Jobs

• £28,302 – £32,549 full time equivalent (FTE) gross per annum
• Full-time at 37.5 hours per week (1.0 FTE), or part-time at 30 hours per week (0.8 FTE)
• One year fixed-term contract
• Member of the UK Legal Team
• London office with the option to work from home up to three days each week
• Fully remote working arrangements will also be considered
• Member of the UK Legal Team
• Reporting to the Head of UK Legal & Arrivals

Safe Passage International (SPI) is recruiting a fixed-term Legal Caseworker to support and to enable continuing and sustainable growth in our ground-breaking work to ensure that safe routes to sanctuary exist for all people seeking asylum.

We are looking for legal caseworker skills, as detailed in the Person Specification. Experience in a similar role would be welcome, but this could also be your first paid position in the charity sector, or you could be returning to work after time out. This position will have a dedicated training budget and you will be supported to grow and develop within your role.

Closely supporting the UK Legal Team, you will facilitate the work of Safe Passage across all our entities in the UK, Greece, and France. You will provide support to our legal teams.

You will be attentive to detail, flexible, efficient, great at time management, and able to work well both independently and under supervision as part of a small and energetic team. A keen interest in the charity/NGO/refugee sectors is advantageous.

We value equality and diversity in our organisation, and are striving to build a workforce reflective of the communities we work in. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith, or disability. People with refugee or asylum-seeking backgrounds are experts by experience and are particularly encouraged to apply.

As a refugee charity, we offer a guaranteed interview for people with lived experience of seeking asylum who meet most of the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification. If you have first-hand experience of applying for asylum in any country, please let us know in your application.

We respect that people’s identity is not defined by their past experiences and do not expect candidates to describe their lived experience during the interview process unless they wish to.

If you would like an informal chat about our Legal Caseworker role and your experiences, please contact Alamara, Interim Joint Head of UK Legal, on alamara@safepassage.org.uk

Key responsibilities

1. Legal and administrative casework:
   • Support the legal team with new case enquiries, including contacting prospective clients to find out more information about their case and opening new files on our case management system;
   • Support the UK legal team in preparation and submission of entry clearance applications on family reunion cases, including:
     • Arranging and attending initial consultations with clients;
     • Preparing and drafting initial advice letters and Client Care letters;
     • Obtaining, collating, and doing an initial review of supporting documents provided by clients;
     • Requesting subject access requests from the Home Office / Local Authorities;
     • Obtaining DNA reports by liaising with accredited agencies;
     • Preparing witness statements;
     • Drafting and preparing instructions for expert reports;
   •  Support the UK legal team in the preparation of cases for appeal to the First Tier Tribunal, including:
     • Lodging appeals via the online appeal system ;
     • Drafting instructions to Counsel;
     • Drafting witness statements for appeal;
     • Submitting applications for expedition to the First Tier Tribunal;
   •  Maintain a record of all steps taken in a database efficiently;
   • Assist the legal team with referrals to SPI’s network of legal aid solicitors, specifically on cases requiring judicial review/litigation.
2.  Client support:
   • Assist the UK legal team in liaising and communicating with clients and relevant stakeholders during the application process;
   • Provide regular updates to clients on progress and outcomes of applications;
   • Maintain an accurate and timely record of all communications with clients;
   • Report safeguarding issues to SPI’s International Safeguarding Manager;
   • Support casework leads with respect to any other relevant tasks for client support.
3.  Active team participation:
   • Where required, produce reports on casework and/or case studies for campaigning
   • Actively contribute to SPI’s overall strategy and work with colleagues to ensure the organisation realises its vision and mission.
   • Adhere to Safe Passage Safeguarding policies and procedures at all times.
   • Ensure all actions undertaken comply with the current General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR 2018)
   • Maintain strict confidentiality at all times.
   • Participate in regular team meetings and check-ins with your line manager.
   • Prioritise and manage own workload well, using initiative and problem-solving skills to manage competing demands.
   • Support wider team activities, including participating in organisation wide strategy and meetings where appropriate; attending Safe Passage events; covering for absent/busy colleague.

