Tier 4 Senior Legal Manager
Job profile
February 2026
Overview Page 3
Job Description Page 4-7
Success Profile Page 7-9
Legal Operations encompasses the systems, processes, and resources that deliver legal services to courts and tribunals. We advise magistrates in criminal and family hearings, manage cases in preparation for tribunal hearings, and make important decisions in civil money claims and probate cases.
By focusing on continuous improvement, use of technology, and sharing best practice, Legal Operations ensures that legal teams can work efficiently, maintain compliance, and deliver consistent, high-quality legal work. This integrated approach enables us to respond flexibly to the changing needs of our users and the wider justice system.
Our goal is to make sure Courts and Tribunals are accessible, fair, and efficient for everyone. We work closely with judges and partners to improve our services, modernise systems, and provide a positive experience for all users—whether they are individuals, families, businesses, or organisations.
Civil Court deals with non‑criminal disputes between individuals, businesses or organisations. Civil courts determine issues such as money claims, enforcement of debts, possession and housing matters, injunctions, and other private law disputes, applying legislation, to ensure cases are progressed within statutory and procedural time limits. Probate Court deals with matters arising after a person dies, specifically the legal authority to manage and distribute their estate (property, money and possessions). It considers applications for grants of probate or letters of administration, confirming who is entitled to act on behalf of the estate and ensuring the deceased’s affairs are dealt with lawfully.
Court of Protection is the court that makes decisions for adults who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves. It deals with matters relating to a person’s property, finances, health and welfare, ensuring decisions are made lawfully and in the individual’s best interests.
Tribunals help people challenge decisions that affect their rights, benefits, and everyday lives. This can include issues such as immigration, employment, tax, mental health, or social security. Unlike traditional courts, Tribunals are designed to be more informal and easier for people to use.
We are here to ensure everyone in need of our Courts and Tribunals receives a service that suits their needs.
Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers are key leadership roles within legal operations and national services. They will undertake strategic leadership for one or more jurisdictions or services across multiple locations, working with senior operational colleagues to ensure effective, efficient and consistent service delivery and performance to support the national strategy. Senior Legal Managers and Heads of Legal Operations (HoLO) will work with Service Owners, sharing national and regional insight to support them in shaping and informing ongoing service development, anticipating and predicting long-term developments needed and playing a significant role in the achievement of key regional or national business plan objectives.
Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers have significant people leadership responsibility, with direct line management and indirect leadership for staff regionally and nationally. They will encourage and challenge legal managers to confidently lead, manage and inspire our people to deliver high quality service and effective performance. They will also enable and support the development of legal teams and play a key role in supporting sound judicial decisions. Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will promote inclusive leadership, champion our values and behaviours and foster a culture that values innovation and creativity, ensuring everyone feels valued, supported, challenged and capable.
They will represent the Head of Legal Operations as Legal Adviser to the Magistrates and District Judge (Magistrates Court), in accordance with legislation and the Criminal and Family Practice Directions, and are essential to providing support and advice to Bench and Panel Chairs and will demonstrate leadership in their relationship with the Magistracy, the Judiciary and partner organisations.
Responsible for leading and managing the effective and efficient delivery of Justice across their business area. Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will be responsible (and accountable to their HoLO) for the performance and delivery of the relevant service both in region and nationally and have a clear mandate to take steps to sustain/improve performance where required.
Working with the senior leadership team in the Region or nationally, to undertake business planning and set and agree strategic direction for the jurisdiction to support the HoLO and Delivery Director ensuring effective delivery of quality legal operations.
Overall ownership and responsibility (and accountable to their HoLO) for governance, assurance and risk management within their area of responsibility. Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will balance risk, strategic impact and short and long-term needs when dealing with organisational issues. They are responsible for ensuring systems are in place within their area of responsibility to identify and manage risk and to ensure remedial action is taken to mitigate such risks, only reporting to the HoLO and/or internal audit teams where risks are intolerable and/or possible solutions would go beyond current policy or levels of authority.
Develop and maintain effective close working relationships with Service Owners for their jurisdiction, senior operational managers across regional courts and tribunals and National Services, engaging at a strategic level to deliver service improvement and performance.
Maintain a strategic focus across relevant service, and work with colleagues to realign priorities and/or assign responsibility for action where required to meet the strategic direction agreed.
Work collaboratively with the Head of Operations, Head of Service Performance and Improvement and Service Owners to highlight opportunities to make efficiencies and potential improvements within jurisdiction to feed into national service/performance improvement and maintain consistency of service provision across HMCTS. Provide legal knowledge and insight into national project streams.
Plan for and implement strategy and lead change within the jurisdiction, supported by the HoLO and Service Owner and National Services
Act as an essential link between the Head of Legal Operations and legal colleagues at a local/national level in providing expert legal advice to magistrates and legal teams in line with authorised functions.
