Senior Lawyer
Division: Legal Division
Department: Law, Policy & International (LPI)
Salary: National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £60,900 – £76,000 and London £66,900 – £83,500 (salary offered will be based on skills and experience)
This role is graded as: Senior Associate, Practising Legal
Your recruitment contact is Raimonda 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.
The Legal Division provides advice and legal services across the full spectrum of FCA activities, whether regulatory, policy, enforcement or operational. Sitting in Enforcement Legal, the teams within LPI ensure that our policies and rules can be effectively enforced and that we have the appropriate investigation and enforcement powers and policies to achieve fair and just outcomes in response to misconduct.
Role responsibilities
Contribute to the development and implementation of the FCA’s enforcement policies(e.g. Enforcement Guide, Decision Procedure and Penalties Manual) and use this framework to guide actions across authorisations, supervision and interventions
Provide legal and policy advice on enforcement and the exercise of the FCA’s powers, collaborating across Legal Division and other FCA teams
Support Technical Specialists/Lead Associates in delivering team projects through proactive project management, coordinating multiple stakeholders and guiding junior Associates, trainees, or paralegals
Build and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including senior colleagues and external bodies
Prepare and present updates on projects, legal, or policy issues to EMO Directors and other internal committees (e.g., ExCo, ERPC)
Skills required
Minimum:
Applicants must be a qualified lawyer, eligible to practise in the UK
Post qualification experience in one or more of the following areas: financial services regulation, investigations, complex litigation, fraud, public law or policy-making
Essential:
Strong analytical skills with the ability to quickly assess information and identify key issues
Advanced legal expertise, capable of conducting complex legal research and providing practical, imaginative and legally sound solutions in novel situations
Excellent communication skills, able to convey complex legal and policy matters clearly and concisely to a variety of audiences, including senior stakeholders
Proven ability to build and maintain effective relationships with peers, management, internal teams and external agencies at a senior level
Self-motivated, able to manage deadlines under pressure
Benefits
25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
Hybrid model with up to 60% remote work
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 and 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 timelines
Timeline:
Advert Closing Date: 28th December 2025
CV Review/Shortlist: 30th December 2025
First Interview: w/c 5th January 2026
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
Candidates from this recruitment round may also be considered for future vacancies in the Legal Division
Top Skills
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.
