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Paralegal
Location
London, ENG
Company
Job type
N/A
Working Model
On-site
Pay
£34,695 - £36,470 a year
Number of applicants
0
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Job Description
Posted on:
11 September 2024
Paralegal
The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
Bristol or London
12 months fixed term
£34,695 - £36,470 plus London weighting of £3,566 where applicable
Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension
The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England. Our mission is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.
About the role:
We are looking for a paralegal to support our growing legal team. The role will involve providing assistance and support on a wide variety of legal matters in the higher education context, including applying public law, data protection, human rights and consumer protection law. This will include legal research and document preparation in respect of a broad range of regulatory matters, as well as supporting the handling of litigation/appeals. You will be able to demonstrate your ability to proactively manage your workload, whilst adopting a creative and innovative approach to legal issues.
Areas of responsibility may include:
Delivering and working in a team:
- In the areas for which the post holder is responsible, the outcomes and objectives in the OfS’s business plan are delivered efficiently and effectively;
- The following are delivered: the OfS’s behaviours and values; flexible, agile and collaborative working, including with staff and teams in other directorates
To provide support to the legal team, including through research and document reviews in respect of matters relating to:
- Legislation applying to the higher education sector including the Higher Education and Research Act 2017;
- Data protection and information law, including legislation implementing the GDPR and the Freedom of information Act 2000;
- Legal topics relevant to decision making and supporting processes, such as public law principles, statutory duties and considerations, the delegation of functions and equalities legislation;
- Human rights law;
- Litigation activities, such as judicial review proceedings, statutory appeals and regulatory investigations (including assisting in the use of dawn raid powers);
- Consumer protection law;
- The use of the OfS’s enforcement and information gathering powers;
- The regulatory framework and registration conditions that apply to higher education providers.
Supporting the legal team in operating the legal function within the OfS:
- Commissioning external legal support (including Counsel);
- Negotiating fees with external legal and other support service providers and Barristers’ clerks in order to ensure value for money;
- The production of internal guidance documents on key legal and regulatory issues;
- Ensuring training for the legal team is organised in line with professional CPD requirements;
- The delivery of training to colleagues within the OfS to establish and maintain a culture of working closely and effectively with the legal team, as well as developing colleagues’ knowledge on key legal/regulatory issues;
- The management of case management systems to track the timeliness of legal support and identify trends in the topics raised with the legal team.
External and internal stakeholder management:
- Working closely with senior lawyers in the team to deliver the objectives of the OfS;
- An understanding of senior leadership team objectives, concerns and aspirations is developed;
- Engages with internal and external stakeholders, including by developing and maintaining productive relationships with internal stakeholders, eg policy colleagues.
About you:
The key person attributes required to fulfil this role include:
The key person attributes required to fulfil this role include:
- Experience of many of the relevant legal practice areas, gained either in an academic context or, desirably, through practical experience;
- Ability to analyse and advise on complex legal issues;
- Sensitivity to politics, understanding the needs of, and willing to work collaboratively with external stakeholders;
- An ability to adopt a creative and innovative approach to legal issues;
- Excellent verbal, written communication and presentation skills; and
- An ability to influence and negotiate.
The application process:
The OfS currently uses a set of ‘enablers’ to evaluate candidate strengths. This is your opportunity to expand on what you have achieved in your studies and career by describing what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. It is here you should use detailed examples to explain how you meet all the requirements of the job description. We are looking for how you made your own contribution to a scenario, why you made that contribution and what was the outcome. Assertions without evidence will, in contrast, make it difficult to evaluate your skills and how you apply them.
The enablers for this role are:
Knowledge and Learning
- Understanding of the context in which OfS operates, including relationships with the sector and government.
- To have an eye for detail and be able to see the bigger picture and awareness of the political and wider context in which a regulator such as the OfS operates.
- An ongoing commitment to learning and developing new knowledge and skills, demonstrated through an ability to take responsibility for identifying and managing own development needs.
- Knowledge and understanding of judicial review proceedings and statutory appeals in a regulated sector.
- Knowledge of public law issues relevant to a regulatory body, including principles relating to consultation.
Planning
- Able to manage own workload, operate proactively and plan ahead for anticipated tasks, resolve competing demands, and cope with changing priorities in a flexible and proactive way ensuring that key priorities are delivering to time and quality.
- Effective case and upwards management, providing clear briefs to senior legal colleagues and delivering the required outputs to time and quality to both internal and external stakeholders.
Communications
- Excellent communication skills, oral and written.
- An ability to develop and present persuasive arguments, negotiate with and influence people in a constructive manner to ensure the best outcome.
- Be able to build and maintain constructive relationships with colleagues within the OfS, other government departments and internal and external auditors.
Relationships
- Proven team player with strong interpersonal skills, which would enable the post holder to debate legal and regulatory issues in a constructive and professional manner.
- Able to establish and maintain constructive working relationships within the OfS and with key external stakeholders.
Candidates who are successful at the application form stage will be invited to complete a written task. The aim of this task is to test your research skills and case analysis.
Candidates who are successful at the written task stage will be invited to interview. This will include a case study on applying legislation. The case study will be sent an hour before the interview, and you will be asked to talk us through your answers during the first part of the interview.
Working for us
The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
At the OfS, we recognise that flexibility can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week.
To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part time working, apply to this role.
Closing date for applications: 25 September 2024 at 23.55