Senior Legal Director

Competition & Markets Authority

Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London or Manchester

  • Location Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London or Manchester
  • Sector Regulation & Professional Standards
  • Client Competition & Markets Authority
  • Job Type Permanent
  • Salary/Remuneration Between £129,966 and £149,999 per annum
  • Reference GSe124975
  • Closing Date 23:55 on Monday 15 September 2025

Reporting to the General Counsel, the post holder will work closely with the General Counsel and alongside other Senior Legal Directors with primary responsibility, respectively, for leading legal and policy support across directorates such as Mergers and Markets (including regulatory appeals), Antitrust, Cartels, Consumer Enforcement, the Office of the Internal Market, Subsidy Advice, and the Digital Markets Unit.  The role will include primary leadership of legal input across a portfolio of CMA cases and shared leadership of the legal work supporting the establishment of the DMU and associated digital markets work. 

The roles will involve extensive senior engagement throughout the CMA and externally, working closely with, amongst others, the General Counsel and the CEO, other Executive and Senior Directors and providing direct and final advice to individual case decision makers.

Senior Legal Directors have overall senior responsibility for the legal and policy input and analysis on the cases in their portfolio (akin to a partner in a law firm) and will lead and manage a team of Legal Directors and case lawyers.  Collectively the General Counsel and five Senior Legal Directors have senior leadership responsibility for the management of the CMA Legal Service comprising some 150 lawyers. 

Key responsibilities and priorities include:

·        To be accountable at senior level collaboratively for the quality and robustness of the legal advice and analysis underpinning the development of CMA investigations, provisional and final decisions, and related litigation ensuring that CMA lawyers have the capability to deliver high quality and robust legal support to case work and policy development.

·        To ensure delivery of timely, strategic and authoritative legal analysis and policy advice in relation to the most analytically complex and important issues arising in relation to the CMA’s work, including advising the CMA Board, Executive Committee, Case and Policy Committee, other senior stakeholders and individual case decision makers and project teams.

·        To provide a high degree of strategic insight, balanced risk management and expertise on key legal and policy issues as they arise, assimilating the wide body of case law, regime experience and wider CMA policy positions.

·        To be a key member of the Legal Service Senior Leadership Team with shared responsibility for managing and developing the CMA’s legal function and for the professional development of CMA lawyers, including leading the development of best practice and shared learning.

·        To manage the allocation of legal work and resource to ensure effective and robust delivery of the CMA’s case load and appropriate career development opportunities.

·        To work closely with other Senior Legal Directors in the development and delivery of coordinated legal support across the CMA’s functions, including the promotion of working and learning across all areas of the CMA’s work.

·        To form a highly effective working relationship with, amongst others, the Senior Legal Directors and the Executive and Senior Directors with shared responsibility for successful case outcomes, operating collectively to ensure that the CMA delivers robust and successful outcomes to defined timescales.

·        To lead, motivate and manage a team of Legal Directors with collective responsibility for ensuring the quality and robustness of all legal aspects of case work and other projects, at all times demonstrating and delivering professional excellence.

·        To develop the talents of the CMA’s lawyers and to contribute to developing an environment which inspires staff and enables innovative thinking and integrated working across the organisation.

·        To lead and maintain open, professional and proactive engagement with external stakeholders.

·        To promote an integrated approach to legal and policy analysis across cases and more generally across the CMA’s work, including leading engagement with key external stakeholders and international counterparts.

As a key member of the CMA’s Senior Leadership Team, you will be expected to play an active role in the ongoing corporate management and development of the organisation.  We expect all our senior leaders to be:

· Inspiring – about our work and its future

· Confident – in our engagement with others

· Empowering – to allow our teams to deliver

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-leadership-statement/civil-service-leadership-statement.

This role profile is not exclusive or exhaustive. It is intended as an outline indication of the areas of responsibility and may be amended in light of the changing needs of the organisation. There is an expectation that members of the SCS will have the flexibility and ambition to apply their skills across the CMA and the wider Civil Service; this may include taking on a different role in the future to that for which they are originally recruited.

To find out more about this opportunity and about working for the CMA, the full candidate information pack can be found here, or you can click on the apply button.

​Closing date for completed applications: 23:55 on Monday 15 September 2025.

For a confidential discussion about the role please contact Amanda Morris amanda.morris@gatenbysanderson.com or Mandy Orgovanyi mandy.orgovanyi@gatenbysanderson.com.

The CMA is an accredited Disability Confident Employer, and we are an equal opportunities employer, welcoming suitably qualified applicants from all backgrounds. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.

To view the job description and person specification, please scroll to the bottom of the page, tick to agree to the privacy policy, then click 'Continue to full details'.

Continue to full details and apply

Share this job

Related jobs