Work closely with the leadership judiciary, including but not limited to District Judges, Regional Judges, Designated Family Judges, Presidents/Chamber Presidents and Magistrates Bench/Panel Chairs, to strategically manage workload and resolve issues including sitting day allocation management and other judicial related issues.
Ensure that HMCTS and legal operations supports Judicial College in the training of magistrates.
Ensure that HMCTS and legal operations supports training of individuals executing authorised functions
Be a visible leader, making the best use of modern ways of working to provide strong leadership, clear direction and support to Legal Team Managers and legal teams and set benchmarks to manage effective performance standards in line with strategic objectives and empowering staff to make effective decisions to support the efficient delivery of Justice.
Lead talent and succession planning. Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers are responsible for ensuring that managers are equipped with the right skills to effectively support our people to grow and engage in their own personal and professional development and to effectively manage poor performance. They are responsible for ensuring that training delivers sound decision makers with the skills needed to deliver effectively and support good judicial decisions.
Embed organisational values and behaviours, ensuring wellbeing, inclusion, diversity and equality is at the forefront of all people activities.
To be eligible for this role the applicant will need to be:
a fully qualified lawyer with demonstratable legal experience in a relevant jurisdiction, with current and up to date knowledge of that jurisdiction.
“Fully qualified lawyer", in this context, means:
a barrister in England and Wales, a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, or a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives; or
a T2 or T3 legal adviser/legal team manager in HMCTS.
experience as a Tier 3 Legal Team Manager in HMCTS
a training qualification such as NVQ Level 3 Certificate in Training Practice/HMCTS Train the Trainers or equivalent, to enable the effective delivery of training
knowledge of the organisation and functions of Training, Approvals, Authorisations and Appraisal Committees (TAAACs) and Advisory Committees.
In addition to the above eligibility criteria, Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will have:
The ability to impart detailed and in-depth information in that specialist legal practice area to colleagues nationally
Experience of exercising judicial discretion and pro-active case management
The ability to provide guidance and knowledge to members of staff, Magistrates and court users, including the ability to support, guide and advise Bench/Panel Chairs and committees on matters of law, practice and procedure.
Training skills to support development of a national training strategy to develop Legal Team Managers and legal teams
Excellent leadership and relationship management skills with proven ability and experience of delivering through others, leading and managing teams in accordance with appropriate management practices policy and strategy.
A breadth of experience with engaging and influencing internal/external stakeholders as Senior Legal Managers will engage effectively with regional/national internal stakeholders, the legal community and external stakeholders.
The ability to anticipate and identify issues, analyse and interpret statistical information to assess performance, and delivery of key service improvements.
Excellent communication and customer service skills, understanding the needs of our end users reflecting the diverse needs of our customer base from professional justice partners to vulnerable victims and witnesses.
Influencing skills - to be able to deliver through others, collaborating and negotiating to deliver excellent levels of service within the jurisdiction.
A demonstrable track record of strategic planning and delivering significant change.
The ability to deal with complaints about the provision of local legal services.
Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will:
Use their extensive legal understanding and knowledge of court/tribunal procedures, accompanied by the ability to identify key legal issues in order to resolve the problems and issues facing them. This may require researching all aspects of the law to support capability in undertaking the most complex of cases conducted in court and provide guidance to members of their team. They will also make decisions when advising as part of their annual sitting day requirements in and out of court.
Make judicial decisions using powers authorised or delegated by the HoLO/Presidents & Chamber Presidents and provide recommendations for approval by the HoLO for powers to be authorised or delegated to legal teams following completion of training and evidence of competency.
Work effectively in a highly complex customer and stakeholder environment, building effective relationships and managing the expectations and concerns of a variety of senior stakeholders, with complex and often competing needs.
Lead the resolution of complex strategic problems, for which there may not be existing guidance or procedures. They will need to confidently and regularly make decisions which drive or change business and jurisdictional strategy. There will be a requirement to prioritise resources within their area(s) of responsibility to maximise efficiency of the operation and effectively manage risk. This will include urgent problem solving where immediate high-level decisions are required.
Assess regional/national performance to anticipate strategic organisational issues. They will analyse and interpret complex and possibly conflicting evidence and data to make sound judgment on the most appropriate solutions that take into account the views of important stakeholders.
Make use of specialist legal knowledge, expertise and insight to inform effective decision making. In carrying out their duties they will need to demonstrate compliance with the key principles of judicial conduct: impartiality, integrity and independence.
Have significant people leadership responsibility nationally, and role model engaging and effective leadership behaviours that reflect our MoJ Shared Values, sharing the ‘big picture’ to help people understand their roles in contributing to the success of HMCTS.
Directly lead, coach and support Legal Team Managers and legal teams and have indirect leadership responsibility for the people who work to those Legal Team Managers.
