Job Description

Ref Number

B27-00104

Professional Expertise

Legal, Governance and Secretariat

Department

Office of General Counsel (B27)

Location

London

Working Pattern

Full time

Salary

See advert text

Contract Type

Permanent

Working Type

Hybrid

Available for Secondment

No

Closing Date

03-Dec-2025

About us

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UCL's Legal Services Department, part of the Office of the General Counsel, provides advice on a broad range of legal matters affecting UCL.



This role reports to the Senior Legal Counsel responsible for Employment & People matters, who reports to Fiona Naughton, Deputy Director (Contentious & People). The Deputy Director reports to Alex Hall, Director of Legal Services, who reports to Natasha Lewis, General Counsel.

About the role

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As Legal Counsel you'll play an important role in ensuring an effective and highly respected service.



The job will be responsible for providing high quality legal advice on the wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment and people related matters arising at UCL. As Legal Counsel you'll play a key part in managing institutionally significant matters, as well as business as usual activities. The caseload is very varied and will include advising on discrimination; equal opportunities; disciplinaries and grievances; freedom of speech and related rights; trade unions; change management; whistleblowing; pensions; policy development, and everything in between.

This position comes with a salary of 75000-85,000, plus generous holiday allowance, an excellent pension and attractive benefits package.

A full job description is attached to this advert.

About you

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To do this job you'll ideally have a good amount of post qualified experience at a high calibre law firm, or equivalent in-house role. You'll have experience dealing with employment and people related matters on a self-standing basis, a willingness to take on new tasks in unfamiliar areas, and to react confidently and quickly to emerging issues.



You'll also need excellent knowledge of employment litigation and strategy. Experience in freedom of speech and complex equalities issues is desirable.



You will have up to date technical knowledge, excellent analytical skills, sound judgement, and demonstrable experience operating and influencing at management level.



Appreciation of the dynamics of higher education and an empathy with academic endeavour, without necessarily having worked in the HE sector, is desirable.

Please read our job spec, paying particular attention to the essential and desirable criteria, and ensure these are covered in your application.

What we offer

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As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:


41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days) Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan Immigration loan Relocation scheme for certain posts On-Site nursery On-site gym Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service Discounted medical insurance

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.



We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce.



These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women