23799 - Senior Lawyer

Role: Senior Lawyer, Legal & Information Assurance directorate

Organisation: Office of Public Guardian (OPG)

Location: National, with a willingness to travel to our Birmingham and Nottingham offices when required

Grade: G6

Salary: National: £71,381 - £80,419, London: £75,674 - £85,257 (salaries subject to increase due to pay award by end of the year)

Contract Type: Permanent

Minimum Hours: 4 working days per week

Organisation overview

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) protects people in England and Wales who may not have the mental capacity to make certain decisions for themselves, such as about their health and finance. We are an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), set up in 2007 following the introduction of the Mental Capacity Act of 2005.

OPG is responsible for registering lasting powers of attorney (LPA) and enduring powers of attorney (EPA) and supervising deputies who are appointed by the Court of Protection.

OPG is a fantastic place to work offering a range of development opportunities. The OPG is a disability confident employer and is committed to developing a supportive and inclusive environment that reflects the diverse community we serve.

OPG is currently delivering an ambitious transformation programme. This will change the way we provide services and help us meet the growing needs of our users, partners and our stakeholders. It will make sure our users experience a better level of support and will help us to respond to the changing needs of society. Transformation will ensure we can better support adults at risk and create high-quality services that are accessible and affordable.

Legal team overview

The team – comprising 70 to 80 staff members – is multidisciplinary in nature, and aims to provide a high quality and efficient specialist legal service for OPG. We have Senior Lawyers, Lawyers, Senior Paralegals and Paralegals, a Legal Support team as well as an excellent team of Legal Operations specialists.

The team has two principal functions:

(1) to conduct litigation on behalf of the Public Guardian in the Court of Protection, managing the whole litigation process. This involves reviewing cases from colleagues in Operations, Investigations and Supervision, and making a decision as to whether to issue applications covering the following:

1. Determination of the lawfulness of certain provisions of LPAs and the severance of unlawful parts;
2. Removal of attorneys appointed on the ground they are not acting in accordance with their MCA obligations; and
3. Removal of non-compliant deputies.

(2) to provide legal advice across the organisation on a wide range of matters including policy, investigations, complaints and where litigation is threatened/brought against OPG.

The work is important, rewarding and challenging in ensuring timely action is taken to prevent abuse of vulnerable members of society. Whilst being based across several different offices, the team works well together as a community, team members are well-supported and there is progression as well as a genuine career ladder available at every level. As one of the public sector’s most important in-house legal teams, members are passionate about the daily work and the organisation’s purpose, and come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

We also aim to become a Government leader in the responsible use of AI to support our legal practice, and so there are opportunities to get involved in the continuous development work in this area.

Role overview and responsibilities

This is a critical high-impact leadership role in OPG’s Legal & Information Assurance directorate as well as more generally within OPG, that reports into the Deputy Director.

The Senior Lawyers work alongside Legal Operations managers to lead and manage their respective Legal team “pillars” consisting of G7 Lawyers, Senior Paralegals and Paralegals to deliver an excellent professional legal service for the organisation. The Legal team has a high-volume litigation as well as advisory element, and in doing so, it supports the organisation to meet its legal obligations and to manage legal risk. The impact of the Senior Lawyer is very significant in supporting service delivery inside and outside of the Legal team, in maintaining the reputation of OPG with external stakeholders (especially the Court of Protection) and in the management/development of our legal professionals.

Senior Lawyers are experienced legal professionals who are capable of both managing a varied caseload of complex litigation & policy work as well as being experienced “people specialists” confident in leading and managing multidisciplinary teams and working positively and collaboratively with others across the directorate and the broader organisation. As part of the directorate management, Senior Lawyers are trusted to represent the Legal team at internal and external meetings/committees, whilst playing a key part in keeping people motivated/trained/challenged as well as promoting a professional and high-performing culture.

Senior Lawyers are expected to work positively and collaboratively together as a group, with a real corporate leadership focus. As a senior leader in OPG, the postholder has regular contact with other G6s, Deputy Directors as well as the Public Guardian, and is expected to be fully integrated into the wider business to advise, support and manage legal risk. As such, Senior Lawyers should at all times have a strategic mindset, have an excellent appreciation of legal risk and the bigger picture, and to be prepared to get involved in new initiatives and/or solutions in advance of and in response to new challenges for OPG, whether that is in the Legal team or wider. Flexibility to undertake reasonable duties consistent with the skillset of this post will be important given the broad scope of opportunities with this exciting role.

Agreed expectations

The successful candidate will be expected to regularly work from their nearest base location (either one of OPG’s main offices or your nearest national MoJ office) in line with current Civil Service requirements, outside of any reasonable adjustments. Work hours are standard but in line with other Lawyer roles, you may be expected to work outside of those hours occasionally where Court deadlines require it.

This is a full-time post, with a minimum requirement of 4 working days per week. However, requests for flexible, part-time working and job share will be considered, taking into account the operational needs of OPG.

Skills & Qualifications

Essential Skills:

• Experienced qualified Solicitor who has broad experience of a range of complex litigation and non-litigation advisory work: lead criteria.

• Experience of already playing a leadership role in legal teams (current/previous): lead criteria.

• Proven advocate of change management: lead criteria.

• Advanced interpersonal and influencing skills, with proven ability to work effectively as a team player.

• Ability to work at pace and meet challenging deadlines which requires you to be flexible/adaptable, setting priorities as the workload and focus within your area changes.

Desirable Skills

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates.

• Experience of working in OPG.

• Interest in/experience of using AI OR automating legal processes.

Application process

This recruitment will follow the Civil Service Success Profile process. Candidates will be expected to provide a name-blind CV (3 pages of A4 maximum) plus a supporting personal statement of suitability of no more than 750 words demonstrating your experience against the essential and desirable criteria outlined above. You should not use AI to create this statement as clear and persuasive drafting is a key element of this role. You should not use AI to create this statement as clear and persuasive drafting is a key element of this role.

Please note that in the event we receive a large amount of applications, we will conduct a preliminary sift on the lead criteria, followed by a full sift for those who successfully demonstrate these.

Interview Process

If you are successful at sift, you will be invited to an interview which will use the Civil Service Success Profiles. At interview candidates should expect strength, experience and behaviour-based questions, with a focus on the following behaviours (Level 4):

• Leadership
• Seeing the big picture
• Working together

Candidates should also expect strength questions relevant to the role and an experience question on the essential skills.

Interviews will be held remotely on Microsoft Teams. It is unlikely that interviews will be available outside of the allotted dates; slots will be first come first served.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Please note that interviews are provisionally scheduled to commence from 10 December 2026 onwards, although these dates may be subject to change.

Reasonable Adjustments

At OPG we consider all applications on the basis of merit and want you to feel able to demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any reasonable adjustments for any aspect of the selection process, do not hesitate to get in contact with us.

As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. If you are applying for a role within OPG and would like to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the selection process.

For further information on benefits of working for OPG, such as our Flexible Working Policy and a FAQ, please check the candidate information pack attached to this advert.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, we may offer you an alternative role at the same or lower grade should one be available.