Create a culture that reflects our values and supports innovation, creativity and appropriate risk taking, bringing our people together, managing and encouraging inter-relationships across jurisdictional and geographical boundaries.
Bring insight and understanding of regional jurisdictional performance to the development of strategy and vision, both regionally and nationally, and be responsible for implementing regional/national and corporate strategies.
Make best use of resources to achieve business objectives, overseeing the management and deployment of resources within their area(s)/jurisdiction(s) of responsibility including legal teams hearing/court rooms, judicial resources and sitting days, contributing to effective financial management at a national and local level.
Work with Heads of Operations and Service Owners to agree and set service level targets and analyse performance.
Liaise with the Head of Service Performance and Improvement and Head of Operations (as appropriate) to forecast and prioritise and maximise efficient use of sitting day resource allocation for their area(s)/jurisdiction(s) of responsibility and to liaise, manage and report on risks and implementation of change.
Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will:
Have considerable freedom to set aims and objectives for the work in their area working within strategic and wider operational plans and will be accountable for the performance of their jurisdiction(s).
Have full responsibility for the management and allocation of resources within their area(s)/jurisdiction(s) of responsibility.
Operate independently using their authorised or delegated powers to make judicial decisions in and out of the court or tribunal and will uphold the principles of judicial conduct: independence, integrity and impartiality, both in their own work and ensuring these are upheld by their teams.
Operate independently in making decisions that drive forward service delivery and/or performance improvement within their jurisdiction(s), the Tier 4 Senior Legal Manager will seek guidance only where possible solutions would go beyond current policy or levels of authority.
Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will
Be a visible senior leader, and build relationships with staff at all levels, advocate change and communicate the vision for their jurisdiction across the region and nationally so that our people understand our strategic objectives and how the work they do contributes towards them.
Establish, build and maintain effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders within the jurisdiction to influence, negotiate and deliver strategic outcomes which impact service delivery. As the expert voice for their jurisdiction across the region, Tier 4 Senior Legal Managers will regularly discuss operational service and performance issues with Regional and/or National senior leadership including National Services and HQ corporate functions including their business partners to shape organisational context and convince others to follow a course of action to drive service delivery.
Establish, build and maintain effective relationships with the Head of Service Performance and Improvement and Head of Operations and Leadership Judiciary for their area of responsibility, which could include District Judges, Regional Judges, Designated Family Judges, Presidents/Chamber Presidents and Magistrates Bench/Panel Chairs, to work together to strategically manage workload and resolve issues including sitting day allocation management and other judicial related issues.
Lead discussions with relevant external justice partner stakeholders, including but not restricted to; Criminal Justice Agencies, Police, Witness Service, CAFCASS etc, to work jointly to implement national strategies, problem solve and drive forward improvements.
Contact national media agencies in connection with high profile cases to minimise and manage risk to organisational reputation and maximise public confidence in the justice system.
Promote cross-government working and relationships with other government agencies at a strategic level.
Liaise with Regional/National Trade Union to discuss regional/national issues as part of the regional/national senior leadership team.
The HMCTS Success Profile for a Tier 4 Senior 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 influencing skills and demonstrate tact and diplomacy in all your interactions. You build strong working relationships with individuals and groups and cascade information to keep others informed.
Delivering at Pace
You demonstrate high levels of accountability and are committed to achieving results. You have excellent time management skills and quickly identify where to focus your attention to have the most impact. You are highly resilient and can work effectively under sustained pressure.
You communicate the business strategy across your team and inspire people to deliver the vision and achieve the required results. You embed a strong performance culture and take ownership for all aspects of operational delivery and corporate governance. You have an inclusive and collaborative leadership style and have a genuine desire to help others meet their full potential.
Making Effective Decisions
You make confident, timely and robust decisions about business strategy and objectives. You analyse a wide range of complex information to guide your decisions and you are quick to anticipate and mitigate the potential risks and impacts. You develop clear plans and rationale for your decisions and use these to gain the support of stakeholders.
Seeing the Big Picture
You take an outward-looking, future-focused, and consultative approach to understanding the wider context in which you are operating. You deliver change in line with business strategy and adapt your plans where necessary to respond to internal and external constraints.
As part of the Success Profile Framework, strengths applicable to the role will be assessed at interview
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).
High level of 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.
Progression to the role of Head of Legal Operations will require compliance with the statutory guidelines as set out in S.27 Courts Act, 2003
Opportunities may arise for the Senior Legal Manager to gain more experience and contribute to MoJ through secondment, transfer and work shadowing experiences.
Within the Legal Adviser Career Structure, a Tier 4 Senior Legal Manager role holder 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.
There are a range of learning opportunities available to support progression.
A successful candidate will be offered a post at a base court/tribunal. 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.