Salary: Career Bands 8-9, £34,611 – £47,712
Location: Agile, Forth Banks Police Station and homeworking
Hours/Contract: 37 hours per week, permanent
The role
Here at Northumbria Police, we think our region is amazing! It takes a great deal of people from different backgrounds, with diverse skills and experience to serve our force area effectively, think you have what it takes to help us make a difference? This could be the perfect time for you to join us in our Legal Department as a Junior Lawyer Operations.
As a Junior Lawyer Operations, you will provide a comprehensive legal service to the force in relation to operational policing and other areas of public and police law. As part of the role, you will be required to provide support to the Assistant and Senior Lawyers.
What you’ll do
Court Representation and Advice: Advise officers and represent the Chief Constable in court for Civil Preventative Orders (e.g., sex offender orders, stalking protection orders, DVPOs, and Proceeds of Crime Act applications) to protect the public, especially children and vulnerable adults, and to combat serious crime and anti-social behaviour.
Misconduct Proceedings Support: Assist Force Lawyers in advising and representing the Appropriate Authority in misconduct hearings and appeals under the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020.
Operational and General Advice:
- Provide advice to officers on operational queries to avoid compromising criminal investigations and mitigate reputational and financial risks.
- Offer advice on general queries via the advice helpline.
Litigation Management: Direct the litigation assistant on proceeds of crime applications, police property applications, and dog destruction cases, and handle advocacy for these applications.
Research and Guidance: Research new legislation and case law, assess their impact on the force, and disseminate guidance to inform policy and procedure, minimizing litigation risks.
What you’ll bring
Qualified Legal Professional: Must be a solicitor, barrister, or legal executive with at least 2 years of post-qualification experience (PQE).
Workload Management: Experience handling large, complex workloads with competing priorities in a high-pressure environment.
Advisory Skills: Ability to provide advice on a wide range of issues, understand and apply relevant legislation and case law, and offer practical solutions independently.
Teamwork and Independence: Ability to work alone or as part of a team to deliver a seamless legal service.
Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written skills, including advocacy experience in both Magistrates and Crown Courts, and the ability to draft persuasive legal documents and negotiate outcomes.
We know it’s important for you to feel that you’re not only part of a great team, but part of a community. We welcome applications from suitably qualified people from all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
Harnessing these differences creates a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, and their talents are fully utilised. Appointments are based on merit alone.
Just so you know
Our application form will help us understand how your work, education and life experience has prepared you for the role of a Junior Lawyer Operations with #TeamNP. To help support your application research what makes us tick here at Northumbria, the role you’re applying for and the values and behaviours that contribute.
The recruitment process will consist of the initial application form followed by a face to face interview. Just so you know, you can save your application and come back to it any time prior to the closing date on the advert.
We are proud members of the Business Disability Forum, with whom we collaborate with to improve the lives of disabled employees. We are also a Disability Confident Employer, therefore if you demonstrate that you meet the minimum criteria for this role as stated in the advert, we will progress your application and offer you an interview.
If you tell us that you have a disability, we can make adjustments to support you through the recruitment process (for example we can arrange extra time for tests or provide a sign language interpreter) You can get in touch with us via careers@northumbria.police.uk for any support regarding the application process. Please provide us with plenty of notice so we can ensure your visit goes smoothly.
If your application is successful, we’ll ask you to complete a Recruitment Vetting (RV) form, therefore you must be a resident of the UK for a minimum period of 3 years to ensure vetting checks can be successfully performed. A job offer will be dependent upon vetting clearance, medical information, and references.
Terms of appointment
This is a permanent role subject to a six-month probationary period.
If you are successful in your application, you will have a six-month probation period with us where you will be unable to apply for any other post advertised internally or externally.
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.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .