Are you looking for a diverse and fast-paced role and want to support the business of a successful and rapidly growing organisation? Are you interested in furthering your legal and commercial experience and applying your problem solving and legal skills?  If so, we want to hear from you.

What does a Paralegal do?

The successful candidate will be part of a small dynamic Legal team who are based primarily in the UK.  Reporting to the General Counsel, this role will support the legal function on a broad range of legal, commercial, compliance and project matters. They will work with teams across the organisation, including policy teams (that cover the health, education, home affairs and international development policy areas), bidding teams as well as the broader Operations team.  As part of a small legal function with broad remit, this role will entail a wide range of responsibilities including:

• Assisting with managing and reviewing requests to the Legal team.

• Drafting, preparing and proofreading legal documents.

• Coordinating with and assisting policy teams to draft and prepare contractual documentation and compliance documents (e.g. data log, data checklist).

• Coordinating with and assisting bidding teams to respond to RFPs and other bidding related  requests.

• Conducting legal research.

• Assisting with GDPR / data protection compliance.

• Assisting with developing and maintaining compliance policies and training.

• Performing general administrative duties, such as maintaining registers.

• Assisting with legal invoicing and accruals process.

• Assisting with transaction related matters.

• Assisting with other duties relating to the legal function.

What makes a great Paralegal at BIT?

We are looking for people who understand what we do, share our values and are keen to learn and develop their expertise. We are looking for candidates with the skills listed below. We expect to provide training and development support in some of the areas.

• Experienced paralegal.  You will have previous commercial paralegal experience, ideally in-house.

• Qualified and commercially aware.  You will be educated to degree level or equivalent with LPC Qualification.  You are aware about the context in which businesses operate, including the risks and challenges businesses face.

• Clear and convincing communications. You can keep on top of an active email inbox, multiple instant messages and a busy meeting schedule. When communicating with junior and senior colleagues you are always friendly, professional and firm when you need to be.

• Detail oriented. You’re organised and passionate about getting the details right.

• Multitasking and managing deadlines.  You are able to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.  You are also able to manage multiple tasks and projects and prioritise competing requests. 

• Curious about finding and solving problems. You care about the business being run as well as it can be. You can identify problems and you think creatively to suggest alternative solutions and work to implement improvements.

• Strong administrator.  You are organised and methodical and have excellent IT skills, ideally with experience working with Google documents and spreadsheets.  

• Managing relationships at all levels. You can build relationships and trust with colleagues across all levels of the organisation. You enjoy working as part of a team but can also work independently.  You are confident working with people senior to you and feel comfortable chasing them when they need to do something.

Who are we and what can we offer you?

The Behavioural Insights Team is the world leader in applying behavioural science to public policy challenges in order to strengthen communities and improve lives. 

We design and rigorously test new ideas across a range of areas such as health, crime and education, to establish what works and what doesn’t. We have helped Tuberculosis patients take their medicine; reduced police susceptibility to cyberattacks; and helped organisations close their gender pay gap.

BIT really is a great place to work:

• We have a hive mindset where we think out loud, share ideas and learn from one another. You will work alongside a friendly,  talented, and driven team with diverse expertise – from economics to anthropology and neuroscience – and a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds. What unites us is the goal to have a positive social impact through our work.

• We encourage flexible working and have a culture which enables this; for example flexible start and finish times and an IT set up which allows for easy working from home options.

• We have regular team get-togethers with inspirational external guest speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds and specialisms. There’s always something new to learn about!

• We have a flexible benefits programme which currently includes things like gym memberships, cycle to work schemes and the ability to buy extra annual leave at the start of the year.

• We’re a social bunch and have a variety of interest groups including Film Club, BIT Kids for our parents & 5-a-side team to name a few. Many of these have continued virtually!

• We have a great office in Westminster, which has an amazing coffee machine and fridges stocked full of soft drinks!

How to apply

We use a great platform called Applied. You will need to answer a few work-based questions which will be anonymously marked by members of our team. Our selection is based on performance in these questions, combined with looking at your CV after this initial blinded process had been completed. 

Candidates with the top scoring answers will be invited to a structured interview where you get to meet some of the team. At the interview stage you will be asked questions that reflect the role and also to complete a work-based task, so you have the chance to demonstrate your skills. We always give all applicants feedback, no matter what stage your application reaches.

Key Dates:

• Role closes: 31 January 2022 at Midday

• First round interviews: w/c 7 February 2022

• If required, second round interviews: w/c 14 February 2022

All dates are subject to change (but we'll try our best to not change them!)

Please note:

We would be open to applications from candidates who are starting training contracts in March 2023 or September 2023.

If you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship in order to continue working here, you should think carefully before applying. This is because we will be unable to sponsor you unless there is no other suitably qualified settled worker available to fill the role or your current immigration status means that the resident labour market test will not apply in your case.

Some of the personal data you provide to Applied when you apply for a role with The Behavioural Insights Team will be passed on to The Behavioural Insights Team for the purposes of (a) reviewing your application; (b) inviting you for interview; and/or (c) offering you a job and getting you set up as an employee/contractor. For full details on how BIT collects and uses your personal data please visit our website - https://www.bi.team/bit-global-recruitment-privacy-notice/ 

If your application is not successful, any personal data provided to us by Applied (including any personal data relating to equal opportunities monitoring as set out above) will be retained by The Behavioural Insights Team for no longer than 6 months after the application deadline has passed (other than in exceptional circumstances where we may need to retain your personal data for longer), at which point your personal data will be securely deleted. We only keep your information for that period in order to allow us to comply with relevant legal obligations.