Legal Manager (June 24)

at  Crown Prosecution Service

JOB SUMMARY

As a legal manager at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), you’re central to the success of our prosecution teams. You offer expert guidance on a range of casework, particularly for escalated and complex criminal cases.
You lead a team of lawyers, paralegals and administrators, quality checking their work, and providing advice and direction on cases and policy matters. Your leadership is crucial to our ability to secure justice for victims and witnesses of crime – so you must prioritise your workload and remain objective in emotionally charged situations.
Your role is influential and rewarding, offering you the opportunity to shape the way we work and build positive relationships across the criminal justice system and with victims. You contribute to strategic planning and policy making, lead best practice training, and work with stakeholders from other parts of the criminal justice system including police and HM Courts and Tribunals Service to improve conviction rates and public confidence in our work.
The CPS is committed to your professional growth and supports you with a range of learning and development opportunities to ensure you can thrive in your role. This includes support from an internal mentor, and you enrol into our management programme to help develop your skills, confidence and capability. You also benefit from an individual learning account to spend on personal development and the chance to shadow colleagues across the organisation.
Please note London North are not participating in this round of recruitment.
To note - your job title in the CPS is also known as ‘district crown prosecutor’.
Find out more about our legal managers

JOB DESCRIPTION

You lead and manage your team conducting criminal prosecutions of cases in the magistrates’ and Crown Court. You handle the day-to-day work priorities and needs of your prosecutors and colleagues, working under pressure to support decision making, with a key focus on advocacy standards, assurance, compliance and data quality.

QUALIFICATIONS

Legally qualified: You must be a qualified practising solicitor or barrister and hold a valid Practising Certificate for England and Wales.
Academic: You must have a law degree, Common Professional Examination and/or Graduate Diploma in Law.
Professional: You must have completed a Legal Practice Course or Bar Professional Training Course and the relevant pupillage and training contract – or have received full exemption from the relevant professional regulatory body, either the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Bar Standards Board.
OR
CILEx: You must be a Fellow of CILEx, and in addition be a CILEx Advocate/Litigator holding all three advocacy certificates providing them with a ‘general qualification’ within the meaning of s71 (3) (c) Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. You must have a right of audience in relation to any class of proceedings in any part of the Senior Courts, or all proceedings in County Court or magistrates’ courts to meet the requirements for a Crown Prosecutor specified by section 1 Prosecution of Offences Act 1985.
Equivalent qualifications won’t be accepted. If you apply and are found not to possess any of these qualifications, any offer of employment will be withdrawn or your contract terminated.
If you’re unsure about your eligibility, contact NationalLawyerRecruitment@cps.gov.uk

TECHNICAL SKILLS

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

• You must have a valid practising certificate for England and Wales, issued from either the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Bar Standards Board. You must meet the eligibility criteria by Monday 5 August 2024.
• It’s essential that you have post qualification criminal law experience.
• It’s desirable that you have experience of leading and managing staff.

Benefits
Alongside your salary of £61,860, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £16,702 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The CPS is passionate about ensuring we’re a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We’re a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where everyone can bring their whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.
We want to ensure our prosecution teams can thrive at work and home, and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexible working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment, which means that where you work (a court, office or your home) is based on the kind of work you’re undertaking.
This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, and social mobility, alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

THE CPS COMMITS TO OFFER ITS EMPLOYEES THE FOLLOWING EXPERIENCE.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You’re able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service pension
• access to employee savings
• Cycle2Work scheme
• 25 days’ leave, rising to 30 days after 5 years’ service
• 1 extra privilege day to mark the King’s birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working and a family friendly approach to work
• childcare vouchers.

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)

Please refer the Job description for details