Civil Litigation Lawyer - Temporary role up to 12 months

Benefits

Hybrid / Flexible working but the applicant will be expected to attend in person hearings when needed.
Pension scheme – 19% total contribution (you pay approximately 6.5%) and by joining the scheme this includes Death in service cover of 3 x your salary
Annual leave – 26 days plus bank holidays increasing to 31 days after 5 years’ service plus bank holidays AND you can buy additional leave should you need to!
Employee Assistance scheme, store discounts, flexi hours scheme, cycle to work scheme and much more!

Our Civil Litigation team is part of a busy legal department serving the fourth largest city in the country. The team enjoys a varied and stimulating caseload which helps our client departments including Housing, achieve their key objectives to deal with Claims efficiently and fairly balancing the needs of both the Council and its service users.

We are looking to recruit a lawyer, who is has experience of court and preferably also tribunal advocacy work and who is enthusiastic and hardworking. We are looking to someone who will have the energy and ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines in order to help us provide a vital service for our clients. We are open to applicants from either the private or public sector. If you want to put your experience and enthusiasm into practice as part of a hardworking, friendly and supportive team, then this is an excellent opportunity for you. You will need to show initiative, but you will also be a key player in a team which is achieving good results and is highly regarded by the client department.

The successful candidate will

Manage their own caseload, which will include complex and interesting areas of Civil Litigation.
Be responsible for providing authoritative advice to the Councils Officers and Members, ensuring that decisions are lawful.

For the Role, you would need to have

Recognised Legal qualification (Solicitor, Barrister or FCILEX with full practising rights).
Technical knowledge in all aspects of legal advice and representation relating to defending disrepair claims, recovery of debts, general commercial and other civil litigation.
Understanding of legal case management systems and process knowledge.

For informal enquiries please contact Ruth Chisholm and Maria Mullen on 0114 2736780.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more here New job evaluation process to be introduced at Sheffield City Council | Sheffield City Council