Cancer Research UK (CRUK)
Paralegal
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Paralegal
£35,000 - £40,000 per annum plus benefits
Reports to: Legal Service Delivery Lead Strategy and Suppliers
Directorate: Finance, Governance and Assurance
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time 35 hours per week. We are open to various flexible working requests which we can discuss at interview.
Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (2 days per week in the office)
Closing date: 18 October 2026 23:55
*This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk as soon as possible.
Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
Recruitment process: Competency based interview
Interview date: 1st stage w/c 2nd November, 2nd stage w/c 9th November. Both via Microsoft Teams
We’re Transforming Legal at Cancer Research UK
At Cancer Research UK, our mission is simple but powerful: help people live longer, better lives free from the fear of cancer. Cancer Research UK’s internal Legal function has launched a bold new strategy to help make that happen – and this is an exciting opportunity to be a part of it.
Join us as a Paralegal and play a key role in delivering high-quality legal services across the organisation. You’ll manage the triage of legal requests, support contracting and matter management activities, and partner with Legal Operations to improve processes through innovative technology and AI-driven solutions.
Make a difference through purpose driven work that delivers real world impact, while gaining broad exposure and accelerated opportunities for growth and development. You will be doing more than just legal delivery, you will empower teams across the organisation, gaining broad exposure to the internal operations of the UK’s leading cancer charity, deliver real impact, and get involved in shaping the future of Legal at CRUK.
What will be some of the main responsibilities?
- Serve as the primary point of contact for the Legal team's triage and intake function, exercising judgement in assessing requests and determining appropriate escalation routes.
- Support the administration of the Legal team's technology system and matter management processes, including matter intake, triage, allocation tracking, and status updates — ensuring the team has accurate, real-time visibility of its caseload.
- Independently prepare, draft, review and negotiate standard-form and routine commercial agreements, and other legal documents, exercising independent judgement under appropriate supervision and escalating to the relevant lawyer where complexity, novelty, or risk requires it.
- Advise stakeholders on contractual compliance requirements and propose pragmatic solutions to facilitate contracting outcomes.
- Conduct and synthesise legal research across a range of topics to support the team's advice, distilling findings into clear, accessible summaries for lawyers and, where appropriate, internal clients, and providing practical and commercially focused recommendations.
- Develop strong GenAI legal capability and contribute to training and knowledge-sharing on GenAI across the Legal team and the wider organisation.
- Maintains excellent matter records and filing.
- Helps keep knowledge resources accessible and up to date – from written guidance to AI tool guidance and agent design
- Proactively identify opportunities to improve legal processes, templates, playbooks, technology implementation and workflows, working with the legal operations manager to contribute to knowledge management and operational improvement initiatives across the team.
- Help develop and pilot use cases for legal AI tools (e.g., contract review, knowledge management, obligation tracking, drafting assistance, summarisation, due diligence support) working closely with Legal Operations.
- Support the legal team with the process for trademark renewals.
- Work with Legal Operations to manage POs, invoicing and supplier payments as needed.
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What are we looking for?
- Law degree or equivalent legal qualification (what would this be), together with relevant previous paralegal experience ideally in the commercial, public, corporate sector or in-house legal environment.
- Strong legal research skills, with the ability to distil complex information clearly and concisely for both legal and non-legal audiences.
- Experience of drafting routine legal documents and correspondence, with strong attention to detail and accuracy.
- Able to independently prioritise and manage a complex and varied workload with competing priorities, meeting deadlines consistently and managing expectations proactively making use of AI tooling where possible.
- Clear and confident communicator — both written and verbal — with the ability to build positive and trusted relationships with internal clients and colleagues.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office suite and SharePoint.
- Solutions-focused, pragmatic, and eager to develop legal knowledge and skills in a dynamic in-house environment.
- Collaborative team player who embraces feedback, supports a coaching culture, and actively contributes to the team's continuous improvement.
- Demonstrated ability to exercise sound legal and commercial judgement, manage stakeholder relationships effectively and work with limited supervision.
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Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.
- Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination
- Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism
- Human: Act to have a positive impact on people
- Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively
We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.
If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.
What will I gain?
We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.
You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.
How do I apply?
We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you fairly and objectively.
Please note that applications can’t be edited once submitted.
For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at recruitment@cancer.org.uk.
For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.
We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.
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