Job Description

The Opportunity

Salary:

26,409 to 34,314 per annum

Working Pattern:

Full time, 37 hours per week

Location:

County Hall, Chichester and working from home

Interview date:

w/c 11 August 2025



West Sussex County Council are looking for a legal assistant to join our experienced and motivated team. As part of the role, you will have the opportunity to qualify as a legal executive or solicitor (with both financial assistance towards the CILEX/CPQ/SQE or any other equivalent legal qualification, fees considered and study leave). This is a fantastic opportunity to start a career in the legal profession whilst working in a legal environment. If you would like to work in a team providing legal advice in the area of Environment (planning, highways, rights of way) law, then this could be the job for you. You will need a flexible approach and excellent organisational skills.



As a Legal Assistant, your primary focus will be to provide an effective and efficient legal service to a range of clients to a high standard to include managing the progress of a matter and ensuring that deadlines are met e.g. drafting advice and legal agreements. You will handle a full and varied caseload and manage priorities and including tasks for rights of way definitive map modification orders, highway and planning agreements, and legal advice. You will provide advice and an efficient service under guidance and direction from senior colleagues.



The successful candidate must be a team player able to work under pressure, with an eye for detail, an awareness of confidentiality and excellent interpersonal skills and able to communicate with people at all levels.

What are we looking for?

You will have excellent communication skills to exchange information confidently with the client. You will have excellent research and review skills as well as accurate drafting skills to write legal documents. You will have confident presentational and advocacy skills You will have excellent organisation and IT skills in a range of Microsoft Office applications. You will be able to achieve and maintain good working relationships with clients, colleagues, other Local Authority staff, and external Stakeholders

Please refer to the attached job descriptions for further information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required.

Working for us

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide an great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:


an excellent

local government pension scheme

generous holiday entitlement of

25 - 27

days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave) a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave volunteering opportunities training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over 1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our

Staff discounts page

if you are a business looking to offer a discount) health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans

For a full list this can be found at our

Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for this role is

CRS00961

.



For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Becky Moutrey at

Becky.Moutrey@westsussex.gov.uk

.

For issues or queries regarding your application please contact

hrrecruitment@westsussex.gov.uk

.

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and cover letter. In your cover letter, please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.



We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our

application help

page.





CC



Job Reference: CRS00961