Solicitor (Community Care and Public Law Team, 3 years+ PQE)

Job Title – Solicitor (Community Care and Public Law Team, 3 years+ PQE)

Contract - Permanent

Hours - 35 hours per week (however part-time and flexible working will be considered subject to operational need and pay prorated accordingly)

Salary – Starting from £33,000 per annum, dependent on experience and supervisory responsibilities. The post holder will also benefit from eligibility for our bonus scheme.

Location - Coram Campus, Bloomsbury, London & remote working

About Coram

Coram is committed to improving the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people.

We support children and young people from birth to independence, creating a change that lasts a lifetime.

Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.

About CCLC

Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) is the UK’s specialist centre for children’s rights championing access to justice through information and advice, legal practice and representation, policy and strategic litigation. Our Legal Practice Unit provides advice and representation in child and family law, education law, community care law and asylum and immigration law.

Part of Coram’s growing Children’s Rights Centre, CCLC is co-located with Coram Voice, the specialist provider of advocacy services for young people in and leaving the care system, in the new Queen Elizabeth II Centre at the heart of our historic campus in Bloomsbury.

About the role

CCLC is currently looking to recruit an exceptional solicitor to join our experienced, dedicated, and friendly team.

We are looking for a committed and passionate solicitor with good knowledge of community care and public law, current policies and legal aid. The successful applicant will be supported by a close team of colleagues within CCLC’s Legal Practice Unit, and provided with significant opportunities for learning and personal development.

The successful applicant will have solid experience of running a diverse community care/public law claimant case load and will demonstrate a solid commitment to upholding the rights of vulnerable children and young people.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a keen interest in upholding the rights of vulnerable children and young people who is seeking to progress their legal aid career in the charity sector. Our lawyers benefit from a good work-life balance and realistic financial and chargeable hour targets. We also offer considerable flexibility as to the type of cases that our lawyers take on provided that the cases fall within our general remit (children and young people up to the age of 25, and families). The role can be split between working from home/office-based with flexibility as to the balance between the two.

Our community care and public law team work closely with colleagues in other teams in the Legal Practice Unit (immigration, family and education law), as well as with other departments within the Coram group, including Coram Voice and the Migrant Children’s Project. As well as conducting casework for individuals, our community care and public law team is involved in strategic litigation for the wider benefit of children, young people and families, and is actively involved in policy issues impacting our client base.

Flexible working arrangements, including part-time hours will be considered subject to operational needs.

To apply for this role, please click on the 'apply now' button below to complete the application.

Closing date: Monday 16th September 2024 23:59 (however, we reserve the right to close this recruitment early in the event of finding a suitable candidate)

Interview date: w/c 23rd September 2024

Coram is an equal opportunities employer and we believe a diverse workforce enables us to improve the services to the children and families we help. We are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from all sections of the community we seek to support. This includes those from global majority ethnic backgrounds, those that identify as LGBQT+, those with disabilities, those with lived experience of care, those with neuro-diversity, and those from other groups who are underrepresented at Coram.

If applicants feel comfortable, we would encourage them to draw on lived experience as well as professional experience in their personal statement as part of their application.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278.