Paralegals
Division - Legal Division
Departments - Funds and Wholesale and Market and Prudential
Salary - National ranging from £31,600 to £38,000 and London ranging from £34,700 to £40,000
About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA
The Legal Division provides legal advice to the rest of the FCA, apart from some limited areas including enforcement and employment law matters. The Division has wide-ranging responsibilities including:
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Advising the FCA on the exercise of its functions and powers
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Providing legal advice and support to the FCA on its responsibilities as the supervisor of regulated firms
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Providing legal support on the development of FCA policy, including drafting rules and guidance
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Identifying and managing legal risk
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Advising on international legal issues across the FCA
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Advising on corporate and constitutional matters
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Advising on markets and prudential related matters
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Dealing with litigation in which the FCA is a party
The Legal Division is seeking two Paralegals to be recruited on permanent contracts. These are for a general roles, based in the FCA’s Regulatory & Corporate Legal part of the Legal Division, in the Funds and Wholesale team.
What will you be doing?
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Providing supervised legal advice across various areas of Legal Division’s work (for example, in relation to the scope of the FCA’s powers, the development of FCA policy, the perimeter and information sharing)
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Conducting legal research and writing summaries of research
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Assisting with judicial reviews and other litigation when it occurs (this includes for example liaising with Counsel’s clerks to book meetings, assisting with invoicing issues, assisting with Duty of Candour/disclosure exercises, and liaising with colleagues across the FCA)
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Assisting in the drafting, proof-reading and legal review of documents, possibly including FCA Handbook drafting
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Contributing to legal know-how
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Collating and ordering documents, providing reports, and carrying out general legal administration where required
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Contributing to project management (e.g. preparing and maintaining spreadsheets with detailed breakdowns of legislation, and proposals for legislative reform)
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Assisting the professional support lawyer (PSL) with legal knowledge and management tasks
The specialist work of the two recruiting teams is summarised below:
Funds and Wholesale
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Authorised an unauthorised funds together with the corresponding EU funds legislation.
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Authorisations and permissions
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Changes in control
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Client assets
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Recovery and resolution under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive
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Financial crime and money laundering
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The FCA’s role as registrar for Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies
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The Regulatory perimeter
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Wholesale supervision and conduct
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Benchmarks
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The approved persons regime and the senior managers regime.
Markets and Prudential
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Prudential regulation of FCA solo-regulated firms
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Artificial intelligence
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Remuneration and governance
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Credit ratings
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ESG rating
What will you get from the role?
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An opportunity to do satisfying, worthwhile and responsible work with the opportunity to develop your legal professional skills
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Experience of financial services law and/or work in a financial services environment
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Experience of public law
Which skills are required?
We are a Disability Confident Employer; therefore, disabled people or individuals with long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. (To learn more about the Disability Confident Scheme Click Here)
Minimum
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Candidates must either have a law degree (or have passed a law conversion course following a degree in another subject) or be able to demonstrate legal training and/or experience to an equivalent level
Essential
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Open to learning, challenges and change with the ability to be flexible to tackle new tasks and responsibilities
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Willingness to accept ownership of tasks and ability to exercise good judgment in completing tasks
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Strong analytical abilities and ability to apply the law to reach conclusions and provide clear advice
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Diligent attention to detail and ability to classify and organise information in a comprehensible manner
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Good written drafting skills and verbal communication skills
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Excellent organisational and administrative skills
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Ability to work confidently with Microsoft Excel and Word applications
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Commitment to the work of the FCA
Our Values & Diversity
We are proud to be an inclusive employer and our ambition is to cultivate a culture for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. 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.
Within the workplace you will have access to various employee resource groups which aim to promote and achieve a healthy work / life balance and support our diversity ambitions.
Did you know? 50% of our Executive Committee were the first in their family to attend university.
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from men (PBS Roles) /women, minority ethnic, disabled, and neurodivergent candidates for our Associate role.
Benefits of working at the FCA
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25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
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Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)
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Private healthcare with Bupa
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A non-contributory Pension of at least 8%
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Life assurance
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Income protection
We also have a competitive flexible benefits scheme which gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle.
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we can explore what might work best for both sides.
Follow this link to see what life is like at the FCA - Life at the FCA
Application Support
We are dedicated to removing barriers and ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.
If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition requiring changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter using the details below and they will be happy to discuss this further with you.
Useful Information and Timeline
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This role is graded Associate – Level 9 Regulatory
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Advert Closing Date: 17th December
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Competency based interview: Commencing on or after Thursday 9th January.
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.
Got a question?
If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:
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For internal applicants, please contact Katie Ayling at [email protected]
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For external applicants, please contact Chhavi Bartaria at [email protected]
Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.
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.
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