Legal Practice Manager

Company Description

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for ground-breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow’s power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative.

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment.
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders,
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays
• Wide range of career development opportunities
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive

Job Description

The salary for this role is £59,723. Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working. 

This role can be based at any of the following sites; Rotherham, South Yorkshire or Culham, Oxfordshire, or Whitehaven, Cumbria.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data. 

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Legal Practice Manager, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring that UKAEA’s legal team operates efficiently, ethically, and in compliance with all professional regulations while supporting the delivery of high-quality legal services to clients. You will ensure that improvements in the legal service can be implemented, working in partnership with legal team colleagues and also with directors, managers, and key stakeholders to identify unmet legal need, coordinate resources, and help programmes obtain the legal support they need to deliver.

You will also link into wider legal networks including Nuclear ‘family’ law teams, Government Legal Department, Local Authority lawyers, and local law societies to establish relationships and share common goals and expertise.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for supporting the Director of Legal in developing the function’s business plan and priorities, aligned to the business priorities and UKAEA mission and goals and ensuring current and future capability requirements are met.
• Assist with team financial management including budget preparation and reporting
• Lead on work to formalise and document the legal team’s structure and processes including working with Internal Audit colleagues on establishing the function to Lexcel or equivalent standards.
• Act as compliance officer for Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority practising rules and requirements, monitoring the in-house team compliance with relevant rules on conflicts of interest, acting in the best interests of the client and confidentiality
• Ensure that administrative requirements for Practising Certificates and compulsory training are met
• Oversee the regulated training and admission requirements for any trainee Solicitors under legacy and SQE rules and ensure that training and experience provided meets applicable standards
• Lead on the implementation of new software and case/document management system and be responsible for data control
• Assist the Director of Legal in identifying and mitigating legal risk across the organisation, proposing improvements to existing processes where required, and assisting with production of information and training materials
• Manage conflict and disputes over in-house legal services and manage administrative support to the Director of Legal and the wider team
• Support the recruitment and development of employees in the legal and contracts team.
• Work closely with the Head of Learning, Early Careers and OD to ensure departmental/programme/business unit L&D plans are designed and implemented, ensuring skills gaps are identified and mitigated.
• Champion diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the role.
• Deputise for the Director and Deputy Director of Legal as necessary.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements:

• Solicitor admitted in England and Wales with significant legal practice management experience
• Degree level and professional accreditation (to L7 Diploma)
• Experience of developing strategic priorities and using those priorities to enable culture change – business or project management qualification
• Excellent people skills, including coaching and developing others
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills
• Able to challenge robustly
• Creative in finding solutions to support the organisation to achieve its goals
• Highly motivated and collaborative

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/. 

We welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, particularly from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi British, and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and neurotypical individuals. Our Executive team, supported by our ‘Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organisation. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications. 

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state, we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.

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