Customs and EU Specialist Lawyer

at  HM Revenue and Customs

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.
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HMRC Legal Group provides legal services to the whole of HMRC. Our work impacts the lives of millions, as we help to collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services, provide targeted financial support to families and individuals and help to facilitate legitimate international trade whilst protecting social and physical security before and at the border.
We have around 1650 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 have vacancies for two G6 Specialist Senior Lawyers in the Customs and Excise Legal Advisers (CELA) team available on promotion to Grade 6. It is intended that successful applicants will advise predominantly on UK customs law, EU law as applied in Northern Ireland and implementation of the Windsor Framework.

JOB DESCRIPTION

This role offers an exciting opportunity to be involved in the leadership of key government legal work, advising on public law, EU law, subsidy control/State aid and public international law, and to contribute to the wider leadership of HMRC Legal Group and HMRC. Successful applicants will be expected to take responsibility for leading their area of work by:

• being accountable for the delivery and management of complex, high profile work and need to have the ability to work collaboratively with policy teams and senior stakeholders to achieve HMRC objectives;

and

• working collaboratively across HMRC Legal Group, HMRC, the Government Legal Profession (GLP) and external stakeholders as appropriate, taking into account wider issues when delivering advice and contributing to the leadership of our organisation.

Successful applicants need to have excellent legal professional skills, with knowledge of EU law, the ability to provide robust risk based legal advice and to effectively supervise the provision of legal advice of others they are leading. This is an excellent opportunity to develop within two core areas, law and leadership.
Whilst not having line management responsibilities, Specialist Senior Lawyers are expected to demonstrate leadership, such as leading complex legal projects with clients, coaching and mentoring, and supporting Grade 6 team leaders and Deputy Directors. Specialist Senior Lawyers are also expected to contribute to the leadership of the organisation more widely.
Please refer to the current role profile for Grade 6 Specialist Lawyer roles which sets out our expectations of Grade 6 lawyers for this role.

QUALIFICATIONS

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.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• 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. There may then be some follow-up questions from the panel.

Benefits
Alongside your salary of £68,966, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £19,979 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

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)

This role offers an exciting opportunity to be involved in the leadership of key government legal work, advising on public law, EU law, subsidy control/State aid and public international law, and to contribute to the wider leadership of HMRC Legal Group and HMRC. Successful applicants will be expected to take responsibility for leading their area of work by:

• being accountable for the delivery and management of complex, high profile work and need to have the ability to work collaboratively with policy teams and senior stakeholders to achieve HMRC objectives