Legal Services as a whole.
>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<
Key Responsibilities:
- Responsible for supporting the lawyers in the Commercial Law Team
- Carry out case work instructions received from lawyers
- Engage effectively with all clients and customers in order to understand their service requirements and to deliver on them
- Conduct all work in accordance with practice management standards laid down by the Law Society (Lexcel) and all other departmental and corporate performance standards in order to maintain a standard of excellence.
- To deal with straightforward, routine casework in order to ensure the Council's position is represented in the most cost effective and efficient manner
- Undertaking general administrative duties
Qualifications and Requirements:
- At least one years' experience in the legal profession.
- Demonstrates some knowledge of practice and procedure in relation to Commercial Law
- Effective participation in Lexcel and/or other quality systems
- Excellent communication skills both orally and in writing
- Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines whilst helping with a diverse workload
- Pro-active and have the energy, commitment and resolve necessary to get the job done
- Good IT skills to utilise work systems and Microsoft Office applications
Terms and conditions:
The below terms and conditions apply to this role:
- Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
- Satisfactory declaration of interest;
How to Apply:
**INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY**
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Sue Sheret, Principal Lawyer (Regeneration) at Sue.Sheret@walthamforest.gov.uk or 07918 766446.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.
The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.
Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.