Essex County Council
Legal Services Manager for Highways and Environment
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About The Role
Legal Services Manager for Highways and Environment
Permanent, Full Time
£75,203 - £88,474 per annum
Location: Chelmsford
Working Style: Anywhere worker
Closing Date: 2nd September 2026
This role has a hybrid working arrangement. We will expect you to attend our Chelmsford offices approximately 2 - 3 days per week. There will also be a requirement to visit other sites throughout the operational area, as required.
The Opportunity
We are looking for a new leader for our Highways and Environment Team. We’re working on a large volume of interesting and complex highways schemes that see over £0.5bn invested in our transport infrastructure. That’s on top of the work generated by 5,000 miles of highways in one of the largest counties in England serving a population of 1.5m in cities, towns and a rural area. This is a brilliant opportunity for the right person to build and develop the team.
Essex County Council (ECC) is a diverse and large organisation that strives for excellence and delivers an outstanding service for residents across Essex. The in-house legal service, ELS, prides itself on providing a comprehensive legal service to the Council – most of our work is done in-house. We pride ourselves on valuing the people who work for us and providing a supportive working environment, where people work hard to do their best for Essex. The work can be demanding and we expect resilience but our senior leaders are committed to ensuring that ELS is a place where people want to stay.
This post is a strategic leader in the legal service focused on managing a team of legal professionals.
In addition, as part of the ELS leadership team, the role has a strong voice in the running of the service and plays a key role in maintaining our Lexcel accreditation.
We're looking for someone with excellent technical legal skills and relevant experience who can quickly pick things up and manage a team of specialists within the highways and environment area.
They will need to be able to operate effectively in a complex politically-led organisation. Their influencing skills will be critical in order to articulate options and risks when advising Senior Leaders and Councillors. To read more about us please visit: Corporate Services
Accountabilities
- Lead, manage and motivate a team of lawyers, paralegals and caseworkers to provide exemplary legal advice to internal stakeholders within ECC and external customers.
- Accountable for the provision of high quality advice and interpretation to clients to underpin and inform decision making.
- Accountable for providing legal services to support different functions within the Council, in order to, protect and mitigate potential legal risks for ECC.
- Responsible for contributing to business development targets across the team.
- Develop and maximise opportunities to attract external legal work across the breadth of different sectors with whom ECC collaborates in support of ECC strategic aims and objectives to build new revenue streams.
- Accountable for ensuring professional conduct and governance across the Council to meet Corporate and Statutory responsibilities and requirements.
- Accountable for driving compliance with the Lexcel standard and preparing the service for renewal of its Lexcel accreditation.
- Work collaboratively with stakeholders and partners to ensure solutions are robust, providing direction and guidance to achieve positive outcomes.
- Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
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The Experience You Will Bring
- Qualified solicitor or barrister or legal executive with full practising certificate and at least 5 years’ post qualification experience.
- Expert knowledge and experience in highways and environment law, with a local government focus e.g. highways and traffic, NSIPs, planning, compulsory purchase, s278 and 106 agreements.
- Experience of working with senior personnel and Directors and other key stakeholders
- Knowledge and understanding of providing legal advice in a public sector setting
- Experience of leading a team of qualified professionals
- Persuasion and influencing skills
- Evidence of creativity in exploring business opportunities
What’s in it for you?
Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs. You’ll also have access to the MyReward, a unique platform for Essex County Council employees to take advantage of including:
- Healthcare and Dental Plans at corporate rates
- Discounts and benefits at many local and national outlets including supermarkets, shopping, restaurants, technology purchases and holidays
- Discounts across Essex County Council’s businesses, including Country Park Membership, ACL and more
- Generous holiday and special leave allowances (including the option to purchase extra holiday)
- Local Government Pension Scheme.
- Life Assurance of three times annual salary
- Employee wellbeing and counselling
- Travel discounts & season ticket loans
- Learning and Development opportunities/coaching & mentoring
- Payment of professional fees for approved professions
- Eye care vouchers
- Lease car scheme (dependent on business needs).
Why Essex?
As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.
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In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.
Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.
As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community
If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk
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