Litigation Support Officer (DV Enhanced)

Job summary

About the Government Legal Department

From healthcare to artificial intelligence, energy to national security, we provide legal advice to government departments on nation-changing subjects.

At Government Legal Department we have a vital, single-minded purpose: to help the Government govern well within the rule of law. This is complemented by our exciting vision to be an outstanding legal organisation, committed to the highest standards of service and professionalism and a brilliant place to work where we can all thrive and fulfill our potential.

Our work touches almost every aspect of public life. We are the largest provider of legal services across government, working on high profile matters.

Our respected professionals are involved in everything from regulation and litigation to advice on drafting legislation. They provide expertise to the full range of government departments. We are at the heart of delivering the government’s priorities and our success depends on our people.

GLD is a non-ministerial government department headed by the Treasury Solicitor, our Permanent Secretary, and employs nearly 4000 people, including nearly 3000 legal professionals. We have offices nationwide, in Bristol, Leeds, inner and outer London and Manchester. Our lawyers can also be located within other departments and overseas.

GLD also depends on a range of cross-functional professionals to provide our corporate services. There are nearly 1000 colleagues playing an essential part in helping GLD to achieve its purpose and truly deliver much more than law.

This is an exciting time to join GLD, with cutting edge legal work on global issues and a transformation agenda which is ensuring the Department exemplifies the Modern Civil Service.

To find out more about what we do you can view our introductory film. On our website you can hear from team members, find out how to apply and learn about the benefits of working for GLD. You can also read more about the future vision for GLD in our GLD Strategy 2024 – 2027.

Job description

About Litigation Support in Litigation Directorate

Litigation Support Officers provide essential administrative and operational support to client teams and expert services, helping to ensure the efficient delivery of legal services across the organisation. In today’s environment, government actions and decisions face increasing scrutiny and legal challenges. Issues such as military actions overseas, immigration policies, welfare reforms, climate change, and energy policies frequently spark legal debates and high-profile challenges that capture public attention.

The Government Legal Department’s (GLD) Litigation Directorate handles a wide spectrum of cases, often of significant public and constitutional importance, including supporting the Special Advocates appointed by the Attorney General in national security and other sensitive proceedings.

Our public law litigation practice encompasses judicial review challenges across diverse areas, including justice, health, defence, immigration, planning, national security, and the Government’s comprehensive reform agenda.

In addition to public law, we maintain a robust private law practice, representing major Government departments such as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). These teams manage high-profile group actions and claims involving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), personal injury, clinical negligence, misfeasance in public office, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, among others.

Litigation Delivery Teams:

Litigation Delivery Teams (LDT) play a vital role in providing administrative and operational litigation support to key business areas across GLD. Each business area is supported by its own Litigation Delivery Team, comprising of Litigation Support Officers (LSOs) led by a Litigation Delivery Manager. These teams form part of GLD’s wider legal support community of over 200 professionals, delivering high-quality administrative services that enable legal teams to manage cases efficiently and meet business priorities.

The Role

We are recruiting Litigation Support Officers to provide litigation administrative support within the Defence and Security Division and SASO in the Justice and Development Division.

Candidates must either hold or be eligible to obtain DV (Developed Vetting) security clearance plus further enhanced clearance and be available to attend the office at least four days per week. The role is expected to be held for a minimum of two years upon obtaining DV clearance.

You will work closely with Litigation Lawyers and Deputy Directors, providing administrative and operational support that helps legal teams manage litigation effectively. You will gain valuable insight into litigation processes and how legal services support government operations. The work is dynamic, varied, fast paced and offers an excellent opportunity to start or develop your Civil Service career in a supportive environment.

Key skills include strong organisation and communication skills, the ability to multitask effectively, and adaptability to thrive in a fast-paced environment. Confidence in meeting challenging deadlines, excellent IT skills, and a keen attention to detail are essential. We provide a comprehensive induction process to ensure you are well-equipped to excel in your role.

The position involves close collaboration with Litigation Delivery colleagues and legal teams across GLD. Team sizes may vary, and all roles sit within the litigation support function and focus on supporting legal teams through a range of administrative activities. This is not a legal case-working or paralegal role, and you will not be managing your own legal cases or performing paralegal duties.

Our Litigation Support Officers are expected:

• To provide a high quality, professional and efficient administrative support service to enable caseworkers to meet their targets and deadlines, thereby achieving client satisfaction and contributing to the achievement of organisational, divisional and team objectives.
• To comply with policies, standards, procedures and service level agreements set at GLD, divisional and team level.
• To comply with GLD Time Recording Policy and to meet chargeable hours target set by Directorate.
• The handling of sensitive court documents.

To succeed in this role, you will have a passion for administration, be highly organised, responsive, attentive to detail, and driven to deliver results.

Key responsibilities include:

To manage a broad range of varied litigation support activities, including:

• Creating and indexing documentary bundles required as evidence for legal cases.
• Liaison with solicitors, clients, witnesses and court offices
• Delivering classified documents to courts, counsel, and clients in accordance with security guidance
• Dealing with communication requests from the Special Advocates Support Office, as a conduit between client departments and Special Advocates
• Arranging and sourcing counsel for legal cases
• Note taking at court, conferences and meetings with clients and counsel.
• Filing, labelling and locating documents within our document management system (CMS), secure storag