Lead Interventions Associate
Division: Enforcement and Market Oversight
Department: Interventions
Salary: National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £69,700 to £78,100 and London from £76,600 to £85,000 (salary offered will be based on skills and experience)
This role is graded as: Lead Associate – Practicing Legal
Your External recruitment contact is Riley via [email protected].
Your Internal recruitment contact is Tali via [email protected] Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via social media or email will not be accepted.
About the FCA and team
We regulate financial services firms in the UK, to keep financial markets fair, thriving and effective. By joining us, you’ll play a key part in protecting consumers, driving economic growth, and shaping the future of UK finance services.
Enforcement & Market Oversight (EMO) is responsible for the FCA’s responsibilities for market monitoring, delivery of the functions of the UK Listing Authority (UKLA) and the investigation and prosecution of misconduct using the whole spectrum of criminal, civil and administrative sanctions and remedies against firms and individuals.
Sitting within the Retail and Regulatory Investigations Directorate, the Retail 4 Interventions teams in Enforcement provide strategic support, guidance and legal advice across Supervision to allow us to effectively intervene to prevent harm to consumers and the industry and seek to assist firms in establishing and maintain high regulatory standards.
Role responsibilities
Progressing a portfolio of demanding interventions, often with tight deadlines, without close day to day oversight
Clear, accurate drafting of all forms of interventions documents (including statutory notices, legal advice notes and Tribunal documents)
Presenting to senior stakeholders with credibility, including at internal committee meetings and in meetings with external legal advisors
Building and maintaining effective working relationships with colleagues in other areas at all levels within the FCA, regulated firms and their representatives and with external bodies
Overseeing the work of others within your team including more junior staff
Escalating to management key issues and trends arising on cases
Contributing to training, knowledge sharing and being a point of escalation on technical matters
Line managing L8/L9 Associates where appropriate/required, including being responsible for their professional development and appraisals, and ensuring optimal performance by managing any cases of poor performance or conduct in a timely manner
Skills required
Minimum:
Qualified lawyer, with a valid practising certificate issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for England and Wales (if a solicitor), or the General Council of the Bar for England and Wales (if a barrister) (or a similar internationally recognised qualification allowing you to practice within the England and Wales)
Prior significant post qualification experience in any of the following areas: contentious financial services or other regulatory investigations or proceedings; financial markets; investigations involving serious fraud or other complex financial crime; complex litigation or disputes
Demonstrable experience of managing and progressing a challenging and varied caseload involving a range of legal processes, balancing your own workload and responsibilities with appropriate delegation to junior staff
Essential:
Ability to analyse complex evidence in order to form a view as to what action is warranted, what further evidence may be required/available and how it might be obtained
Capacity to manage a range of competing tasks efficiently, set priorities effectively, and meet agreed deadlines
Effective communication skills in order to present the outcome of analysis clearly and effectively, orally and in writing
Ability to exercise own judgement and defend those judgements where necessary and appropriate and to adapt advice in light of limited or changing evidence
Ability to advise, mentor and delegate work to other more junior colleagues
Effective relationship management skills to build and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues within your team and department, in other business units, with external bodies and with regulated firms and their representatives
Ability to thrive whilst managing a varied, changing and urgent caseload, maintaining appropriate progress across your portfolio of cases
Benefits
25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
Hybrid model where employees work a minimum of 40% in the office each month (expectation of 50% for senior leaders). Changing from September to a minimum of 50% in the office each month (expectation of 60% for Directors and Executive Directors)
Non-contributory pension (8–12% depending on age) and life assurance at eight times your salary
Private healthcare with Bupa, income protection, and 24/7 Employee Assistance
35 hours of paid volunteering annually
A flexible benefits scheme designed around your lifestyle
For a full list of our benefits, and our recruitment process as a whole visit our benefits page.
Our values & culture
Our colleagues are the key to our success as a regulator. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture: one that’s free from discrimination and bias, celebrates difference, and supports colleagues to deliver at their best. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
If you require any adjustments due to a disability or condition, your recruiter is here to help - reach out for tailored support.
We welcome diverse working styles and aim to find flexible solutions that suit both the role and individual needs, including options like part-time and job sharing where applicable.
Disability Confident: our hiring approach
We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, and therefore, people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. In cases of high application volumes, we may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the role’s key requirements.
Useful information and timeline
Advert Closing: 16th June
CV Review/Shortlist: 18th June
Case study/Interviews: w/c 29th June
Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.
Skills Required
- Qualified lawyer with a valid practising certificate
- Prior significant post qualification experience in regulatory investigations or complex litigation
- Experience managing a varied caseload with appropriate delegation
What We Do
We work to ensure financial markets work well for individuals, for businesses and for the economy as a whole. We do this by: - regulating the conduct of approximately 50,000 businesses - prudentially supervising 48,000 firms - setting specific standards for around 18,000 firms We were set up on 1 April 2013, taking over conduct and relevant prudential regulation from the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Our Head Office is based in London, and we work across the UK, from our office in Edinburgh and via colleagues in Belfast and Cardiff. Firms and individuals must be authorised or registered by us to carry out certain activities. Before we grant authorisation, firms must demonstrate that they meet a range of requirements. We then supervise these firms to make sure they continue to meet our standards and rules after they’re authorised. If firms and individuals fail to meet these standards, we have a range of enforcement powers we can use. We work alongside the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the prudential regulator of around 1,500 banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms.








