Legal Manager
Crown Prosecution Service
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 27th October 2024
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About the job
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.
Thames and Chiltern and London South are recruiting to a reserve list and London North aren’t recruiting in this campaign. If you have any queries about the locations, please email NationalLawyerRecruitment@cps.gov.uk
To note - your job title in the CPS is also referred to as ‘district crown prosecutor’.
Find out more about our legal managers and hear from three of them on YouTube
Job description
Person specification
- To advise and direct on a wide range of criminal casework, ensuring the effective delivery of pre-charge advice and early intervention in large and complex cases.
- To be accountable for the conduct of the team’s cases, including agents and counsel, and for related casework decisions.
- To take a leading role in the local criminal justice system, influencing and securing the confidence of police and other partners – this helps to build engagement with community groups, promoting confidence in the CPS and wider criminal justice system.
- To lead a team of lawyers in the prosecution of criminal cases, providing legal advice and guidance – developing, supervising and sharing your own learning and expertise.
- To draft and approve responses to complaints and Parliamentary queries.
- To lead your team through periods of change and involving staff fully in delivery and implementation.
- To appear as an advocate occasionally to maintain your advocacy skills.
Qualifications
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
Should there be any restrictions or special arrangements regarding your practising certificate, we would ask you to inform us at the earliest opportunity, via email.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Managing a Quality Service
- Communicating and Influencing
- Developing Self and Others
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 16 December 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
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 employees can thrive at work and home, and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We have a hybrid working policy. From September 2024, you must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.
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.
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.
Delivering justice is a complex pursuit with work that is sometimes emotionally challenging, which is why we offer a range of benefits including:
- a Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.97%
- 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
- an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
- competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
- flexible working and a family-friendly approach to work
- a Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings
- a range of learning and development activities, an individual learning account, and central and local development opportunities.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Application
Applications are considered anonymously, so we ask that you don’t include any personal information that could be used to identify you.
It’s your responsibility to provide the specified application information in the requested format to ensure you’re considered for the post.
CV – using the text boxes provided online
In the CV section, you provide information about your employment history. You don't upload your CV.
Personal statement – using the text boxes provided online
You’re tested against Motivation and Leadership. You’re required to answer these questions.
- In 500 words or less, tell us what has motivated you to apply for the legal manager role in the CPS?
- In 500 words or less, tell us what leadership skills and experience you can bring to this role? Examples may include, but aren’t limited to, working as part of a team, mentoring or supervising, leading a team, line management, inclusive working practice.
Personal data
In line with GDPR, don’t send us any information that can identify children or any of your own sensitive personal data such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning health or sex life and sexual orientation, genetic and/or biometric data in your CV and application documentation.
Assessment and interview
- Legal assessment (w/c 18 November - 29 November 2024)
If you meet the eligibility criteria, you’re invited to an online Microsoft Teams meeting to complete a legal assessment.
- Interview and leadership assessment (w/c 9 December - 12 December 2024)
If you meet the required standard in your legal assessment, you’re then invited to complete a final leadership-focused assessment, followed by an interview.
If you’re invited to an assessment, you’re provided general research pointers in advance. The assessment and interview are both held on Microsoft Teams. Please refer to the candidate pack for scheduled dates.
You book your own assessment and interview slot through Civil Service Jobs. Once you’ve selected your preferred time slot, we send you a Microsoft Teams link.
Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact nationallawyerrecruitment@cps.gov.uk
You must demonstrate CPS values throughout the process. These can be found on our website
Merit list and offers
You can choose three office location preferences from the list provided. If you’re successful, we exclusively offer using your choices in the first instance.
We’re using a locational merit list system of appointment. Offers are made based on the merit order of each CPS Area interviewed. For example, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton or Lincoln are CPS East Midlands. The highest rated candidate is appointed from the area with the vacancy.
Reserve list
If all the posts are filled for your preferred location(s), you’re put on the reserve list. You may be approached about an opportunity at a location outside your initial preference. Offers are always made in merit order.
If you’re offered a position that you decide not to accept, you may be able to stay on the reserve list and be offered a position for your preferred location(s) if one becomes available. The list expires 12 months after the interviews take place and positions for your first preference can’t be guaranteed.
Please note Thames and Chiltern and London South will be recruiting for the reserve list only.
Timeline
Dates advertised are subject to change. It may not be possible to accommodate alternative requests for interviews and assessment. Please refer to the candidate pack for the scheduled timeline.
If you meet the eligibility requirements, you’re invited to an assessment with at least five working days’ notice. If you can’t make it, please let us know as soon as possible and we will try to rearrange - though this can’t be guaranteed.
Information sessions
We are holding an online Q&A whilst the campaign is live. This is your chance to type any questions you may have around the role or recruitment. You can register for this here.
- Wednesday 23 October 4pm - 4.45pm - Register here
Other
This is a full-time post. However, requests for flexible, part-time working and job share are considered – bearing in mind the operational needs of the department.
This role is a mixture of home working, office working and travelling to courts. How this is split depends upon the business needs.
You must consider if the commute from your home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. If you are successful, we will discuss this before you take up the post.
The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this approval will be granted.
The job you are applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act does not apply. For the reasons outlined above you are required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions, including spent convictions. Failure to make a full declaration will result in the withdrawal of an offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that have not been disclosed.
The CPS provides a Fair Processing Notice to all new applicants after they’ve been successful at interview. These candidates are informed that, as one aspect of pre-employment screening, their personal details – name, National Insurance number and date of birth – are checked against the Internal Fraud Database. Anyone included on the database is refused employment unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.
The CPS Strategic Resourcing team will, on behalf of the vacancy holder, inform applicants when they’re refused employment because of their inclusion in the IFD.
Civil Service Commission
If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.
If you’re still dissatisfied and want to make a further complaint, please go to the Civil Service Commission complaints page.
Here are our Civil Service Commissioners recruitment principles
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
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Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : National Lawyer Recruitment Team
- Email : NationalLawyerRecruitment@cps.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : strategic.resourcing@cps.gov.uk
