Assistant Legal Directors

Salary: £71,370 - £77,300 per annum plus benefits

Location: London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or Manchester

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time / Part time / Flexible

The CMA is an independent non-ministerial UK government department and is the UK’s principal competition and consumer protection authority. We work to ensure that consumers get a good deal when buying goods and services, and that businesses operate within the law. Our statutory duty is to promote competition, both within and outside the UK, for the benefit of consumers, and our mission is to make markets work well in the interests of consumers, businesses and the economy.  The CMA is a hugely rewarding, diverse and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so.

With the UK's exit from the EU and rapidly evolving markets, the CMA has an exciting and challenging agenda making it a particularly interesting place for lawyers to define their careers. The work within our advisory teams is varied, complex and highly rewarding, and Lawyers are encouraged to apply their legal skills across a number of our practice areas while also developing specialist expertise.

Reporting to Senior Legal Directors and the General Counsel, your key focus will be to ensure that decisions taken by the CMA are legally robust, including by identifying legal risks early, and by working with senior lawyers, case teams and decision makers to ensure that these are managed appropriately. Our advisory lawyers are embedded in project teams working across the CMA’s entire portfolio as follows:

• Competition law enforcement: (for example the paroxetine and recently opened Apple and Facebook cases).
• Consumer law enforcement: (for example tackling misleading online reviews and endorsements, unfair promotions by gambling firms and ensuring fair holiday cancellation and refund rights during the COVID-19 pandemic).
• Merger control: (for example the Phase 2 investigation into the Facebook/GIPHY merger and the recent Sabre/Farelogix litigation).
• Markets work: (for example the current market studies into mobile ecosystems and into electric vehicle charging, and past work on digital advertising and funeral services).
• Regulatory work: ensuring fair conduct in the appeals and references to the CMA in regulated sectors – often concerning key price controls.
• Digital markets regulation: (for example supporting the CMA’s involvement in the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum and the forthcoming establishment of the Digital Markets Unit).
• UK internal market and subsidy control: (for example supporting the CMA’s Office of the Internal Market, and post-Brexit subsidy control).

As an Assistant Legal Director, you will advise case teams and decision makers throughout the life of a project, taking responsibility for the delivery of high-quality analysis, and advising on decisions, reports and policy. At any one time, you may focus primarily on one or more of merger, markets and regulatory activity, competition or consumer law enforcement or subsidy control. You will also have line management responsibilities, coaching and motivating staff.

The role will involve engagement throughout the CMA and externally. You may also have the opportunity from time-to-time to fulfil a delivery function; that is, to be responsible for project managing a case.

As a minimum requirement, you will be a fully qualified lawyer entitled to practise as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive (CILEx Fellow) in the UK. Applicants qualified in a jurisdiction outside the UK will be required to undertake the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme/SQE within 3 years of appointment, and employment will be conditional upon the successful completion of the QLTS/SQE within this time period. 

In order to succeed in this role, you will have significant experience delivering high quality analysis, providing case advice, report writing and contributing to policy in complex and technical areas of law and practice.  Knowledge and post-qualification practical experience in one or more of UK and EU competition or consumer law, subsidy control or regulatory law together with knowledge and appreciation of applicable public law is particularly relevant.  

Please note we are also recruiting for Legal Advisers. If you would like to be considered for the roles of Assistant Legal Director and Legal Adviser, you will need to submit a separate application for each role.

You can view learn here what life is like working in the CMA Legal Services team Working in the CMA Legal Services Team - YouTube

The CMA is a hugely rewarding, diverse and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so. All CMA staff enjoy generous benefits, including an excellent pension scheme, at least 25 days leave (increasing to 30 over five years), and generous maternity/paternity leave provision. You can also take advantage of interest-free season ticket loans, a cycle to work scheme, and favourable consideration of flexible working.

The CMA are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. It is a priority to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we welcome applications from under-represented groups, including ethnically diverse people, people with a disability, and people with diverse gender identities.

The CMA will be hosting a virtual recruitment event on 18 May 2022 . Candidates will have the opportunity to find out more about the organisation and the opportunities available. For further details please contact recruitment@cma.gov.uk or you can register to attend at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cma-legal-services-recruitment-event-attendance-by-teams-tickets-334406437657

To find out more about this opportunity and about working for the CMA, please click on the APPLY button.

Closing date: 11:55pm on 23 May 2022.

The CMA is an accredited Disability Confident Employer and are Stonewall Diversity Champions. As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome suitably qualified applicants from all backgrounds and recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.