About the role
At West Northants Council, we are committed to protecting our communities and supporting fair, effective regulatory enforcement. As a Senior Litigation Lawyer (Criminal), you'll play a key role in helping the Council uphold legal standards and fulfil its statutory responsibilities, providing expert legal advice and representation across a varied and interesting range of criminal and regulatory matters.
This is an exciting opportunity to join one of England’s newest and largest unitary councils and become a trusted legal adviser to Members, officers and services across the organisation. Working within our Law and Governance team, you'll operate at a senior level, handling complex litigation matters while contributing to the continued development of a modern, ambitious and customer-focused legal service.
Whether you're currently working in local government, a regulatory environment or private practice, this role offers the opportunity to undertake meaningful advocacy work, influence decision-making and make a tangible difference to the communities we serve.
What will you be doing?
You’ll take a leading role in delivering high-quality criminal and regulatory litigation for the Council, managing a varied caseload and acting as an in-house advocate before courts and tribunals. Your work will involve providing legal advice and representation across a broad range of litigation matters, preparing complex legal documentation, instructing Counsel where required and ensuring cases are progressed efficiently and effectively.
As a trusted adviser, you'll provide clear and practical legal guidance to Members and senior officers, support Licensing Committees and other formal meetings, and help services navigate complex legal and procedural issues. You'll also contribute to maintaining high standards of governance and decision-making across the organisation.
Alongside your casework, you'll support the Principal Lawyer, contribute to the development of colleagues through training and knowledge sharing, and play an active role in shaping a flexible, forward-thinking legal service. This is a role that offers both professional challenge and long-term career development within a supportive team environment.
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 Barrister with strong litigation experience and proven advocacy skills. You’re confident managing complex cases, representing clients in court and providing pragmatic legal advice in a fast-paced and politically sensitive environment. Experience in criminal, regulatory or local authority litigation would be particularly valuable.
You’re an excellent communicator who can build strong relationships, influence stakeholders and explain complex legal issues in a clear and accessible way. You combine sound legal judgement with a practical approach to problem-solving and are comfortable balancing competing priorities while maintaining high standards of service delivery.
West Northants is a great place to build your legal career. With a strong focus on wellbeing, flexibility, mentoring, coaching and professional development, we are committed to helping our people thrive. Above all, you'll share our THRIVE values and our ambition to deliver outstanding legal services that support the Council, its services 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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