Join to apply for the Senior Lawyer - Programme Legal Advice role at BBC.

LOCATION: Role based in London’s Broadcasting House, with some hybrid working. The Programme Legal Advice team works a minimum of Wednesdays and Thursdays from the office with some further days based in the newsroom. Subject to other occasional team and client needs, the remaining time can be worked from home.

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: e.g. £87,000 - £97,000 pa plus London weighting (£5,441 pa), depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. If you’d like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there’s no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

Purpose of the Role

We’re recruiting an experienced Programme Legal Advice Senior Lawyer to join our Programme Legal Advice team. We advise journalists and programme makers working on a wide range of programmes and other content from news and current affairs to drama and entertainment. You will be part of a small team of lawyers that supports programmes like Panorama, Newsnight and Have I Got News For You in getting to air and which assists journalists in gaining access to information and helps build their legal knowledge. This is a permanent role based in London with some flexibility, i.e. hybrid working.

Why Join the Team

As a Programme Legal Advice Senior Lawyer reporting to the Legal Director for Programme Legal Advice, you will provide pre‑transmission advice on defamation, contempt, privacy and other aspects of media law to journalists and content producers across the BBC’s output. The role sits within the BBC Legal Division which is responsible for providing legal advice and assistance across the BBC and for developing and implementing the BBC’s legal strategy.

Your Key Responsibilities and Impact

• Advise programme makers and senior management on legal risks associated with their output and provide strategies for managing legal risk.
• Support the BBC’s journalism, for example by challenging reporting restrictions where appropriate, by applying to courts and other bodies for access information and by advising on Freedom of Information Act requests.
• Prepare and present media law training for journalists and other programme makers and help disseminate legal know‑how.
• Keep closely across legal and regulatory developments affecting the BBC’s journalism, preparing submissions where appropriate on areas of law or policy that affect the BBC.
• Participate in the provision of advice to news programmes 24/7. This will involve being on call out of office hours.

Your Skills and Experience

Essential Criteria

• Fully qualified lawyer with a current practising certificate, good academics and a good track record in and knowledge of media law. You will be a solicitor or barrister specialising in media law, gained within a leading law firm and/or specialist team and covering defamation, contempt, privacy and associated issues.
• Experience of providing pre‑publication advice on a range of output including complex and sensitive news and current affairs investigations.
• A track record of providing proactive, specialist, timely and authoritative legal advice and support to senior leaders and key decision‑makers at the highest levels – written and verbal.
• Managing relationships – building relationships across a range of clients and colleagues across disciplines and within a team.

Desired but not required

• Solicitors or barristers with 5 years’ Post Qualified Experience plus.
• Previous experience in‑house.
• Previous experience of preparing and delivering legal training.

If you can bring some of these skills and experiences, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and, if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk.

Redeployment

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Seniority level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Legal

Broadcast Media Production and Distribution