Paralegal - Office for Students

Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 25th September 2024

We are looking for a paralegal to support our growing legal team in an organisation that’s shaping policy and regulation in higher education.

The Office for Students

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England. We ensure the best experience and the best value – for students, for taxpayers, for the economy and for the public good. This is an opportunity to develop your legal experience by supporting the legal team in working across our diverse and rapidly evolving organisation on a wide range of regulatory and corporate issues.

Job description

The role

The role will involve providing assistance and support on a wide variety of legal matters in the higher education context, including applying public law, data protection, human rights and consumer protection law. This will include legal research and document preparation in respect of a broad range of regulatory matters, as well as supporting the handling of litigation/appeals. You will be able to demonstrate your ability to proactively manage your workload, whilst adopting a creative and innovative approach to legal issues.

Person specification

About you

The key person attributes required to fulfil this role include:

• experience of many of the relevant legal practice areas, gained either in an academic context or, desirably, through practical experience;
• ability to analyse and advise on complex legal issues;
• sensitivity to politics, understanding the needs of, and willing to work collaboratively with external stakeholders;
• an ability to adopt a creative and innovative approach to legal issues;
• excellent verbal, written communication and presentation skills; and
• an ability to influence and negotiate.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,695, Office for Students contributes £10,051 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. 

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Working for us

 The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

At the OfS, we recognise that flexibility can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week. 

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working and part time working apply to this role.

In addition, our Total Reward Framework offers a range of benefits to suit your way of life. These include comprehensive learning and development, annual leave starting at 25 days per year (plus public holidays), access to the highly regarded Civil Service pension scheme and a variety of health benefits.

Closing date for applications: 25 September 2024. We encourage early applications, and we may close early depending on the interest we receive.