Lawyer

Basis: Permanent, Full time 36 hours per week

London-based employees receive an additional £3,217 London weighting.

A £312 tax-free working from home allowance is also payable annually.

Location: Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, or London (Hybrid – min. 2 days in office) or homeworking (UK)

Benefits: Outstanding benefits including Civil Service Pension Scheme, flexible working, 28+ days holiday, and more.

About the Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission is the UK’s independent body overseeing elections and regulating political finance. Everything we do is about ensuring trust, participation, and integrity in the democratic process.

As we continue to deliver our five-year Corporate Plan, the Commission is building on a period of growth and change, expanding our workforce and modernising how we deliver our services to better support the needs of a changing democracy. As our organisation develops and adapts to meet future challenges, this post will play a vital part in supporting that progress and helping ensure we remain responsive to the democratic needs of voters, campaigners, parties and electoral administrators across the UK.

About the role

We are currently seeking a full-time lawyer to join the Commission’s Legal Team.

As a UK-wide organisation, we welcome applications from lawyers qualified in any of the jurisdictions in the UK (England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) to join our Legal Team.

For this recruitment round we are particularly keen to encourage applications from lawyers with experience of regulatory compliance and enforcement, but the ultimate appointment will be based on the breadth of the successful applicant’s experience.

As a statutory body, the Commission relies on its Legal Team for high-quality legal advice to advance its objectives and ensure it exercises its functions lawfully.

You will provide high-quality legal advice and assistance to the Commission including:

• advising on electoral law including during major political events such as UK Parliamentary General Elections, local elections, PCC elections, mayoral elections, referendums, and elections for the devolved parliaments,
• advising on regulatory decisions and enforcement action affecting political parties and campaigners,
• working on proposed legislation and the implementation of new legislation, and
• advising on the Commission’s wider legal obligations as a public body.

Since the Commission operates in a niche area, we do not require or expect candidates to have experience of electoral law but experience of advisory work, statutory interpretation and public and administrative law will be essential.

You will be supported by one of the Senior Lawyers and receive training in role.

About the team

You’ll be joining the Legal Team, part of the Devolution and Law directorate.

The team is currently comprised of a Head of Legal, a Legal Management Team of Senior Lawyers, Lawyers, and a Legal Officer, under the Commission’s General Counsel.

We are a collaborative, supportive, and solutions focused team that works closely with colleagues across the Commission.

We pride ourselves on being approachable, responsive, and innovative in the way we provide legal advice. Our work is high-profile and varied with electoral reform, political finance, the regulation of parties and candidates, and devolution all being hot topics across the whole of the UK. The work is interesting, intellectually challenging, and varied.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

How to apply

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. To help reduce unconscious bias and ensure all applicants are assessed solely on their skills, knowledge and experience, we use an anonymous recruitment process.

When applying, please provide an anonymised CV which omits your protected characteristics and any personally identifiable information:

Do not include:

• Your name, address, phone number, email or other contact details
• Your date of birth or age
• Gender, ethnicity, nationality or other personal identifiers
• A photo of yourself
• Remove educational dates as these are a clear indication of your age
• There is no requirement to include your primary education details.

Do include:

• Your employment history including employers and dates of employment
• Explanation for gaps in your history
• Your duties, responsibilities and achievements

If your CV contains personal details (such as your name or contact information), we will be unable to consider your application. Please double-check your documents before submitting, including the file name you use to save and upload your CV.

Supporting disabled applicants

The Electoral Commission is proud to be a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. As part of our commitment, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants. If you have a disability and meet the minimum essential criteria listed in the job description, you will be offered an interview.

To be considered under this scheme, please indicate this when you apply. We also welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or in the workplace.

Key dates

• Application deadline: Monday 30th November 2026 (23:59)
• Interviews: Week commencing 7th and 12th December 2026

Interviews will be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams.

Shortlisted candidates will also be asked to undertake a written assessment.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.