Legal Officer (Civil Litigation/Employment Law Legal Officer)

About this Role

There is more to the RCN than you might think. We’re a trade union with a membership of over half a million nurses, midwives, nursing support workers and students. We support their practice, represent them, lobby on their behalf, and develop them. We exist to make a positive difference – to the working lives of our members and ultimately to standards in patient care. Our employees are drawn from many walks of life – we are nurses, marketers and communicators, administrators, IT professionals, policy and finance experts, lawyers… together we are so much more. We couldn’t do what we do without our people.

The role
As a legal officer you will be responsible for running our civil litigation caseload across the whole of England & Wales and provide training to the wider team in relation to civil litigation, and updates in relation to developments in civil law and practice.

Subject to your civil litigation workload commitments you will also be expected to assist the wider team on general employment law matters, including Employment Tribunal work at a level appropriate to your knowledge and experience (employment law training can be provided, if required).

This is an exciting opportunity to work with the whole of the RCN legal team across England & Wales, with longer term possibilities of becoming a key member of our team in developing and enhancing our representation of members in the civil courts. It's a great way to build your knowledge of our work and develop your potential.

The person
As well as being committed to exceptional customer service, to join us you’ll need to be a qualified Solicitor, Chartered Legal Executive or Barrister who has experience of and an in-depth knowledge of conducting Civil Litigation both at County Court and High Court level.
The position would best suit someone with an aptitude to represent claimants; however, others with experience of representing defendants who may be interested in seeking a new challenge and who have appropriate experience and qualifications will be considered provided they can show in interest in working in a claimant focused environment.

To succeed at the Royal College of Nursing all you need to do is think bigger, better and brighter. And with an attitude like that, anything’s possible.

What we offer you
We expect you to look after our members and we expect you to be rewarded for it. We offer an impressive range of benefits, a broad range of learning development opportunities and an award-winning health and wellbeing programme. We offer annual leave up to 32 days plus bank holidays and three additional days for the Christmas break plus generous maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave packages.

*We offer a competitive pay structure with annual pay progression until you reach the top of the salary scale. We normally offer new employees the first point of the salary range, although you may be able to negotiate a higher starting salary depending on your skills, experience and current salary.

We are a diverse organisation and understand everyone has different needs and many of our employees enjoy flexible working enabling them to deliver results whilst having a good work life balance. Our hybrid working model allows for up to 60% of your working time to be carried out from home. At least 40% of your working time will be spent working in person.

Further information

Our selection process
Please click the ‘apply now’ button to apply and answer the supporting questions online demonstrating how you meet the criteria for this role. You may not be shortlisted if you don’t. Any identifying information in your application will automatically be anonymised for shortlisting purposes.

Closing date: 11.59pm, 27th April 2026.
Selection dates: To be confirmed.

If we receive many applications after 2 weeks of advertising, we may close this vacancy earlier.

We want your experience applying for a job with us to be the best it can be. We may hold our interviews and assessments in person or by video call. If you foresee any problems, please let us know.

Equal opportunities for everyone
Equity, diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we aim to foster an inclusive environment so our people can bring their authentic selves to work. This is integral to our mission to enable you to support our members and ensure their voice is heard by all UK governments to get the best outcomes for them and their patients.

As proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities.

Contact details
For more information or for an informal discussion about the role please contact Ferguson Doyle, Senior Legal Officer, at [email protected]
For more information about the recruitment and selection process please contact[email protected]