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About the Role

This Legal Counsel - Employment role is an excellent opportunity for a qualified lawyer with at least 4 years’ post qualification experience in employment law. The successful candidate, together with the Senior Legal Counsel - Employment, will be the main source of legal advice to the University on employment issues.

The role will cover all aspects of employment law in relation to both contentious and non-contentious matters.

Key Responsibilities

• Providing legal advice on day-to-day employment law issues, both contentious and non-contentious. This will cover all aspects of employment law ranging from discrimination, redundancies, disciplinaries and grievances to Trade Union issues, TUPE transfers, reorganisations and Freedom of Speech.
• Handling Employment Tribunal claims from inception to final hearing, including drafting and preparing Employment Tribunal documentation and witness statements. Advocacy in Employment Tribunal hearing, and/or instructing and liaising with external counsel where necessary.
• Drafting, updating and reviewing employment related documentation, e.g. contracts, policies, procedures, settlement agreements and the employment law provisions of wider commercial agreements.
• Delivering training on employment law topics/issues to the People Services department and others across the University when required.
• Developing and maintaining effective relationships with key internal stakeholders, in particular within People Services, and also with external legal advisors.
• Communicating legal options and advice to colleagues at all levels, and providing advice on the merits of claims and disputes. Making commercial recommendations based upon risk assessment of the situation.
• Contributing to the management of relationships with external law-firms to ensure best value and consistently high levels of quality and service. Helping to monitor and manage external employment law-related spend, ensuring costs are controlled.
• Keeping up to date with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) so as to maintain a practicing certificate and to ensure legal advice and documentation are aligned with current law.
• Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the post.

About You

Essential:

• Qualified Solicitor (or equivalent), with at least 4 years’ post qualification experience in employment law.
• Highly developed knowledge and understanding of all aspects of employment law. Experience of managing and advising on a wide range of employment related issues (contentious and non-contentious).
• Ability to handle Employment Tribunal claims from Early Conciliation through to final hearing, including advocacy/representation at preliminary hearings.
• Strong drafting skills in relation to both contentious and non-contentious work. This includes pleadings, witness statements and other documentation in relation to Employment Tribunal claims; contracts; policies and procedures; settlement agreements; TUPE provisions in commercial agreements; and other employment-related documentation.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team, to tight deadlines and to manage own case load as well as to prioritise effectively against conflicting demands.
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills, and capable of building effective relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority.
• Innovative and pragmatic problem solver with strong commercial awareness and sound judgement.
• Ability to communicate complex legal matters to colleagues in an understandable way and in a manner that can usefully inform individuals with a range of expertise, understanding, experience and priorities.
• Knowledge and application of IT skills.

Desirable:

• Experience of working in a large complex organization.
• In-house legal experience (preferably within the higher education sector or other unionised or public sector environment,).
• If currently working in private practice, experience of clients within the higher education sector or other unionised or public sector environment.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from both home and the office, however this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office and attendance in the office will be required when appropriate and in response to business needs. It is anticipated that this will be around twice per month on average.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

We anticipate that face-to-face interviews for this role will be taking place onsite at our Milton Keynes campus during the week commencing 3 August 2026. 

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following documents:

• CV
• A personal statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job description.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.