About us

We are the Equality and Human Rights Commission. We are Great Britain’s national equality body and a United Nations accredited National Human Rights Institution. We were established by the Equality Act 2006 and our role is to protect and promote equality and human rights across England, Scotland and Wales. As a statutory non-departmental public body, we are funded by HM Treasury via the Cabinet Office, but we operate independently of governments.

We pride ourselves on being a flexible and inclusive employer. We celebrate difference, embrace diversity and support all our people to thrive at work. If this sounds interesting - apply to join us!

Our Vacancy

This is an exciting time to join the Scotland Legal Team, as we support the Commission in delivering our strategic goals and priority aims.

Our litigation and regulatory enforcement work in Scotland will be central to delivering the Commission’s ambitions going forward. This will include a wide variety of work, including equality and human rights litigation, progressing enforcement action, securing and monitoring section 23 agreements, contributing your expertise to provide authoritative internal legal advice to other teams and external stakeholder engagement.

There is a great deal to do, and managing the balance of our resources against our priorities and organisational ambitions is not easy, but if you are looking for a significant but rewarding challenge, enjoy working with a flexible and supportive team of like-minded experts and professionals, and you seek a role where you will be able to make a clear and substantial contribution, to the work of the Commission and the environment that we regulate, then this may be the role for you.

Key Responsibilities

We are recruiting for a Principal- legally qualified:  to join the Scotland Legal team.

 This will involve:

Applying legal specialist/technical expertise to provide expert advice on novel and grey areas, using sound judgement to make decisions where solutions are not obvious.

• Using strong strategic planning skills to identify the best response to opportunities for use of the Commission’s legal and enforcement powers

• Conducting high profile and contentious litigation and undertaking enforcement work in line with the Commission’s legal and enforcement strategy.

• Responding to internal and external client needs/requests, delivering appropriate solutions and policy responses to tackle systemic problems and in novel situations.

• Sharing knowledge and building external relationships to extend the Commission’s influence, building relationships with stakeholders to increase our use of our legal powers.

• Drafting accessible, well-reasoned reports, submissions, consultation responses, pleadings and guidance and quality assuring those written by others.

 Some travel to other offices, court hearings and meetings may be required. The Principal may be requested to supervise other members of the team.

 What we are looking for

We are recruiting for a Principal – legally qualified to join the Scotland legal team. You must be a qualified solicitor entitled to practice in Scotland with substantial post-qualifying experience, and will require skills including

• Ability to: provide specialist technical expertise and advice on equality and human rights law, including novel and grey areas,

• Experience in high profile and / or cutting-edge litigation and interventions and in depth working knowledge of the legal system,

• Ability to think strategically to identify the most effective interventions in relation to equality and human rights issues,

• Ability to provide in-depth technical briefings and user-friendly guidance on proposed and existing legislation,

• Ability to analytically examine equality and human rights issues, in conjunction with internal and external stakeholders, identify critical elements and making practical recommendations to improve practices, policies and legislation,

• Ability to lead the provision of professional legal know-how and initiatives to increase legal stakeholder engagement, communication networks and output of legal information

This is a challenging role. In return, you will be able to make a significant and visible contribution to wider work of the Commission and join a supportive team and will have opportunities for learning and development.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a range of benefits including flexible working patterns, 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (full time FTE), access to the Civil Service Pension Scheme and partnership pension schemes, and enhanced parental leave benefits. More information can be found in the candidate pack.

How to apply

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application today!

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an accredited Disability Confident Leader and operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) for candidates with a disability.

Should you wish to apply under our Guaranteed Interview Scheme or request a reasonable adjustment, please indicate this in your application.  

If you require an alternative accessible version of the application form or wish to discuss your application or reasonable adjustment  – please contact us by email at recruitment@equalityhumanrights.com or by telephone on 0161 829 8100.

Diversity in our workforce

At the Commission, we are proud of our inclusive workplace where we celebrate difference, value everyone’s contribution and where people of all backgrounds can thrive.  We do not accept discrimination or harassment, and all our recruitment decisions are based on fair and open competition, with appointment on merit. We are committed to further growing our workplace by making sure that the talent pipelines for our most senior roles are as diverse and inclusive as they can be. We welcome applications from everyone and encourage disabled people and people from an ethnic minority background to apply. This is to ensure we are taking positive action in order to achieve our legitimate aim of a balanced representation in our workforce at senior grades.