Person Specification

Essential skills and abilities:

• Demonstrable legal and administrative skills including experience working on and preparing immigration applications
• Good verbal and written communication skills in English
• Good interpersonal and relationship management skills with the ability to deal professionally and collaboratively with beneficiaries and both legal and not-for-profit stakeholders
• Enjoy working with a small team in a flexible and fast-paced environment, as well as being an independent self-starter
• Interest in collaborating with non-legal colleagues to bring about systemic change
• Good attention to detail, responsiveness, reliability, and dependability
• Knowledge of the immigration/asylum/refugee sector
• IT proficient with working knowledge of Office 365

Desired

• Knowledge of one or more of the following languages is useful: Dari, Pashtu, Farsi, Arabic, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, French, Greek, Italian
• Relevant immigration qualification: OISC, IAAS, qualified solicitor with experience working in immigration law
• Experience using Salesforce
• Lived experience of seeking asylum
• Experience working with people in vulnerable circumstances and/or understanding of key safeguarding or child protection principals
• Experience working in diverse and cross-cultural environments

Other essential requirements:

• A commitment to Safe Passage’s programme and values
• A strong commitment to and understanding of anti-racist practices and values
• You must already have the full right to work in the UK as Safe Passage is unfortunately unable to sponsor work visas
• A DBS or criminal record check may be required for certain roles but a criminal record is not necessarily a barrier to working at Safe Passage
• Safe Passage is committed to ensuring safer recruitment practices and participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We request consent from successful candidates to approach each of their employers from the last five years to ask for a Statement of Conduct. All job offers at Safe Passage are made subject to receipt of satisfactory references and Statements of Conduct.
• In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

How do I apply?

To apply, please visit: https://www.safepassage.org.uk/jobs

Closing date: Sunday 3rd December at 11.59 pm

Greenpeace is an international network of non profit campaigning organisations operating in over 55 countries. Our independence and global reach enable us to stand for positive change through action in order to defend nature and promote peace. We investigate and expose global environmental problems, confront those in positions of power and present alternative solutions.

This is an opportunity to build on all your legal skills and knowledge, providing day-to-day advice and legal services that underpin every aspect of our campaigning work.

You’ll have responsibility for managing the legal service for Greenpeace UK, including running defence cases and strategic litigation, instructing external lawyers, advising our newspaper Unearthed on investigations and publications, and advising or obtaining advice on all other relevant areas of law. The role will also see you support and maintain the Greenpeace International (GPI) network of lawyers, liaise with other Greenpeace organisations around the world and work with relevant external campaigns.

A key aspect will be to advise on law in context, making accurate, pragmatic assessment of campaign output – including activities and publications – and effectively communicating how to mitigate risk without compromising campaign impact. You will develop strategic campaign-related litigation, as well as strategies that advance fundamental rights conducive to the functioning of a vibrant civil society and the protection of public watchdogs. You’ll also provide legal advice and support on governance, corporate structure, registration and other organisational matters.

Location: Islington, London. Our hybrid working model enables us to enjoy the benefits of both office based and remote working. We ask that staff work from the office in Islington 40% of their time, with 20% required as a minimum. Reasonable adjustments as well as specific office based needs will be considered for those with long term health conditions and disabilities.

Requirements

You’ll have:

• Qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales, with substantial post qualification unsupervised experience.
• An understanding of the position of legal advice within the organisation and the role of an in-house lawyer (preferably with experience as an in-house lawyer).
• Knowledge of at least four of the following, with willingness to learn the others:
  • civil litigation (including tort law and injunctions and civil procedure);
  • criminal law of England and Wales or Scotland;
  • public law (including judicial review);
  • international environmental and human rights law;
  • environmental law;
  • law relating to publications (with particular emphasis on libel and Intellectual Property and the right to freedom of expression);
  • contract law;
  • employment law;
  • human rights and non-discrimination;
  • corporate law and governance (including charity law);
  • regulatory law (including for charities and third-party campaigners).
• Ideally, experience of campaigning and civil litigation, with a network of contacts in relevant areas of law.
• A commitment to Greenpeace’s aims and to learning more about the principles of non-violent direct action (NVDA).

We give you: 
You’ll be encouraged to develop both personally and professionally, taking advantage of the wide range of learning and development opportunities available to our staff. We offer great benefits such as a generous pension scheme, subsidised lunches, free yoga and a wealth of well-being resources, just to name a few. Take a look at our Work for Greenpeace pages to find out more about what it’s like to work for us and why you should apply.

