Lawyer vacancies in the Government Legal Department August 2017
Information for candidates applying for the Lawyer vacancies in the Advisory Divisions, Commercial Law Group, Employment Group and Litigation Group
Headline Information
| Department | Government Legal Department |
| Divisions | Advisory, Commercial, Employment and Litigation |
| Job title | Lawyers |
| Location | London |
| Salary | Grade 7 - £48,400 (London), Legal Officer - £42,000 (up to 3 years PQE) |
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Vacancy details
The Government Legal Department (GLD) is a non-ministerial government department with more than 2,200 employees, around 1,600 of whom are solicitors or barristers. The department is based primarily in London but has teams in Bristol and Leeds.
We are the government’s principal legal advisers. Our core purpose is to help the government govern well, within the rule of law.
GLD is the largest provider of legal services across government, working with all the main Whitehall departments. From roads to rivers, and health to human rights, our work touches on most aspects of public life, making a direct and visible impact on the British people.
GLD has more than 14 client-facing advisory teams who provide legal advice on the development, design and implementation of government policies and decisions, draft secondary legislation and work with Parliamentary Counsel on primary legislation.
Our cross-cutting expert service groups for Litigation, Employment and Commercial Law provide specialist legal services to a wide range of government departments and public bodies.
GLD has a wide variety of exciting opportunities across its divisions. It is a fascinating place to work, offering unrivalled breadth of opportunity and unique legal challenge.
We welcome applications from both experienced and newly qualified lawyers. Strong intellectual and analytical skills are important.
While previous experience or knowledge may be relevant to some vacancies, government work is likely to involve a rapid learning curve to acquire legal skills and knowledge not required in private practice. We’ll help you acquire the precise legal skills within a supportive environment and through our thriving CPD-accredited in-house training programme.
Timing
GLD will be running a recruitment campaign in three phases. Each phase will consist of three stages.
Candidates will move onto the next stage if they pass the previous stage.
On the table below, the deadline time is midday on each date stated. However the deadline time for the Legal Professional Skills Test is 10am on each date stated:
| Stages | Stage 1A | Stage 1B | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
| Phase | Application Form deadline | Critical Reasoning Test deadline | Legal Professional Skills Test deadline | Interviews |
| 1 | 23 August | 29 August | 18 September | w/c 25 September |
| 2 | 20 September | 26 September | 16 October | w/c 23 October |
| 3 | 25 October | 31 October | 20 November | w/c 27 November |
Candidates should note that if the first or second phases fill all vacancies, then GLD may close subsequent phases.
The final closing date for applications in this recruitment round is Wednesday 25 October 2017, bearing in mind the above caveat.
Contact
For further information about the post and application enquiries, please contact the GLD Recruitment Team or telephone 0845 3000 793 or 0117 923 4417.
