Overview
Litigation Professional Support Lawyer – Bristol Regional Centre – 3 Glass Wharf
About the job
Job summary
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you’re seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.
At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.
We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career at HMRC accessible to you.
Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.
HMRC Legal Group gives legal advice on issues arising from HMRC’s work and conducts HMRC’s litigation. Our work impacts the lives of millions, as we help to collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and provide targeted financial support to families and individuals. We have around 1572 people including lawyers, tax professionals, advocates, paralegals and administrators. Our strength is in our diverse people and the inclusive working culture that brings us together.
We work in supportive, specialist teams, that handle a broad range of different areas of law including general public law (human rights, administrative law, freedom of information) tax law, commercial law, insolvency law, information law and criminal law, employer’s liability for personal injury, focusing on either policy and operational advisory work or litigation. We also have a small number of Professional Support Lawyers who are responsible for specialist areas of knowledge.
Why HMRC?
Things at HMRC probably don’t work the way you’d think.
Tired of constant 60-hour plus weeks and the corporate grind?
Would you like to work on complex legal issues that make a positive difference to the nation’s finances? If you’re nodding your head reading this, you’ve come to the right place.
We offer hybrid working, with a 60% average office attendance, actual flexitime and genuine work-life balance alongside fascinating technical work.
Job description
Our litigation lawyers conduct litigation across the full range of HMRC work. We litigate some of the most challenging and important high value, complex Government litigation. These include big money tax cases and cases ranging from resisting judicial review challenges to litigating civil cases against those who benefit from the proceeds of crime. Our cases will often involve novel and challenging points of law and contribute to developing the interpretation of the law. We regularly litigate through the higher courts to the Supreme Court.
This is a unique Professional Support Lawyer (“PSL”) role situated in our Litigation Directorate. It is an exciting time as this is a newly formed Litigation Directorate, built on an already strong foundation established through securing Lexcel accreditation for all of our litigation.
You will focus on developing knowledge in the Litigation Directorate. This includes continuously improving the quality of materials and training underpinning this work.
There is a significant amount of existing content in the litigation sphere, with a range of guidance notes (both for lawyers and non-lawyer litigators) and training materials. There is a particular need to review this material to identify duplication, to maintain and sign-post key content and to run periodic training sessions. There may also be opportunities for the postholder to explore the use of AI tools in projects relating to the effective and efficient delivery of litigation work.
There may be an occasional need to travel in the UK including overnight stays.
Who are we looking for?
We are recruiting a qualified lawyer with specialist experience in litigation law and procedure to be a knowledge lead for the HMRC Legal Group Litigation Directorate.
We will give you training and support to continue to develop your knowledge and expertise. You will be based in a litigation team but will also be expected to develop strong links with the Knowledge Management Team and a small group of 4 PSLs working across the Legal Group on Public law, International and Commercial law.
Once proficient and knowledgeable in this role, you will have the opportunity to apply to move to other teams and work as a lawyer in our advisory, commercial or litigation teams to develop your skills and experience further.
Key duties include:
- monitor, evaluate and explain relevant law and litigation procedural developments;
- produce, commission, manage, deliver and sign-post key knowledge and training content including precedents, guidance and training materials;
- foster and develop continuous improvements to the collaborative working processes and practices across the Litigation Directorate, Legal Group and relevant colleagues in the wider department;
- encourage and support Litigation Directorate colleagues and Legal Group lawyers in engaging with best practice knowledge by fostering a culture of leveraging and valuing legal knowledge;
- work across Litigation Directorate, Legal Group functions and the wider government litigation community with a view to making connections, influencing and developing know-how and learning;
- monitor and report on the impact of KM activities, including PSL activities;
- pro-actively collaborate and share PSL skills and experience with Legal Group colleagues, and the wider PSL, knowledge and learning functions in Legal Group and across the Government Legal Profession;
- contribute to, and trial the possible adoption of, new technologies and ways of working;
- create and maintain relevant litigation SharePoint pages;
- horizon scan, monitor trends and develop insights across HMRC Legal Group functions;
- lead, develop or support related communities of practice and networks.
