Tier 3 Legal Team
Manager
Job profile
November 2025
Contents
Overview
Page 3
Job Description
Page 4, 5 & 6, 7 & 8
Success Profile
Page 8, 9 & 10
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Overview
Why we exist
Magistrates’ Courts deal with approximately 95% of criminal cases, 70% of civil cases, and 60% of
family cases. Dealing with cases justly and speedily, and in ways that meet the needs of our court
users, is at the heart of what we do.
We are here to ensure everyone in need of our courts and tribunals receives a service that suits
their needs.
How are we going to fulfil our vision?
Every year, millions of people seek justice in our courts and tribunals.
We are focused on radically improving the customer’s experience by:
• Employing digital technology to enable access to justice by enabling victims and witnesses
to give evidence in a less intimidating way via video link
• Enabling self-service, where appropriate, to ensure people can get fast and easy access to
simple judicial services
• Streamlining processes so we can reinvest in improvements that benefit our customers
• Progressing cases efficiently and effectively through the court by maximising the use of
new digital processes.
As a Tier 3 Legal Team Manager you will be at the forefront of delivering this improved service and
experience to our customers both in and outside the court room.
HMCTS Legal Operations are in the process of implementing a new organisational design structure.
The Legal Team Manager role is a core focus of this work as a key role in leading legal teams into the
future legal operations operating model.
This new chapter brings a stronger focus on people leadership, strategic influence, and wellbeing,
designed to empower our Tier 3 Legal Team Managers to lead with clarity, purpose, and impact.
This structure will also enable our legal managers to focus on legal specialisms whilst contributing to
wider legal initiatives, talent development, and cross agency collaboration.
Job Description
The key purpose of the role
The role of the Tier 3 Legal Team Manager is to provide strong leadership of Legal Advisers and
other legal staff within their business area. Legal Team Managers support the Senior Legal
Managers (SLMs) and the Head of Legal Operations (HoLO) in the management of legal
operations services across their part of the business. A key part of this role will involve creating,
developing, and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders and managing
their varying and complex needs.
The role holder will have considerable influence and responsibility over legal service provision
within the region and be responsible for high-quality delivery of day-to-day legal operations. They
will provide clear direction and focus, leading by example and visibly championing a culture which
values the legal profession, delivering quality legal advice and driving performance to support the
delivery of justice.
This role has significant people leadership responsibility and will work closely with Senior Legal
Managers and members of the National Legal Operations team to ensure all staff within their
business area have the right skills and knowledge to exercise legal functions, can support sound
judicial decisions and have access to the opportunities to develop their careers as lawyers. They
will provide clear strategic direction and focus, leading by example, and visibly championing and
leading change which delivers results and improved performance across the region. The role
holder will create and enhance effective working relationships to support the local judiciary and
magistracy and ensure hearings operate effectively and efficiently, supporting the SLMs and HoLO
and representing them as required. The scope of the role is significant, contributing substantially to
the achievement of business objectives across their part of the business.
They will establish and build effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders,
including working with magistrates and other judicial office holders, local operational leaders and
partner organisations to ensure hearings operate effectively and efficiently.
They will have oversight of legal queries and complaints in their area of the business and make
sure their teams are able to use these as opportunities for driving continuous improvement where
appropriate. They will also champion continuous professional development and knowledge sharing
within their business area.
The role holder will take courts in order to maintain their legal specialism but also take up a
portfolio of responsibility for providing legal and jurisdictional leadership on regional business
priorities and where called upon for national projects.
Technical
• To be eligible for this post the role holder must satisfy the Authorised Court Staff (Legal Advice
Functions) (Qualification Regulations) 2020
• Excellent leadership and people management skills to drive a professional and performance
driven culture, including the ability to coach and mentor others to build their legal knowledge
• Knowledge and skills relevant to a specialist legal practice area, or the ability and willingness to
gain these quickly.
• Excellent communication skills - able to communicate complex information clearly in a format
all stakeholders will understand
Desirable
• Excellent relationship management skills - able to build strong working relationships and
influence key internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to think pro-actively and manage team workloads to address business priorities.
