About Us: 

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. 

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. 

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment. 

About the role: 

This is a fixed-term position to provide maternity cover, anticipated to last for 12 months months. However, applicants should be aware that the duration of the contract may be subject to change. In the event that the employee currently on maternity leave decides to return to work earlier than originally indicated, the contract may be terminated with appropriate notice in accordance with the terms of employment.

Waltham Forest Legal Services is a high performing in house legal service which plays an essential part in the achievement of the priorities and objectives of Waltham Forest.  Our objective is to provide high quality and efficient professional services that meet our clients’ expectations and provides a business and solution focussed approach.  The Service has been accredited to Lexcel since 2005.  

We are looking for a Litigation Lawyer to join our Litigation and Public Law Team to cover for the absence of a colleague who is going on maternity leave.  It will be a one-year fixed term contract.  The work will focus on one or more of complex possession, Housing Judicial Review and Access and Anti-Social Behaviour Injunctions.  You will be responsible for a challenging caseload, you will be line managed by Senior Lawyers and supported by legal officers and paralegals in the team.

The ideal candidate will be a qualified solicitor, or barrister with three years post qualification experience, able to demonstrate experience in one or more of complex possession, Judicial Review or injunction work. The ability to undertake advocacy in the County Court is desirable. 

Key Responsibilities: 

To be responsible for giving legal advice, drafting documents, conducting litigation, undertaking advocacy and providing support to clients in one or more areas of the Litigation Team’s work as follows; complex possession, homelessness, anti social behaviour and other injunction work.

Responsible for conduct of litigation (including advocacy) in the areas of responsibility as assigned by the Senior Lawyer and/or Head of Law (Litigation)

To contribute to the effective operational management of the Legal Services team in order to deliver a high quality and cost-effective legal service which includes undertaking work in other areas of Legal Services where required and competent to do so. 

Qualifications and Requirements: 

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements: 

• At least one years’ experience as a qualified solicitor, barrister or FILEX
• Proficiency in office software 

Terms and conditions: 

The below terms and conditions apply to this role: 

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
Satisfactory declaration of interest; 

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English. 

How to Apply: 

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.  

Closing date: 16 September 2025

For further information or to apply, please click on the 'Enquire/Apply' button below.