About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ARUNA’S DEDICATION TO TRANSFORMING LIVES 

The Bi-Borough Legal Services team encompasses a world of extraordinary stories. Where people like Aruna work on projects that are helping to regenerate our borough and transform residents’ lives. 

The Church Street Estate is an exciting, vibrant area and home to a diverse range of people, but it also has challenges that have led to social and economic exclusion for many. To meet these challenges, the legal team supported the creation of a masterplan, with the aim of improving the lives of everyone who lives and works here, while retaining and enhancing the unique and positive qualities of the neighbourhood. 

Our ambition is to improve the quality of life for everyone in the area,  by building 1,750 high quality homes, creating new green spaces and playgrounds, and providing services that will support health and wellbeing. 

But such massive change can bring worry and conflict. Many older properties will have to be demolished to make way for the new, and many people who have lived in their homes for decades don’t want to say goodbye to cherished memories and familiar surroundings. Which is where Aruna and her team came into their own. 

In the summer of 2024, a public inquiry was held into the compulsory purchase order made for a key site, and it was Aruna’s role to support the development team as they put forward the case for regeneration. Many of the people who objected were understandably fearful at the prospect of losing their homes, but Aruna was passionate in her promotion of the project and stressed that everyone in the area deserves better. And she was reassuring too, as she explained that compulsory powers would only be used as a last resort and anyone who is moved out of their current home will have a range of options, including to remain in the area.  The regenerated area will offer unique opportunities, new jobs and a revived feeling of optimism.  

Aruna’s commitment to a positive world of renewal for our residents is Westminster City Council’s commitment too, and the Church Street of the future will hopefully be a blueprint for progressive regeneration throughout our city. 

The Role:

As a Commercial Property Senior Solicitor with our dynamic, agile and supportive team you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. Providing high level technical advice and guidance on commercial property legal matters to your colleagues, managers and partner agencies, you’ll ensure our legal objectives are translated into effective plans and our service is efficient and locally responsive. Helping other members of the team to develop their knowledge and expertise and identifying any risks that arise, you’ll also support the resolution of issues and decision making, and influence the development of services and the delivery of projects.

Building relationships with team members, council staff, partners, agencies and the wider local and government community to collaborate on plans and projects, we’ll expect you to share knowledge, leverage work and mentor your less experienced colleagues. You’ll also monitor, analyse and manage delegated budgets, funding and other resources, and make an important contribution to the development of outcome-based commissioning models and income generating opportunities.

It goes without saying that you’ll be committed to ensuring legal, regulatory, policy and procedural compliance and governance in your area of specialism, identifying opportunities and risks, taking ownership of issues, and escalating these to management colleagues if appropriate. In addition, we’ll expect you to role model positive behaviours, empower, engage and encourage our teams to live the council’s values, and uphold and promote the aims of our equity and diversity policies. 

About You:

To be a success in this significant senior role you’ll be a fully qualified Solicitor, Barrister or CILEX Fellow or Associate, possess the communication skills necessary to explain and advise on legal issues to Members, officers and colleagues, and be ready to work constructively with clients while being sensitive to their political, reputational and commercial needs. You should have proven experience of working as a member of a local authority commercial property team, while the ability to advise on transactions involving educational bodies and ecclesiastical organisations would be desirable.

Capable of working on both routine and complex commercial property matters, undertaking full due diligence and preparing relevant reports, you’ll be a skilled advisor on property asset transfers, property investment transactions and TOGCs. We’ll also expect you to possess the skills to assist clients with easements, the general charging of assets, notices and other transactional property matters, and have the ability to draft commercial leases and licences including crane oversailing, advertising, hoarding and CCTV licences.

We’d prefer you to have in-depth knowledge and experience of relevant local authority governance, legislation and the law relating commercial property law and practice, while some knowledge of commercial property litigation, procurement, subsidy law and planning law would be an advantage. Confident, presentable and an excellent negotiator, you should also have good computer and IT skills and an excellent understanding of court and inquiry procedures.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds and over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses, and we host many more workers and visitors.

We are working towards a Fairer Westminster, in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way.

As a forward-thinking Council, we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application , we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants,  we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.