• Data analysis skills - ability to analyse data and draw conclusions to inform wider business
activity.
• A training qualification such as NVQ Level 3 Certificate in Training Practice or equivalent, to
enable the effective delivery of training for Legal Advisers and other legal staff.
The key objectives of the role are contained within the Legal Adviser Competence
Framework.
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In addition to the Tier 2 main activities, Tier 3 Legal Team Managers are required to undertake the
following roles and key responsibilities plus expected legal specialism:
People Management - Managing a Legal Team (including a specialist family team, or across
another legal jurisdiction e.g. tribunals) and bench/panel support
A Tier 3 Legal Team Manager who is appointed into the management stream, will have day to day
management responsibility of a team of legal advisers.
Key responsibilities include:
• Be responsible for leadership and day-to-day legal operations in one or more jurisdictions
across the region/nationally, supporting and enabling the SLM and HoLO in the delivery of
legal operational priorities and objectives and contributing significantly to the achievement of
key national and regional business plan objectives.
• Be responsible for direct line management and leadership of legal staff, including focussing on
the professional and career development of members of their team across their business area
to build their legal knowledge. They will identify current and future capability needs, support
succession planning and career development of our people, equipping them with skills,
knowledge and resources to effectively carry out their role, valuing/rewarding contributions as
appropriate.
• Be responsible for legal performance within their business area, working with local operational
leaders to ensure availability of resource to deliver hearings in a timely manner, enabling
access to justice. They will maintain a strategic focus across the service(s) delivered across
their area of business/nationally region, realigning priorities where necessary and assigning
responsibility for action against plans to ensure efficient and consistent legal service delivery
and performance.
• Build and maintain an effective partnership and manage relationships with staff and colleagues
across functional boundaries between Courts and Tribunals, including the Royal Courts of
Justice (RCJ) and National Services to ensure positive user experience for public and
professional Courts and Tribunal/ National Services users and ensure support for the judiciary.
• Create a culture that reflects our MoJ Shared Values and supports innovation and creativity, to
develop new ways of working and improve efficiency of operations, providing insight to SLMs
and Head of Legal Operations for onward sharing.
• Communicate business objectives into context for their teams, provide direction and help
people understand how the work they do significantly contributes to the bigger picture and
regional attainment of national and national objectives.
• Role model engaging behaviours, promoting a culture which provides an excellent service to
our users, that values the legal profession, and that champions diversity, inclusion, and
employee wellbeing.
• Oversee and coordinate the response to, and resolution of, complex legal queries within their
business area and take proactive steps to ensure their teams can utilise these as opportunities
to continuously improve and share knowledge and best practice. They will pro-actively promote
continuous improvement and change initiatives aimed at improving performance and service
delivery in legal operations and more widely.
• Contribute to and support national initiatives, providing legal expertise and insight and helping
to embed change where needed in their part of the business.
• Utilise data analysis skills to understand performance in own business area and provide
feedback to Senior Legal Managers to support wider business activity such as recruitment
planning.
• Be responsible for providing appropriate support to the magistracy and other judicial office
holders as required, including providing advice to judicial office holders in court in line with
sitting day requirements to maintain professional status.
• Deputise for Senior Legal Managers as appropriate and perform any other duties to support
business needs in line with the grade.
•
Those managing a specialist family team would be expected to develop and maintain an effective
working relationship with the Designated Family Judge, supporting the development of the Family
Jurisdiction.
Customer service and standards:
• Promotes user focussed activity and standards - has strong written and interpersonal skills
utilising principles of Human Voice of Justice
• Contributes to SOC, SAF - leads on maintaining standards of service and identifies areas
for improvement - takes forward solutions using ‘continuous improvement’ techniques.
• Management of complaints and services failures, and competent in use of OPTIC.
