23732 - Director and Solicitor to the Advocate General for Scotland

Job description

The role

This role offers an exceptional opportunity to serve as the most senior official in the Office of the Advocate General, leading a dedicated, highly specialised, and compact department. This is a highly autonomous role with strategic influence across UK Government departments and Scotland, and direct partnership with UK Government Law Officers and Ministers.

You will sit at the very heart of public law and government decision making. You will have unique opportunities to collaborate across UK Government departments and Scotland to influence, shape, and deliver on the most pressing legal and constitutional issues of the day.

The primary purpose of the Director of OAG is to provide direct legal and operational support to the AGS, serving as the legal head of the department and senior operational leader responsible for delivering the AGS's legal priorities, overarching strategy, performance, and governance.

This role holds overall management and legal accountability for delivering services to the UK Government on Scottish matters, safeguarding the devolution settlement, and driving excellence in support of the Law Officer.

This is primarily a senior leadership role. While you will be the ultimate legal authority within OAG, your core focus will be leading, inspiring, and empowering the workforce across the four divisions (Legal Secretariat, Advisory and Legislation, HMRC, and Litigation).

You will foster an inclusive culture, manage a high-performing senior leadership team, drive continuous improvement reflecting the Future Civil Service and ensure the department delivers effective and efficient legal advice.

Key Responsibilities

1. Senior leadership:

Provide visible, strategic leadership to a team of 50 FTEs. Direct line management of 4 SCS1 Division Heads.

Take corporate responsibility for the collective leadership of the department, building an inclusive culture, fostering high engagement, and maintaining strong organisational capability.

2. Support to the Law Officer and statutory functions:

Maintain overall accountability for supporting the Advocate General in exercising Law Officer functions under the Scotland Act 1998 and delivering on ministerial objectives.

Ensure seamless departmental alignment with the AGS, providing high-integrity, rapid, and authoritative legal advice on sensitive constitutional and policy matters.

3. Strategic delivery and governance: Translate overarching organisational strategy into actionable business plans. Manage operational performance, risk, and continuous improvement across a complex directorate.

4. Financial accountability:

Oversee departmental financial management and resource allocation. While the Principal Accounting Officer is the Director of the Scotland Office (SCS2), this role maintains direct budget responsibility and financial management accountability for the Office of the Advocate General, ensuring value for money and sound risk management at the senior executive level.

5. Overarching strategic advisory and devolution leadership:

Lead the strategic provision of legal advice on Scots Law across all UK Government departments concerning policy and legislation impacting Scotland. Provide visible and strategic legal leadership on key areas of devolution.

6. Litigation Oversight:

Maintain overarching responsibility and strategic oversight for any legal action raised by or against a UK government department in Scotland.

Ensure reputational and legal risks to the UK Government are effectively managed.

7. Corporate leadership and UKG presence:

Maintain strong connections with Government Legal Service for Scotland (GLSS) as member of the management board. In addition, with the Government Legal Profession (GLP) and Directors of the Offices of the Nations (OfNs) providing visible leadership across the UK Government to champion and embed Scots law elements across wider government priorities.

Person Specification

Throughout the selection process, you should provide clear evidence and examples that demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

Essential skills and experience:

- Proven senior leadership experience (in public or private sector context), with a track record of setting strategic direction in a complex environment, leading and developing specialist and/or multidisciplinary teams, and building an inclusive, high-performing culture, including through ambiguity and change.

- Significant leadership experience within a specialist legal environment, with responsibility for people and resources, and a track record of exercising sound judgement in managing complex, sensitive or high-profile legal and reputational risks.
- Exceptional influencing and stakeholder-management skills, with the credibility and judgement to advise, challenge and build trusted relationships with senior decision-makers, such as CEOs / Board level, General Counsel, Ministers, or equivalent, including on sensitive or contested issues.
- A strong understanding of, or interest in, devolution and Scotland's legal, political and constitutional landscape, with the ability to apply sophisticated legal judgement in complex and politically sensitive environments.

Essential qualifications:

- The successful candidate will need to be qualified to practise as a Solicitor or Advocate in Scotland or must be willing to obtain such qualification (see below).
- We welcome lawyers who meet the essential criteria and are currently outside central government and/or those who are not Scots-Law qualified, including England and Wales and overseas qualified candidates.
- If the successful candidate is not Scots-Law qualified they must dual qualify following appointment. Costs will be covered for this training. During this period the title of the role would be “Director of the Office of the Advocate General”.

Additional Information

Please view our candidate information pack for full details about the role, key responsibiliti es, person specification, and the criteria you will be assessed against throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: [1] https://www.go v.uk/governmen t/organisation s /ministry-of-j ustice/about/e quality-and-di versity . Diversity & Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain, and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy References Visible links 1. https://www.go v.uk/governmen t/organisation s /ministry-of-j ustice/about/e quality-and-di versity