Principal Solicitor - Employment, Criminal and Commercial Litigation WCC622306

Job Details:

Salary range: £79,005 - £98,472 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: 12 October 2025
Interview date: 24 October 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ARUNA’S DEDICATION TO TRANSFORMING LIVES


The Bi-Borough Legal Services team encompasses a world of extraordinary stories. Where people like Aruna work on projects that are helping to regenerate our borough and transform residents’ lives.


The Church Street Estate is an exciting, vibrant area and home to a diverse range of people, but it also has challenges that have led to social and economic exclusion for many. To meet these challenges, the legal team supported the creation of a masterplan, with the aim of improving the lives of everyone who lives and works here, while retaining and enhancing the unique and positive qualities of the neighbourhood.


Our ambition is to improve the quality of life for everyone in the area, by building 1,750 high quality homes, creating new green spaces and playgrounds, and providing services that will support health and wellbeing.


But such massive change can bring worry and conflict. Many older properties will have to be demolished to make way for the new, and many people who have lived in their homes for decades don’t want to say goodbye to cherished memories and familiar surroundings. Which is where Aruna and her team came into their own.


In the summer of 2024, a public inquiry was held into the compulsory purchase order made for a key site, and it was Aruna’s role to support the development team as they put forward the case for regeneration. Many of the people who objected were understandably fearful at the prospect of losing their homes, but Aruna was passionate in her promotion of the project and stressed that everyone in the area deserves better. And she was reassuring too, as she explained that compulsory powers would only be used as a last resort and anyone who is moved out of their current home will have a range of options, including to remain in the area. The regenerated area will offer unique opportunities, new jobs and a revived feeling of optimism.


Aruna’s commitment to a positive world of renewal for our residents is Westminster City Council’s commitment too, and the Church Street of the future will hopefully be a blueprint for progressive regeneration throughout our city.


To learn more about our plans, visit

The Role:

As a Principal Solicitor you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. You’ll join the Council’s management team and contribute proactively to our collective leadership, collaborating with elected Members, services, partners and stakeholders to deliver a wide range of objectives and priorities. Focused on driving service transformation and leading by example as you model and embed our values and behaviours, you’ll help to build a sustainable and highly effective organisation that puts residents at the heart of decision making.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will involve leading ,managing and developing a team of lawyers and Paralegals, and ensuring they provide high quality legal services to the two bi-borough councils. Working on a range of complex and sensitive matters, you’ll offer legal, procedural and governance counsel, help on policy and strategy, and when required, give advice at meetings of our Members and officers.

You’ll also be responsible for monitoring resources against budgeted targets, and innovating to ensure we remain effective, efficient, and valued. You’ll work on cross-cutting corporate projects, and lead the team on employment, criminal and commercial litigation issues.

Always planning ahead to meet changes in service demands, we’ll also expect you to be committed to promoting a culture of customer focus, continuous improvement, and staff development.

Please refer to the for more information.

About You:

To be a success in this role you’ll be a skilled and inspirational leader, and capable of promoting change while creating innovative solutions for the service and those we serve. You should have specialist knowledge and proven experience of advising and providing support in one or more of the following areas of law – employment, criminal and commercial litigation. You'll also have the skills to advise on high profile, cross-cutting projects, and the ability to operate independently at a senior level in a complex and often politicised stakeholder environment.

With broad knowledge of local government law and decision making (or equivalent knowledge and a willingness to learn), we’ll expect you to possess the ability to use a high degree of political sensitivity while discussing legal issues with Members and officers. Capable of working at pace in a fully digital and agile environment, you should also be ready to lead, develop, and manage a professional team, support project leads and work collaboratively with colleagues across both councils.

It goes without saying that you’ll be a qualified Solicitor or Barrister entitled to practice in England and Wales, or a Fellow of CILEX with equivalent relevant experience. We’ll also look for well-developed negotiating, influencing and communication skills, and a proactive mindset with a focus on developing innovative solutions within a fast-moving environment.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. 


At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit 


As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.


The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible. 

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.