CMA1445 Assistant Legal Director

128574

£71,370 - £77,300

Permanent

Legal Services

Legal Services

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time

5

Canary Wharf, London OR Edinburgh

With the UK’s exit from the EU and rapidly evolving markets, the CMA has an exciting and challenging agenda making it a particularly interesting place for lawyers to define their careers. The work within our advisory teams is varied, complex and highly rewarding, and Lawyers are encouraged to apply their legal skills across a number of our practice areas while also developing specialist expertise.

Reporting to Senior Legal Directors and the General Counsel, your key focus will be to ensure that decisions taken by the CMA are legally robust, including by identifying legal risks early, and by working with senior lawyers, case teams and decision makers to ensure that these are managed appropriately. Our advisory lawyers are embedded in project teams working across the CMA’s entire portfolio as follows:

• Competition law enforcement (e.g. the paroxetine and recently-opened Apple and Facebook cases).
• Consumer law enforcement (e.g. tackling misleading online reviews and endorsements, unfair practices by developers and ground rent escalation terms in long term leases, and ensuring fair holiday cancellation and refund rights during the COVID-19 pandemic).
• Merger control: (e.g. the Phase 2 investigation into the Sainsbury’s/Asda merger and the recent Sabre/Farelogix litigation).
• Markets work: (e.g. the current market studies into mobile ecosystems and into electric vehicle charging, and past work on digital advertising and funeral services).
• Regulatory work: ensuring fair conduct in the appeals and references to the CMA in regulated sectors – often concerning key price controls.
• Digital markets regulation: (e.g. supporting the CMA’s involvement in the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum and the forthcoming establishment of the Digital Markets Unit).
• UK internal market and subsidy control: (e.g. supporting the CMA’s Office of the Internal Market, and post-Brexit subsidy control).

As an Assistant Legal Director, you will advise case teams and decision makers throughout the life of a project, taking responsibility for the delivery of high-quality analysis, and advising on decisions, reports and policy. At any one time, you may focus primarily on one or more of merger, markets and regulatory activity, competition or consumer law enforcement or State Aid. You will also have line management responsibilities, coaching and motivating staff.

The role will involve engagement throughout the CMA and externally. You may also have the opportunity from time-to-time to fulfill a delivery function; that is, to be responsible for project managing a case.

We welcome applications from lawyers with significant knowledge of and practical post-qualification experience in one or more of UK and EU competition or consumer law, State Aid or regulatory law casework, together with knowledge and appreciation of applicable public law.

You will have significant experience delivering high quality analysis, providing case advice, report writing and contributing to policy, as well as coaching and motivating staff.

You will be a fully qualified lawyer entitled to practise as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive (CILEx Fellow) in the UK. Applicants qualified in a jurisdiction outside the UK will be required to undertake the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme/SQE within 3 years of appointment, and employment will be conditional upon the successful completion of the QLTS/SQE within this time period.

To find out more about these opportunities and to view a short video about life in the CMA Legal Service, please go to: https://drive.google.com/open?id=143PQSyF2yf26IUgYt-sUmd1ZMzY15ZcG

Please note we are also recruiting for Legal Advisers. If you would like to be considered for the roles of Assistant Legal Director and Legal Adviser, you will need to submit a separate application for each role.

The CMA is a hugely rewarding, diverse and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so. All CMA staff enjoy generous benefits, including an excellent pension scheme, at least 25 days leave (increasing to 30 over five years), and generous maternity/paternity leave provision. You can also take advantage of interest-free season ticket loans, a cycle to work scheme, and favourable consideration of flexible working.

The CMA are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. It is a priority to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we welcome applications from under-represented groups, including ethnically diverse people, people with a disability, and people with diverse gender identities.

Responsibilities

• Provide high quality, clear and timely legal advice in relation to casework, policy and other projects, including by assisting with the development of theories of harm, providing advice with an appreciation of the context of relevant economic and financial analytical issues in the case and advising on the selection of proportionate and effective remedies.
• Lead in the day to day management of legal work streams, raising legal issues with the case team, the relevant Legal Director and Senior Legal Director, as appropriate.
• Prepare or review documents for case delivery to achieve robust outcomes that are consistent with published CMA guidance, established practice of the CMA and best practice worldwide; and ensuring consistency, when appropriate, of analysis and process (both in respect of cases involving the exercise of same functions and different functions).
• Minimise the risk of legal challenge by guiding project/case teams to conduct consistent investigations in accordance with CMA protocols, strategic objectives, guidance and rules together with applicable public law considerations, providing potential workable solutions and escalating concerns to Legal Director or Senior Legal Director level as appropriate.
• Participate, as required, in any litigation challenges to the CMA’s work.
• Monitor and assimilate developments in relevant legislation and case law, and inform CMA staff of developments.
• Line manage, coach and motivate staff to address skill gaps, achieve aspirations, fulfil future CMA needs and offer support in developing innovative solutions to complex issues and recommending and implementing ‘Best Practices’.
• Liaise with Counsel and other stakeholders as necessary and support CMA colleagues in developing a flexible and highly effective legal team.
• Contribute to policy development (including best practices and analysis) relating to competition or consumer law enforcement, mergers, markets studies and investigations, State Aid and sector regulation/regulatory appeals.
• Build and develop relationships within the CMA to embed and develop effective matrix working.
• Work in supportive partnership with colleagues/teams to fulfil individual and collective objectives.
• Represent the CMA when required at seminars, presentations and other speaking engagements.

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Developing Self and Others
• Delivering at Pace

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

• Competition and Consumer Law

All CMA employees enjoy the following benefits package: An excellent pension scheme

• 25 days leave (increasing to 30 days over five years)
• Favourable consideration of flexible working
• Generous maternity/paternity leave provision
• Interest-free season ticket loans
• Cycle to work scheme and our employee assistance programme.

Any move to the CMA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.”

If you’re already a civil servant being appointed on level transfer, you’ll retain your existing terms, including annual leave. Where you’re being promoted, however, you’ll receive the greater of a 10% pay increase or the new grade minimum. Applicants new to the civil service may be considered for appointment at a salary higher than the starting point indicated above (depending on skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications).

The CMA may require you to work from home to continue delivering our objectives during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Any remote or home working arrangement is temporary only and does not constitute a permanent change to your designated place of work or working conditions.

Equal Opportunity

The Civil Service is committed to providing services and developing policies which embrace diversity, promote equality of opportunity and eliminate unlawful discrimination. We are an equal opportunities employer and treat every application on the basis of merit alone. We also offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet our minimum selection criteria.

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of the following protected characteristics: Age, Disability, Gender reassignment, Race, Religion or Belief, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Marriage & Civil Partnership, Pregnancy & Maternity and we will not tolerate any discrimination on those grounds.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The CMA is an accredited Disability Confident Employer and are Stonewall Diversity Champions. Disabled applicants meeting the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview. As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome suitably qualified applicants from all backgrounds and recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles.

The CMA are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. It is a priority to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we welcome applications from under-represented groups, including ethnically diverse people, people with a disability, and people with diverse gender identities.