Our commitment to diversity:

At Greenpeace UK we are committed to advancing diversity, inclusion, equity and becoming anti-racist. We acknowledge that people from certain backgrounds are under-represented in environmental and campaigning organisations and want to do all we can to correct this. In particular, we want to be more representative of Britain’s diversity at senior levels of GPUK. If you have the skills we need and are a person of colour, disabled, LGBTQIA, non-binary, have a mental health condition, or if you identify as working class now or in the past, we would welcome an application from you.

To Apply

For further information, please download the applicant information pack. Please ensure to save this file to your computer for future reference. Once the job listing has closed you will no longer be able to access it online.

We recommend taking a look at this document that contains top tips for filling out your application, compiled by our recruitment team.

If you have any questions, please email us at huk@greenpeace.org. Please note that this email address is only for information. All applications have to be filled out on the website and cannot be submitted via email.

Greenpeace UK is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer. We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age or any other category protected by law.

CLOSING DATE: 9.00 am 25 October
INTERVIEWS: TBC

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced and talented lawyer to join our legal team as a Head of Legal and Enforcement.

What is in it for you?

• Work for a cutting-edge legal regulator at an exciting time; developing our regulatory approach through work on novel and high-profile cases
• Lead a team of legal professionals to deliver high quality legal advice and casework, ensuring outcomes that meet the public interest
• Play a key part in developing and maintaining high standards of decision-making and case progression across the SRA  
• Demonstrate your expert professional judgment and legal knowledge through personal conduct of the most serious and complex cases  

The role

We are looking for an accomplished lawyer to lead a team of senior lawyers in delivering high quality regulatory, disciplinary and litigation casework.

The Legal and Enforcement team deals with contentious matters before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and the High Court. It also gives advice and case direction internally on a range of issues to our investigation and other regulatory teams. Reporting into the Director, you will lead a team of up to 15 legal professionals.

With oversight of highly complex and high-profile investigations and prosecutions, you will be accountable for cases, ensuring cases are investigated progressed effectively and that decisions and outcomes are achieved in the public interest and in line with the SRA’s Enforcement Strategy. You will achieve this through handling and overseeing cases as well as providing and overseeing case direction to regulatory teams across the SRA.

You will lead and support teams of lawyers and investigators to make consistent and appropriate decisions, by sharing your expertise to promote a high-performance culture. You will demonstrate your ability to quickly analyse and absorb information, focusing on the salient facts and issues, weighing evidence and issues to reach timely, fair, clear and reasoned judgments.

As a proactive communicator, you will appreciate the benefit of collaboration, with both internal and external stakeholders. Externally, you could be involved in presenting at stakeholder meetings, seminars and conferences. Internally you will be providing legal advice and expertise both orally and in writing as well as presenting papers and presentations to committees, boards, and staff. You will exercise your sound judgment by identifying and responding to legal, practical and policy risks, demonstrating an understanding of sensitive issues and escalating appropriately and effectively, including to the General Counsel.

To succeed in this role, you will need superb organisational skills and be able to comfortably and effectively manage your own time and that of others. As a credible people leader, you will be familiar with managing a team to handle cases in a KPI driven operational environment.

What we are looking for

• Solicitor or barrister admitted in England and Wales, with an exceptional understanding of regulatory procedures and practices, litigation and complex legal casework
• Experience of successfully leading teams of high performing lawyers and/or senior caseworkers
• Extensive experience of delivering and directing complex casework or litigation
• Proven experience providing high quality, strategic and impartial legal advice, with an understanding of sensitive issues
• Practical experience of case analysis and legal drafting in a highly complex or high profile, contentious environment
• An adept communicator, capable of explaining complex legal or technical issues clearly and at all levels

We do not specify PQE for any of our vacancies, but anticipate that this opportunity will suit someone operating at Senior Associate or Partner level (or equivalent).

Useful and additional information

We operate on a hybrid working model which means working 1-2 days in the office and rest of the week from home. The role can be based from either our Birmingham, London or Cardiff offices. The role will require weekly travel to the Birmingham office where the Legal and Enforcement team is based. A London weighting will apply to the salary where applicable.

If you have any questions that are not answered in the advert or on our website, you can contact us via: recruitment@sra.org.uk.

To apply

Please click ‘apply’ to complete the online application form and upload a CV and cover letter, addressing how you meet the requirements of the role.

To find out more about the recruitment and selection process and how to make the most of your application, please visit our jobs pages.

Closing date for applications is Monday 20 March at 09:00.

Succesful candidates will be invited to interview; interviews will take place in early April.