Job Description

Grade A - 52,737 (National) or 58,409 (London - for London office based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25) - There is also an additional homeworking allowance of 581 per annum for those working from home and a recruitment & retention allowance of 2,500 per annum.
Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: Home or office based (flexible location). Hybrid working (working 2 days a week from home), CQC's offices are in London, Newcastle and Leeds
Closing date: Monday 1 December 2025 at 11.59pm
Make a difference
Every role at CQC contributes to our mission, If you're looking for a new role in Legal Services that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose, then you've found it! As a Senior Lawyer, you'll help ensure our decisions are legally sound, supporting our work to protect people who use health and care services.
Picture this
Imagine leading a team of legal professionals who provide expert advice on everything from criminal prosecutions to inquests, helping CQC take fair and lawful action to improve care across England.
As a Senior Lawyer in the Legal Services team, you might get the chance to:

• Lead on complex litigation, including Judicial Review claims and First-tier Tribunal appeals, ensuring CQC's actions are legally robust.

• Shape strategic legal solutions by working closely with operational teams to manage legal risks early and effectively

The role
You'll be key in helping us deliver our work. In this role, you'll:

• Lead and support a legal team: Manage, coach and develop legal professionals to deliver high-quality advice and advocacy.

• Provide expert legal guidance: Advise on a wide range of legal matters including enforcement and regulatory activity, and lead on civil litigation and public law proceedings.

• Monitor legal trends: Identify recurring legal issues and use insights to improve how we deliver legal services across CQC.

Show us
We will be looking for specific skills, knowledge and experience in your application form:

• Legal expertise and advocacy: You'll need to be a qualified solicitor, barrister or legal executive with at least 5 years' experience, including experience of Judicial Review claims (preferable) or transferable skills to demonstrate the ability to rapidly acquire it.

• Leadership and coaching: Show us how you've led legal teams, supported colleagues' development, and managed complex caseloads.

• Clear communication and problem solving: Evidence your ability to explain legal issues clearly, develop practical solutions, and build trusted relationships with stakeholders.

The team
As part of the Legal Services Directorate, you will work with colleagues across the whole directorate. You will manage and lead a small team of lawyers and paralegals within the fast-paced civil litigation team, and work alongside fellow Senior Lawyers to support the whole of the civil litigation team. The team has a varied remit and predominantly deals with appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (varying between 60 - 100 live appeals at any one time), Upper Tribunal appeals, private law claims, litigated public law challenges and employment law.
A thorough knowledge (or the ability to acquire it) of the following areas of law, practice and procedure is desirable: administrative and public law, civil litigation, regulatory law, employment law and data protection.
Compliance
To progress your application, you'll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won't be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.
Next steps
If you apply, you'll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.
You can read the full details of the role in the
If you'd like an informal chat about the role contact - Sarah Potter, Legal Manager, Civil Litigation at Sarah.Potter@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email .
The Benefits
We offer a wide range of , including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of 4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our page for the full list.
Equity for all
We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they're a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.
We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we'll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our for more on this. If you'd like to chat, please contact . Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.
We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our for more about this.
We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:

• Age
• Sex
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Religion or belief
• Ethnicity
• Disability

Values and vision
We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence - being a high-performing organisation.
Caring - treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity - doing the right thing.
Teamwork - learning from each other to be the best we can.
We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.
A Note on AI
AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

• AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
• Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
• Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
• Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.

Skills Required