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About the Role

Provide the legal leadership that enables public services to thrive. As Chief Lawyer - Contracts, you'll lead our specialist Contracts team, providing expert legal advice across commercial contracts, procurement, governance and complex strategic projects. Working closely with senior officers, elected members and corporate leadership, you'll become a trusted adviser on high-profile, high-value matters that influence the future of the borough.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership to a team of around 11 legal professionals, fostering a high-performance culture and supporting colleagues to reach their full potential.
Lead the development, continuous improvement and effective management of the Contracts function, ensuring an efficient, responsive and customer-focused legal service.
Deliver proactive, expert legal advice on complex contracts, procurement, commercial and governance matters to Members, senior officers and corporate leadership.
Shape corporate decision-making through strategic legal advice on high-profile and politically sensitive matters.
Manage resources, budgets and external legal spend to deliver value for money whilst maintaining exceptional professional standards.
Drive innovation, service improvement and collaboration across Legal Services and the wider organisation.
Use legal expertise to unlock opportunities, manage risk and deliver better outcomes for Brent's communities.

Requirements

A current practising certificate as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive.
Significant experience advising on complex commercial contracts, procurement and governance matters.
Experience leading and developing high-performing legal teams.
The credibility to influence senior leaders, elected members and a wide range of stakeholders.
Strong commercial awareness, sound judgement and a pragmatic approach to managing legal risk.
Excellent communication, negotiation and relationship-building skills.
The ability to balance competing priorities while maintaining exceptional professional standards.
A collaborative leadership style with a genuine commitment to developing others.

Skills

Commercial contracts
Procurement
Governance
Strategic projects
Leadership
Commercial awareness
Negotiation
Relationship-building

Location

Civic centre and other locations from time to time

Work Type

Permanent
36 hours per week
Hybrid and flexible working options available

Experience Level

Accomplished commercial lawyer
Senior lawyers

Salary/Compensations

£68,427 - £76,588 p.a. inc. London weighting

Benefits

Up to 33 days annual leave (depending on length of service) plus bank holidays
Excellent pension with generous employer contributions (LGPS)
Supportive family-friendly policies for parent, guardians, and carers
Health and wellbeing support, including access to eye test support and a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
Financial support such as education sessions, childcare deposit loans, and season ticket loans
Travel perks including affordable parking nearby, a Cycle to Work scheme, and great onsite facilities
Learning and development opportunities to help you grow your career
Access to My Brent Rewards with exclusive discounts on shopping, travel, leisure, and entertainment

About the Company

Every major council ambition starts with the right legal foundations.
From delivering multi-million-pound regeneration projects and strategic procurement programmes to supporting vital frontline services, your advice will help shape how Brent delivers for one of London's most diverse communities.
Brent is one of London's most dynamic boroughs. With ambitious regeneration, significant investment and a bold transformation agenda, we're looking for a legal leader who thrives on complexity, enjoys solving challenging commercial problems and wants their expertise to have a tangible public impact.
Because the contracts you advise on will shape communities, not just organisations.
At Brent, your work goes beyond legal advice. Every contract, procurement strategy and governance decision helps deliver better public services, support regeneration, protect public investment and improve the lives of more than 340,000 residents.
As one of London's most ambitious councils, you'll join a collaborative leadership team where your expertise influences key decisions, your leadership drives excellence, and your work leaves a lasting impact.

Equal Opportunity

Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this and therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community.
We positively encourage all applicants to self-identify their characteristics in the diversity survey section in the application.
We are committed to safer recruitment and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Applicants should be aware that posts working with children, young people and vulnerable adults are subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances.
The information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct.
As a disability confident employer Brent welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including “non-visible” disabilities and mental health conditions.
We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria.
If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us.