About the role
At West Northants Council, we’re delivering ambitious change and investing in our communities, infrastructure and services. As a Senior Lawyer (Contracts), you’ll play a key role in helping to turn those ambitions into reality by providing expert legal advice on a wide range of commercial, procurement and contractual matters. Working at the heart of a large and evolving organisation, you'll support major projects and strategic initiatives that have a direct impact on residents, businesses and communities across West Northamptonshire.
This is an exciting opportunity to join one of England’s newest and largest unitary councils and be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking legal team. Whether you're currently working in local government or looking to bring your expertise from private practice, you'll have the opportunity to work on varied, high-profile and complex matters while helping to shape a modern and commercially focused legal service.
What will you be doing?
You’ll manage a diverse caseload of contract and procurement matters, working closely with the Council’s procurement team and a wide range of client departments to support the delivery of goods, services and major projects. Your work will include drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts, framework agreements, call-off contracts, concession agreements and grant funding arrangements, while providing practical and commercially focused legal advice that supports the Council’s objectives.
You’ll advise on a broad range of contractual issues, including subsidy control, public health-related contracts and procurement matters, ensuring legal risks are identified and managed effectively. You’ll also contribute to the development of policies, procedures and best practice, helping to strengthen the Council’s commercial and governance arrangements.
As a senior member of the team, you'll support colleagues through mentoring, training and knowledge sharing, including providing guidance to Paralegals and Legal Assistants where required. You'll also contribute to major projects across the organisation, working with stakeholders at all levels and helping to deliver a responsive, customer-focused legal service.
It’s an exciting time to join our legal team as we continue to develop and strengthen our services. To find out more about working in our Legal teams, please visit: https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/jobs-and-careers/working-our-legal-teams
About you
You’re a qualified Solicitor or legal professional with strong experience in contract, procurement or commercial law. You’re confident managing a varied caseload and providing clear, practical advice that enables clients to make informed decisions and deliver successful outcomes.
You bring excellent drafting, negotiation and communication skills, together with the ability to build trusted relationships across a wide range of stakeholders. You enjoy working collaboratively, balancing competing priorities and finding solutions to complex legal challenges. Experience of public sector procurement and contract law would be advantageous, but we also welcome applications from candidates with relevant commercial experience gained in other sectors.
West Northants is a great place to build your career. With a strong focus on development, wellbeing, flexibility and support, we offer mentoring, coaching, training and opportunities to broaden your experience across a diverse range of legal work. Above all, you’ll share our THRIVE values and our commitment to delivering high-quality legal services that make a real difference to the organisation and the communities we serve.
Our benefits
You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.
About us
At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.
Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.
We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner
The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us.
If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email careers@westnorthants.gov.uk for support.
Please note we reserve the right to close the advert early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications, so we recommend applying as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
West Northants Council, where careers thrive.
Attached documents
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