Salary: £44,000

Location: Edinburgh or Glasgow

You can choose the location that works best for you. We operate hybrid working with the opportunity to work from home some of the time. The role will also require travel between our office locations on a regular basis and throughout Scotland as required. 

Working Hours: Full time (35 hours a week)
Contract Type: Permanent

About the role

Are you an experienced, dynamic litigator who wants to work differently, using a child-centred approach that ensures that children and young people are kept at the heart of the process?

Are you motivated by the opportunity to play a key role in supporting Clan Childlaw deliver our vision of a Scotland where all children and young people are empowered to use their rights ?  This is a fantastic opportunity for a talented lawyer, who has a strong commitment to social justice.  You should have significant experience in strategic litigation, ideally within our areas of focus, but if you bring experience of and commitment to using your legal skills to improve lives then we want to hear from you . 
Comprehensive training will be provided to support you in developing your knowledge and practice in our key areas, and you will be expected to obtain certification as a lawyer for children.

The role of Lead Solicitor – Strategic Litigation  is an opportunity for a dynamic lawyer with a drive to shape and grow our unique child-centred legal services, increasing access to justice for children and young people across Scotland and play a key role in using strategic litigation to progress children and young people’s rights in Scotland.

About Clan Childlaw

Clan wants a Scotland where all children and young people’s rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled. For that to happen, Scotland has to be a place where all children and young people can stand up for their rights. That means children and young people need: 

• Lawyers that are experts in working with children
• People around them who can enable them to use their rights and amplify their voices  
• To be respected as rights-holders, who are entitled to hold duty-bearers to account if their rights are not fulfilled.  
Clan is an award-winning, independent children’s charity that actively supports children and young people to take ownership of their rights.  We are the only charity in Scotland that provides free, independent legal representation exclusively for children and young people, which is child-centred by design. Because our lawyers work directly with children and young people whose lives are affected by legal decisions, we bring that unique practice-based knowledge to every aspect of our work. This includes our specialist training, our helpline supporting others who help children to use their voices and their rights, and our work to influence children’s rights respecting changes to practice, policy and law.  

What We Do  

• We stand with others who help children use their rights –
Through our membership and training for legal professionals and in legal education we are making being a “children’s lawyer” an accredited legal skill set in Scotland. Our practical training and helpline and support for advocacy in Children’s Hearings  provides  adults that support children and young people information and guidance that they can use to empower young people to stand up for their rights.
• We stand out through the excellence of our work –
We want our work to have as much impact as possible. We listen to what children and young people tell us about what they need from lawyers and others who support them to use their rights. We use what we learn to develop and design the services they need and talk about why young people’s rights matter, and why children and young people need lawyers.  
• We stand for change –  
We are lawyers for children and young people representing children and young people in court, at Children’s Hearings, and in important meetings working to give them equal opportunity to heard and use their rights. We take cases that make change for individual children and young people and help shape better rights respecting policy and practice. We use our knowledge of the law, and experience as practising lawyers for children and young people, to ask decision makers and lawmakers to change the law and the way the law is used to make sure that children and young people’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.  

Our Values

Our values are the principles we uphold in all our work, no matter what. They are the foundation of our workplace culture. Everyone who works at Clan shows our values in all they do and say.  

We are supportive:  We listen and respond, we provide encouragement and emotional help to children and young people, to others who support young people, and to each other.
We are bold:  We are confident and courageous in amplifying the voices of children and young people.  We are prepared to take risks when we need to, to defend children and young people’s rights.  

We are dynamic: We are always active, always progressing. We are positive, full of energy and new ideas. We ask for change where it is needed.
“I love my job at Clan. It’s busy and varied and no two days are ever the same. We have a great team here and everyone is really supportive.” - A member of the Clan Childlaw team

What we can offer you

Clan Childlaw’s mission is very important to us, but our people are important too. We recognise the importance of a good work-life balance and a friendly supportive work environment. We offer:

• 33 days annual leave (inclusive of public holidays) increasing to 35 after 2 years’ service
• Auto-enrolment into our pension scheme after 3 months service
• Offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the option to choose the base location that works best for you.
• Flexibility around your working day, with the opportunity to work your hours within the hours of 7am to 7pm, and the option to work from home some of your working week.
• Access to our employee counselling service.
Learning and development is important to us and our team. We hope it’s important to you too. You will be encouraged to engage in learning and continued professional development.

“I have never worked in such a lovely organisation before! I feel valued, seen and heard as an individual here.” - A member of the Clan Childlaw team

“I love my job at Clan. It’s busy and varied and no two days are ever the same. We have a great team here and everyone is really supportive.” - A member of the Clan Childlaw team

If you’re thinking of applying but would like to have a chat about it first please get in touch at hr@clanchildlaw.org

You can apply via our online portal here

Job description

Closing date for application is midnight on Sunday 13 July and we expect interviews to take place on week commencing 28 July.

Clan Childlaw is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We welcome and encourage applications from all qualified individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected status.

Please note: To become an employee at Clan Childlaw you must be able to produce evidence of your Right to Work and Membership of the PVG Scheme is essential for this role and the successful candidate will be required to apply for the scheme and produce an acceptable PVG Scheme Record.