Town Hall
160 Whitechapel Road
LONDON
E1 1BJ

Tower Hamlets is one of London’s most diverse and fastest-growing boroughs. Our population is set to increase by 80,000 over the next two decades, and with the highest housing delivery targets in the London Plan and a Mayoral pledge to deliver 4,000 affordable homes by 2026, the scale and importance of our work is clear.

Our borough is home to Canary Wharf, Brick Lane, Whitechapel, the Olympic Legacy, more than 50 conservation areas, award-winning parks, hundreds of listed buildings and the Tower of London World Heritage Site – all within just eight square miles. We are also proud to serve one of the youngest, most multicultural, and dynamic populations in the country.

This is an exciting time to join Tower Hamlets Council. As we move into our new town hall at the former Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, our Legal Services team is at the heart of supporting the Council’s ambitions. Following a recent restructure, the service is well-placed to meet the needs of our residents and the wider community.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced and motivated legal professional to take up the role of Head of Litigation. This senior position will lead our litigation team, covering a wide range of complex and high-profile matters, and will be a key part of the Legal Services leadership group.

Reporting to the Director of Legal, the postholder will also deputise as required, ensuring continuity of leadership and providing strategic advice at the most senior levels of the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and develop the litigation team to deliver high-quality, timely, and cost-effective legal services.
• Provide expert advice on a wide range of litigation, regulatory, governance, and public law matters.
• Manage and oversee casework in civil, criminal, employment, housing, and public law litigation.
• Conduct and oversee advocacy in courts and tribunals, including instructing and managing Counsel.
• Ensure the Council’s interests are robustly represented and protected through effective case management and strategic advice.
• Support corporate governance by advising Members, Committees, and senior officers as required.
• Deputise for the Director of Legal, including attending senior management meetings and providing leadership across the wider Legal Services function.
• Attend evening and out-of-hours meetings when required, including Committees and related forums.

About You

You will be a highly skilled litigation lawyer with substantial post-qualification experience and a track record of successfully managing complex cases. You will bring strong leadership skills, a collaborative approach, and the ability to operate at pace within a high-profile public sector organisation.

• Qualified Solicitor, Barrister, or Fellow of CILEX in England and Wales.
• Current practising certificate at the commencement of the role.
• Significant post-qualification experience in litigation across a range of practice areas.
• Demonstrable ability to lead, manage, and develop a legal team.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to advise at the highest level.
• Experience of deputising for senior colleagues or operating in a leadership capacity.

Experience of judicial review, regulatory enforcement, and public law litigation within a local authority context will be a strong advantage.

Tower Hamlets vision for our borough is that: people are aspirational, independent and have equal access to opportunities; we are a borough that our residents are proud of and love to live in; and we are a dynamic, outcomes-based council using digital innovation and partnership working to respond to the changing needs of our borough. We want people who aspire to our TOWER values: Together; Open; Willing; Excellent; Respect.

Tower Hamlets has a zero-tolerance approach to, and works to eradicate, all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status, status as a civil partner, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and maternity and looks to employ a diverse workforce representative of those groups. We recognise that people can also be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class.We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means applicants who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the post are guaranteed an interview. Care experience has also been adopted by the Council as an additional protected characteristic.

We welcome applicants interested in flexible working arrangements and also applicants who live in the borough.