General Paralegal

Orbit Group; Coventry; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading housing provider in Coventry is seeking a General Paralegal to support their Legal Team. This role involves providing paralegal support across a variety of legal matters, requiring a law degree and LPC or SQE qualification. The ideal candidate should have prior experience in a legal environment, strong research skills, and the ability to draft legal documents. Join us for a rewarding career supporting thriving communities and enjoy flexible working opportunities.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Professional development programs

Wellbeing programmes

Qualifications

• Experience as a paralegal or legal assistant supporting senior legal counsel.
• Ability to understand the business context of legal work in the housing sector.
• Experience working in an in-house legal team.

Responsibilities

• Assist General Counsel with day-to-day legal work, including research and drafting.
• Liaise with internal stakeholders to progress legal matters.
• Prepare and draft legal documents under supervision.

Skills

Legal research and analytical skills

Ability to draft legal correspondence

Commercial awareness

Line-management experience

Education

Law degree (LLB or equivalent)

LPC or SQE qualification

Job description

We’re building thriving communities as one of the UK’s largest housing groups and a leading developer of affordable housing.

We believe everyone is entitled to a good home they can afford, in a place they are proud to live. More than 100,000 people live in our homes.

If you want to experience work that’s truly rewarding, join us. Because when we achieve together, customers and communities thrive.

Work for Orbit. Believe in people.

3>The role

Orbit are delighted to be recruiting for a General Paralegal to join us in this brand new role, supporting a growing and developing team. In this vital role, you will provide high-quality paralegal support to the Legal Team, assisting the General Counsel in a broad and evolving range of legal matters across the business, enabling efficient delivery of legal services and supporting the growth and development of the team.

The successful candidate in the role will have prior experience of working within a legal environment and owning projects, and will have either an LPC or SQE qualification. You will need to have access to transport and be willing and able to travel to all Orbit locations as required, mainly working from our Garden Court, Coventry office, with an element of home working included subject to business need.

This role is part of Regulatory & Governance where you'll help us give colleagues the support and expertise they need to be brilliant.

We will be shortlisting for this role on the 5th of January and inviting successful candidates on that day to an in-person interview on the 9th of January at our Garden Court, Coventry office.

What you'll achieve

• Assist the General Counsel (and wider Legal Team) in day-to-day legal work across the business, including research, drafting, file management and tracking.
• Liaise with internal stakeholders (Housing/neighbourhoods, Development, Strategic Asset Management, Procurement, Finance, Governance, etc.) to understand requirements, gather information, and progress legal matters.
• Support across the full spectrum of the Legal function (e.g., regulatory/compliance, contract review, governance, housing law, litigation, property, procurement, risk) as required, stepping into new areas as the team evolves.
• Support and assist in the financial management of external legal spend and finance related functions, ensuring that external spend is properly captured and managed.
• Prepare and draft legal documentation (e.g., contracts, correspondence, court documents, reports, briefings) under supervision, ensuring accuracy, clarity and adherence to internal standards.
• Conduct legal research and analysis to assist in decision-making, flagging key issues, legislative changes and business impacts.

What you'll bring

Essential skills

• Law degree (LLB or equivalent).
• Completed the LPC or the SQE (or in progress with clear intention/plan to complete).
• Experience working as a paralegal or legal assistant supporting senior in-house legal counsel or a legal department (or private practice with exposure to broad corporate/in-house-style work).
• Commercial awareness and ability to understand the business context of legal work within a housing / regulated-sector environment.
• Ability to draft legal correspondence and documentation to a high standard.
• Strong legal research and analytical skills: able to identify core issues, implications for business, frame recommendations or options.
• Some experience of line-management, supervision or mentoring of more junior team members.
• Experience working in an in-house legal team in the housing/social housing registered provider sector.
• Knowledge of procurement law/regulation (public sector or regulated provider context).

Why Orbit?

Choosing us means being rewarded in every sense.

Here’s what you can expect to enjoy with us.

A rewarding experience that works for you

We strive to create an inclusive experience with benefits and wellbeing programmes designed to help you, and your loved ones, to thrive. For a better work life balance, we offer flexible working opportunities for many roles.

A place to progress

From training programmes to professional qualifications, we provide opportunities to learn and develop at every stage of your career. Whether you’re a student, graduate or experienced professional we’ll support you to grow.

For leaders, our tailored development journeys are designed to stretch and strengthen your leadership skills. As well as practical training, we give you access to renowned business schools and experiential programmes for greater breadth and depth of learning.

A purpose to feel proud of

We’re proud to make a difference to people together. We’re values-driven with a commercial focus on performance - because the more profit we make, the more we can achieve for people.

What brings us together is a passionate belief in progress and people.

Read more about the values and purpose that drive us on our careers website.

How we hire

We aim to make our hiring process simple and fair:

• Online application
• Interview(s)
• Decision and offer

We put the safeguarding of our customers, colleagues and contractors at the heart of everything we do and as such, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check.