Additional Tier 3 practice areas:
• Regional/Area Expert
• Regional/Area Committee Responsibility
• Managing a Family Legal team
• Regional/Area Programme Management
• Education, Training Learning and Development Management for magistrates and legal
advisers
• Business Support and Performance/Project Management
• Supporting Advisory Committees (recruitment and conduct)
Knowledge and Skills
Additional skills required to meet the requirements of the Tier 3 practice areas include:
• Horizon scan and forward plan the use of available resource to maximise performance, co-
ordinating with other senior managers to ensure the effective and efficient use of resources
deliver services to meet business objectives.
• Oversee the resolution of sensitive or complex problems raised in their part of the business.
They will develop innovative approaches to ensuring their teams are capable of
investigating and responding to these and using these as opportunities for improving the
provision of legal services.
• Investigate and resolve complaints about the provision of legal services as they arise and
engage personally with the key stakeholders to ensure constructive outcomes and
exercising appropriate discretion, e.g. close hearing rooms due to resource issues,
identifying the implications and risks of available options and approaches and taking the
necessary mitigating actions.
• Provide specialist legal advice in area of expertise and utilise opportunities to enable others
to build their professional knowledge. They may act as subject matter expert in a particular
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aspect of legal knowledge or practice and provide definitive advice or guidance in this area
regionally or nationally.
• Consider recommendations made by their teams and others to improve the delivery of legal
services and make the final decision on implementation or escalate these through the
continuous improvement routes for wider consideration and approval.
• Make use of available data and insight when investigating issues impacting on legal
operations and in making decisions to achieve the best outcome. They may have to use
their judgment when presented with potentially conflicting data in order to resolve the
issues facing them or in determining the most urgent priorities.
• Contribute to and support national initiatives, providing comprehensive legal experience
and insight to help the successful implementation of initiatives impacting on legal
operations.
Decision-Making
The role holder will
• Work under the direction of Heads of Legal Operations and Senior Legal Managers but will
be expected to operate with a level of autonomy in determining how their available resource
is deployed to best meet business objectives.
• Be expected to exercise their own judgment and initiative to resolve issues and complaints
that are escalated to them, ensuring that senior legal managers (and others) are kept
informed of issues that have wider repercussions or might be particularly sensitive.
• Exercise their judicial independence when acting as legal adviser / undertaking authorised
judicial functions and uphold the principles of judicial conduct; integrity, impartiality and
independence and ensure that legal staff working to them undertaking those functions do
the same when undertaking those functions.
Management Decisions
The Tier 3 Legal Team Manager will be responsible for
• Direct line management of legal staff, ensuring they are supported and directed and given
opportunities to maintain and expand their legal knowledge and practice. They will be
responsible for ensuring their teams understand the business objectives that sit behind the
work of legal operations.
• Ensuring trainees have a timetabled training plan and are supported to complete their
training within agreed timescales.
• Managing local resources to enable effective delivery of legal activity in their business area.
They will also resolve any potential conflict between teams in relation to the deployment of
resources and allocation of tasks.
• Horizon scanning/forward planning to enable time/availability for professional development
activity.
• Work with colleagues within and across regions to maximise the deployment of resources
to support the delivery of justice.
Key relationships and contacts
A key part of this role will involve creating, developing and maintaining relationships with significant
stakeholders and the Tier 3 Legal Team manager will
• Work with local management colleagues (both operational and legal) to plan available
resource to deliver business objectives. This may require them to negotiate and influence
others to deliver on the key objectives. They will also work with other Legal Team
managers and legal roles across the region/nationally as part of a network of legal
managers, sharing best practice, collectively solving problems and providing support on
legal and operational matters to the organisation.
• Work with Heads of Legal Operations/Senior Legal Managers to understand priorities for
own business area and how these may be achieved.
• Build strong relationships with magistracy and judicial office holders to provide support as
required.
• Be expected to develop their legal knowledge and practice to be able to speak with
authority on issues in their own business area.
• Work with colleagues nationally to ensure consistent standards and processes are applied.
