Education lawyer NQ – 3 & 5+ years’ PQE LEEDS

This is an exciting opportunity has arisen to join this successful and rapidly growing Education law team at a private practice law firm in Leeds. They are looking to recruit two Education lawyers – one of 0 to 3 and the other of 5 or more years’ PQE. The team’s clients include:

• schools
• further education institutions and universities with a national reach.

The team supports a range of educational institutions on various regulatory and compliance issues and collaborates with other departments in the firm (eg. Employment) to deliver client service excellence and a complete package of essential legal services.

The successful candidates will be given plenty of client responsibility and exposure and key responsibilities will include:

• advising on the development and application of statutory policies;
• advising on the requirements of equality law, particularly in the context of special educational needs and the Children and Families Act 2014 regime;
• supporting clients with complaints, process management and outcomes;
• advice and support with academy trust regulation including funding agreements, notices to improve, the application of the Academy Trust Handbook;
• advice and support on decisions to exclude pupils/students, process and outcome;
• admissions advice including oversubscription criteria development, local disputes and representations before the Schools Adjudicator;
• providing advice and support on Freedom of Information and Data Protection requests;
• governance advice for maintained schools and academy trusts, including drafting documents and liaising with the Department for Education;
• commercial contract reviews and advices;
• procurement advice;
• academy transactional work;
• conducting sector focused litigation, including Judicial Review, SEND Tribunal, and County Court proceedings.

The successful candidates will:

• have demonstrable experience in supporting an education team (newly-qualified candidates will have undertaken a seat in Education law);
• manage their own caseload (with an appropriate level of Partner supervision depending on your level of PQE) providing sound commercial advice;
• have excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise tasks and work under pressure.

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