Person specification
- Meet the academic and qualifications criteria set out below;
- Experience in litigation law and procedure;
- Experience in developing and supporting others in adopting best practice;
- Skilled in fostering a culture of sharing and valuing legal knowledge.
Academic
You need to have a minimum of a 2:1 degree in your first degree (in any subject). If you hold an overseas degree qualification this should be equivalent to a 2.1 degree.
If you have a lower degree classification (or do not hold a degree), we may consider your application but only if you can provide satisfactory evidence of an equivalent high level academic and/or professional achievement.
For example, if you can tell us that you have:
• Significant relevant experience
• A commendation or distinction in the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE or the Legal Practice Course (LPC)
• An LLM or other postgraduate degree
• Very competent on the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) or
• An overall average score of 65% or above across exams passed in the seven foundation subjects in law (where studied at CILEx level 6): contract law, criminal law, equity and trusts law, European Union Law, land law, public law and law of tort.
Essential Criteria:
You need to be qualified as a Solicitor or Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales with experience in Litigation Law and Procedure. (See Qualifications)
Desirable Criteria:
Experience in Tax Litigation or as a Professional Support Lawyer would be helpful in the role but is not essential.
Qualifications
You need to be qualified as a Solicitor or Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales.
Solicitors, Barristers or Chartered Legal Executives must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx. Chartered Legal Executives must have a Qualifying Law Degree or have completed the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE or have passed exams (i.e. a score of 50% or above achieved) at CILEx Level 6, in all the seven foundation subjects in law: contract law, criminal law, equity and trusts law, European Union Law, land law, public law and law of tort.
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Working Together
- Communicating and Influencing
- Developing Self and Others
Technical skills
We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Candidates will be tested on their legal litigation and analytical skills.
- Candidates will be provided with a legal scenario shortly before their interview and asked to present their advice in relation to it (orally) to the interview panel for 5-10 minutes followed by questions from the panel.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £58,541, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £16,959 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.
- Pension – We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
- Family friendly policies.
- Personal support.
- Coaching and development.
To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
How to Apply
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:
- A name-blind CV including your job history (maximum 250-words per role restricted to the past 5-roles).
- A 1000-word Personal Statement explaining how your experience aligns to the Person Specification and Essential Criteria.
A separate statement (maximum 250 words) for the Desirable Criteria, where applicable. This is not essential for the role but may be considered by the vacancy-holder where candidates have the same scores at sift or interview.
We acknowledge that AI can assist you in your application. Find our guidelines at Link: Artificial Intelligence in recruitment
Sift
In the event of a large number of applications being received, an initial sift may be held on the Personal Statement. Candidates who do not meet the Essential Criteria will not progress.
At full sift your CV and Personal Statement will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.
Candidates who progress to interview will be given further information about the interview at that time.
We may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.
Interview
During the panel interview, you will be assessed on the Behaviours and Technical Skills listed in the advert.
Interviews will take place via video link. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Eligibility
Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days(Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake with your eligibility form, please contact us via: unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk – Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example – ‘Please re-open my application – [insert vacancy ref] & vacancy closing date [insert date]’.
To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application.
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.
Merit List
After interview, a single merit list will be created, and appointments will be made in strict merit order until the set demand is filled. If successful, you will be informed when we reach your position on the merit list.
Criminal Record Check
Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.
Reasonable Adjustments
We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact the UBS Recruitment Excellence Team via ubsrecruitmentexcellence@hmrc.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers
This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance at HMRC offices will be required where there is a business need. Please consider the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the ‘location preferences’ section that you can travel to.
Terms and Conditions
Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.
HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.
Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application(s) will be withdrawn from the process.
Recording of interviews is prohibited unless explicit agreement is sought in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations.
Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.
For more Information for people applying for, or thinking of applying for, roles at HM Revenue and Customs, please see link: Working for HMRC: information for applicants – GOV.UK.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