The HMCTS Success Profile for a Tier 3 Legal Manager Role includes a number of Civil
Service Behaviours:
Communicating and Influencing
You communicate clearly and concisely, listening to others and adapting your style to suit the
audience. You have excellent facilitation and presentation skills and challenge others in a
constructive and confident manner. You keep others informed at all times and easily develop
mutual trust and respect.
Delivering at Pace
You take personal responsibility for ensuring you and your team produce high quality work,
showing excellent organisation and time management skills. You work effectively under pressure
and show resilience in challenging situations. You are flexible and quickly adapt to unexpected
events, delegating effectively to ensure work is completed on time and to a high standard.
Developing Self and others
You identify both individual and team development areas and empower others to take ownership
for their development, whilst also providing the necessary support, encouragement and feedback.
You show empathy for others’ development journeys yet can confidently manage poor
performance when required.
Seeing the Bigger Picture
You develop and maintain an understanding of economic, social, political, environmental and
technological developments to ensure activity is relevant. You ensure plans and activities in your
area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to
influence future strategies. You adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of
activity and policy. You bring together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to
gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and activities
Strengths
(As part of the Success Profile Framework, strengths applicable to the role will be assessed at
interview).
Ability
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1) Legal Knowledge and Skills - you maintain relevant and up-to-date legal knowledge and
skills (e.g. you have an enthusiasm for the law and conduct regular legal research; you
show highly effective legal reasoning skills and an understanding of the sources of law).
2) IT Skills - you are confident and competent in the use of Information Technology (e.g. you
have experience using Word, Excel, Outlook, Skype, PowerPoint, OneNote, legal research
applications etc).
3) Verbal and Written English Skills - you have a high level of verbal and written English,
including presentation/briefing skills and the ability to write reports and formal responses.
Training
HMCTS supports its new Tier 3 Legal Team Managers through the national L&D teams
programme of activities such as the Role of the Manager programme. Legal Operations arranges
additional modules which are bespoke to the needs of legal managers. Between the HMCTS L&D
team and Legal Operations a wide range of modules and activities are provided to develop a
breadth of knowledge and skills to establish you in the role.
Understanding of the work of other managers within HMCTS is essential for Legal Team Managers
and where possible opportunities will be provided for job shadowing, project work or secondments
to increase exposure to the variety of roles within HMCTS.
It is expected that a legal adviser appointed to a Tier 3 role will be competent within 12 months of
appointment.
Career Development
Within Role
The Tier 3 Legal Manager post covers a range of different functions and those appointed to the
role can be expected to undertake any of those functions. Whilst individuals may be assigned to a
role which favours a particular area of work there may be opportunities to develop skills in other
areas either through discrete projects or through temporary assignment to a different role.
Promotion
Permanent promotion beyond Tier 3 will be to roles offered under open competition. Career
progression to Tier 4 will depend upon the ongoing performance of the role holder and business
need. It is not expected that a Tier 3 Legal Adviser will be able to demonstrate competence in both
Youth and Family courts, in addition to competence in Adult Courts before securing appointment to
a Tier 4 post unless the role is advertised as a specialist post e.g. Family Tier 4 post.
Secondments/Transfers/Work Shadowing
Opportunities may arise for the Tier 3 Legal Manager to gain more experience and contribute to
MoJ through secondment, transfer and work shadowing experiences.
Judicial Appointment
A Tier 3 Legal Team Manager has the opportunity to apply for and be considered for Judicial
Appointment. HMCTS is supportive of such applications and a number of legal advisers within
HMCTS sit as fee paid judiciary in tribunals, county courts and magistrates’ courts.
Learning & Development Opportunities
There are a range of learning opportunities available to support progression which are contained in
the “HMCTS Legal Advisers’ Learning and Development Compendium".
Base
A successful candidate will be offered a post at a base court house. However, there are
requirements to travel to different locations across business areas, within reasonable distance and
travel time on a non-permanent basis.
This job description is a guide to the principal current duties of the post. It is not an exhaustive list
of the duties and responsibilities of the post and the postholder may be required to undertake any
other duties from time that are commensurate with the seniority and nature of the post.
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