Public & Regulatory Lawyer

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) mission is to serve the public interest by setting high standards of corporate governance, reporting and audit and holding to account those responsible for delivering them. We are the UK Competent Authority for audit. We also set the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes as well as UK standards for accounting, auditing and actuarial work, and monitor and take action to promote the quality of corporate reporting and operate independent enforcement arrangements for accountants and actuaries. Further information about our role can be found on our website.

The FRC’s General Counsel team advises the FRC’s Board and Committee structure and the FRC’s executive divisions, namely Supervision, Enforcement, Regulatory Standards and Corporate Services.

The FRC is seeking two exceptional lawyers to fill vacancies, one in the general regulatory and public law team and the second in the information law team. Please identify in your application which role you are applying for.

Responsibilities

Supporting the General Counsel and the Director of Legal Services to ensure the following accountabilities are met:

• To deliver high quality, timely and customer-orientated legal advice to internal clients under the supervision of the senior lawyers and the Director of Legal Services
• To be an effective member of GCT, supporting in the delivery of GCT’s strategic and policy objectives.
• To identify, escalate and mitigate legal risk issues as appropriate.
• To work collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation to identify and implement ways to best deliver strategic and policy objectives.
• To effectively manage internal and external stakeholder relationships.

Skills required
Minimum requirements:

• A solicitor or barrister qualified to practise in England & Wales.
• Demonstrable experience in regulatory, information/privacy and/or public law is essential.
• Demonstrable experience of communicating with a range of internal and external stakeholders in a clear, concise and comprehensible manner.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to work well with others at all levels, within and across teams is essential.

Desirable:

• Demonstrable experience in any one or more of the following practice areas: .competition law, litigation, and/or corporate and commercial law.
• Experience of working on projects and legislative change programmes.
• Advising as part of an in-house legal team.
• Demonstrable experience with instructing and managing external counsel.

The role is based in our Central London Office. The post holder should be able to work flexibly to support the team’s activities and also provide cover within the FRC as necessary. From 6 September FRC will be operating a hybrid working arrangement with its workforce. This is four-day fortnight in the office and any arrangement will be agreed between the employee and the line manager.

Rewards and benefits

• The FRC offers competitive remuneration packages, including 30 days annual leave plus ability to buy extra leave.
• Generous employer pension contribution of 10%.
• Staff Employee Assistance Programme including confidential counselling and work life services.
• The FRC offers staff the opportunity to save at least 25% on the purchase of a new bike through the Cycle to work scheme.
• The FRC has a strong work/life balance ethos.

The FRC believes that equality of opportunity and diversity is important in the work that we do and we are strongly committed to being an inclusive employer. Our values of being fair and independent supports this commitment. We're a signatory to the Government's Disability Confident scheme, which means that we guarantee an interview to any disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Equal opportunities monitoring is an important means of demonstrating and implementing our commitment to promoting equality of opportunity and diversity. Completing our diversity form will assist the FRC to identify any barriers that prevent access to employment and career development for certain groups of people, and to develop solutions, such as action plans, new policies and practices. The form is completed on a voluntary basis and we strongly encourage all job applicants to complete it.