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Solicitor
Salary: Starting salary is £46,920
Working pattern: Full time, Fixed Term
Location: Inverness
Closing date: 17 February 2025 at midnight
We are seeking to recruit a solicitor (Grade 6) for the CLAO Highlands and Islands office for a fixed term of 12 months.
This is an excellent opportunity for anyone who already has a track record of excelling at civil litigation work, as well as for newly or recently qualified solicitors looking to develop these skills in a highly rewarding work environment.
This is an exciting time to join our service and help shape how we deliver holistic legal services to rural and island communities within CLAO and wider Client Legal Services Directorate. Whilst the role is to assist the Highlands and Islands team, it may be based within any of our offices.
About us
The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) was established in 1987 to manage legal aid in Scotland. We are a non-departmental public body responsible to the Scottish Government. Our main purpose is to manage and continuously improve publicly funded legal assistance and to advise Scottish Ministers on its strategic development for the benefit of society.
The Civil Legal Assistance Office (CLAO) is a network of publicly funded court solicitors and support staff employed by SLAB. We help people with their civil law problems by providing advice and representation to legally aided clients within our core areas of work. In addition, we operate a referral service to other providers of legal assistance and offer second tier support and training to advice organisations. Our work involves developing partnership links and project work with local and national organisations operating within the geographical areas we cover.
We are part of SLAB’s Client Legal Services Directorate which comprises CLAO, the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office (PDSO) and the Solicitor Contact Line (SCL), making us Scotland’s largest multi-disciplinary legal aid practice and a unique place to work.
Further information about CLAO can be found at www.clao.org.uk.
If you wish to learn more about SLAB and our direct services, please visit the website.
Why work for us
We are an ethical organisation carrying out rewarding work that can have a considerable impact on clients’ lives.
We seek high calibre people and in return, we set out to provide good training and development with rewarding working conditions. We aim to be an ‘employer of choice’. Should you come to work with us, you’ll discover that no matter what your job or level of responsibilities, you are treated as an individual, with fairness, dignity and respect. Our stable and secure reward package includes:
• a competitive salary with potential for pay progression
• generous holiday entitlement of 34 days per year (inclusive of public and privilege holidays) increasing after five years of continuous service
• a defined benefit pension scheme with a 6% employee contribution
• flexible and hybrid working arrangements
• comprehensive access to learning and development opportunities, and wellbeing support
• job security in a stable environment for long term career progression
• support from colleagues within a rewarding, positive work culture
• cycle to work scheme.
For more on working with SLAB and our benefits, visit www.slab.org.uk/recruitment/working-for-us.
About the role
The successful candidate will be part of the experienced Highlands and Islands team delivering high quality advice and representation to legally aided clients. You will be supported to manage a varied caseload within all our core areas of work (such as children’s hearings & public family law, housing & homelessness, mental health & AWI, benefit appeals, and certain debt matters).
The Highlands and Island’s team is regularly involved in high impact work within interesting locations such as Inverness, Fort William, Wick, Tain, Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides. Therefore, in addition to managing your own rewarding and diverse caseload, appearing at court/tribunals, and instructing counsel in Court of Session cases, you will have the opportunity to be involved in CLAO’s important strategic project work to improve access to justice within rural and island communities.
You will also work closely with external advice and support organisations to help triage and refer certain cases where appropriate, provide second tier advice and training on our core areas of casework, and explore opportunities for strategic partnership working to maximise the impact of our service.
The successful candidate will be passionate about using their legal skills to improve the lives of as many people as possible. They will also be keen to be involved in continuously improving and innovating our service.
The work of this role will be predominately based in Inverness and involve regular travel for in-person hearings and meetings throughout the Highlands and Islands. We will consider applications for those wishing to be based in one of our other offices (Edinburgh or Aberdeen) or at home.
This post is on a full time basis for a fixed term of 12 months, with the possibility of an extension or permanent post becoming available at the end of the term depending on business planning.
If you are applying for a full time position on a part time basis (less than 35 hours per week), please give details of the number of hours and pattern of part time work you would be interested in. Further details are supplied in the ‘General Information for Applicants’ document.
We are an equal opportunities employer, dedicated to being fair, inclusive and a place where all belong.
We welcome and encourage applications from diverse backgrounds, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people, and LGBTQI+ people.
We will ensure that disclosure of disability status will not negatively impact anyone’s application. We are committed to guaranteeing an interview to every applicant who indicates they have a disability, in terms of the Equality Act 2010, that meets the minimum criteria for the role.
For more details about this role and a full list of essential criteria and required competencies, please see the ‘Job Description / Person Specification’ document available on the vacancy page of our recruitment portal.
Completed applications should be returned by Monday, 17 February 2025 (midnight) via SLAB’s recruitment portal.
