Lawyer - Contracts & Commercial

Make a difference by joining our forward-thinking legal service, working together as ‘one team’ to provide high quality legal advice for the benefit of Dorset’s residents and business communities.

What’s in it for you:

This is not a typical public sector legal service – we are busy, future-focused, proud of our professional expertise and high standards and confident in our advice. You’ll join a service which fosters a strong culture of support, respect, and integrity.

You will build your career in a modern, flexible, and inclusive organisation. Everyone who joins our service is supported to develop their legal career and expand their specialist knowledge and skills. You will be positively challenged with a varied caseload and be involved in interesting work from the outset.

Based in our beautiful county, you’ll find miles of stunning coastline and countryside to explore, with sport and activities, nightlife, and culture.  Our flexible and hybrid working arrangements support you to enjoy a healthier work-life balance and well-being, which extends into your family life through our family-friendly policies. The position is based at County Hall in Dorchester, with close access to shops and cafés in the attractive market town.

What you can expect to be doing:

This role is based within our busy contracts and commercial team, where you will enjoy a varied caseload and complete wide ranging and interesting work.

As a valued member of the team, you will provide expert advice to an array of departments within the council; from school transport and waste services, public health services and building contracts, IT services and highways.  The team advise on many forms of agreements including contracts, grants and partnership agreements, procurements and alternative delivery models including establishing council owned companies, plus general advice on commercial matters and governance. 

The successful candidate will hold their own case load and undertake transactional and advice matters with supervision where required.

About you:

We are looking for enthusiastic and knowledgeable applicants who are qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive, to work with the lawyers in our contracts and commercial team who carry out transactional work and advise on a wide range of contract, procurement and related matters. 

We welcome applications from those wanting to work full time and those looking to work part time or flexibly.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Jen Cook on 01305 221308 or by email on [email protected].

This is a full time role at 37 hours per week.

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits 
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.