Senior Lawyer - Highways and Planning

Staffordshire County Council is a modern, progressive, and forward‑thinking authority that is ambitious and empowers its employees to be courageous and innovative in their approach.

Join a team where your expertise shapes the future of Staffordshire.

Staffordshire County Council is a modern, forward‑thinking authority with big ambitions. We empower our people to be bold, innovative and to take pride in the work they do.

Staffordshire Legal Services is one of the largest and most diverse in‑house legal teams in the region, providing high‑quality, high‑impact work across every Council function, the Staffordshire Pension Fund, and a wide range of external clients. Our caseload is consistently interesting, varied, and often high profile.

We genuinely prioritise work–life balance—our staff survey tells us we don’t just say it, we live it. Our benefits include:

• Generous holiday allowance, increasing with service, plus the option to purchase additional leave
• Agile, flexible and term‑time working arrangements
• Local Government Pension Scheme with generous (29.5%) employer contributions
• Employee discounts, staff parking discounts, and an optional car lease scheme
• Family‑friendly policies, including maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave
• A collaborative, supportive team culture where your contribution truly matters

These will include delivering support in relation to Highway and Planning matters, as follows:

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• Advising on County Planning matters including applications received and work generated and planning enforcement.
• Negotiating complex planning obligations on behalf of highway and education clients.
• Negotiating highway agreements on behalf of highway clients.
• Giving advice in relation to a full range of often complex Local Authority statutory Highway and Planning functions
• Managing client files in accordance with Lexcel requirements and supervising other members of the team.

We are looking for you to be a qualified Chartered Legal Executive (with practice/advocacy rights), Solicitor or Barrister with:

• A comprehensive understanding of Highway and Planning law
• An in-depth understanding of the work carried out within the public sector, although previous local government experience is not essential.
• An ability to clearly, confidently and effectively communicate.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Effective time management, prioritisation skills and an ability to work under the demands of competing pressures.
• An ability to delegate work in order to generate capacity.

‘We’re happy to talk flexible working’.

If you’re unsure whether your skills are the right fit, we encourage you to get in touch for an informal discussion. Please contact John Rowe, Principal Lawyer at jo or Imran Razaq, Deputy Legal Services Manager at Imra

Interviews will take place during week commencing 23 March 2026.

We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.