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Job Introduction

We are looking for a litigator to join the BBC's Litigation Department. The Litigation Department is within the BBC Legal Division which provides legal assistance and advice across the BBC. This is a permanent role.

The Legal Division is based in London (the Litigation Team works on an agile basis; a minimum of two days a week in the office (Wednesdays and Thursdays) and more when necessary to meet the requirements of the role.

The Litigation lawyers work closely with programme-makers, journalists, senior management and others within the BBC Group to provide comprehensive advice relating to media disputes (including defamation, privacy, data protection, reporting restrictions, contempt and PACE applications), commercial/contractual disputes, judicial review, external inquiries and other regulatory disputes.

The BBC Legal Division is responsible for providing legal advice and assistance across the BBC and for developing and implementing the BBC’s legal strategy. The Legal Division is led by the BBC’s General Counsel. It is made up of the following departments: General Counsel's Office, Information Rights, Intellectual Property, Employment, Litigation, Programme Legal Advice, Commercial and Engineering and Competition and Regulatory Law.

Our overall structure is similar to that found in private practice firms and we provide advice and support on a wide range of diverse matters. Whilst this means the work can be challenging and relatively fast-paced at times, we are open to discussing agile ways of working to support our staff, where appropriate and in line with our flexible working policies.

Main Responsibilities

As a lawyer in the Litigation Department, you will be required to provide advice on contentious matters at all levels across the BBC Group, be engaged in dealing with disputes in the High Court, County Court and other tribunal proceedings, and work effectively with other team members within the Litigation Department and the wider legal team to provide a first class legal service.

Are you the right candidate?

To be successful in this role, you will need experience and knowledge of dispute resolution practice and procedure, ideally in media and/or commercial litigation. Excellent written and oral communication skills and experience of advising clients directly and in sometimes urgent circumstances are key.

Ideally, you will have qualified as a solicitor or barrister in a leading law firm or chambers, have a strong academic background and possess a minimum of 6 months’ experience of working in Litigation. You will also have an ability to understand the varied needs of clients across the BBC and to advise and communicate with them clearly and concisely on legal and other matters.

This is an exciting opportunity that would suit an Associate from newly-qualified to two years PQE (approximately), who is seeking to move in-house and build on the experience they’ve gained whilst working in practice, in a specialist Litigation team.

As an equal opportunity employer we welcome applications from candidates with a diverse background.

We're particularly interested in hearing from applicants with disabilities (seen and unseen) for this role. If you're in this category and think our team might be the place for you, do please get in touch if there is any additional support you would find helpful in the recruitment process. We really want all candidates to have the best possible chance to showcase themselves.

Hear a fresh take from BBC Legal on the legal profession and careers in law in our podcast Not all lawyers have degrees

https://shows.acast.com/not-all-lawyers-have-law-degrees

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About the BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here

Package Description

Band: D
Contract type: Permanent role
Location: London based role with some flexibility - ie hybrid working

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits- We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.