Paralegal, BBC Legal Divison

Package Description

Job Reference: 23403

Band: B

Salary: Up to 34,000 plus London weighting depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Contract type: 4 x Permanent role

Location: London – Hybrid – typically 3 days a week in the office

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits – We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the rreasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk. For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk.

FREELANCERS

Freelancers are eligible to apply for an internal role if they are on a Worker Contract and they have worked continuously for 6 months. If they have worked for less than 6 months continuously or have a break of 3 weeks or more between engagements, they must seek Divisional HR approval to apply for an internal role prior to submitting an application.

If they are unsure which contract they are on, they can speak to their booker or the HR BP, however if it helps – both a PAYE freelance or Modus Gross contract is considered a Worker contract and covered by the Worker terms found here.

Job Introduction

We are recruiting for an experienced paralegal to join the BBC Legal team, to provide valuable technical legal, document management and administrative support across the legal function.

This is a permanent role, starting from August 2025, and is based in London.

The BBC Legal Division is responsible for providing legal advice to the BBC and for developing and implementing the BBC’s legal strategy. The BBC Legal Division is led by the BBC’s General Counsel and provides legal assistance and advice across the BBC. It is made up of the following departments: General Counsel’s Office, Litigation and FOI (Freedom of Information), Intellectual Property, Employment, Programme Legal Advice, and Corporate Legal. Our overall structure is similar to that found in private practice firms and we support on a wide range of diverse matters. Whilst this means the work can be challenging and fast-paced at times, we operate under a hybrid working model which means you will be required to work part of the week in the office and part of the week remotely.

This role provides a rare opportunity for an excellent breadth and diversity of work. You would be one of a small cohort of paralegals working principally within the BBC Litigation and FOI team and/or the BBC Employment Legal team, with some opportunities to work with and support other areas of Legal as required (e.g. Programme Legal Advice, Corporate and Intellectual Property). You would offer valuable support in helping the organisation comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You will also be required to provide administrative support within the Legal Department according to business need.

In addition to the wide range of practical work experience and training opportunities that the role would provide, you will also have the opportunity to accrue some Qualifying Work Experience, if desired, for the purposes of progressing your route to qualification. You will be required to undertake training (to be provided by BBC Legal) as part of the role. Please note that the role does not include or guarantee any funding for the formal pathway to qualification as a solicitor.

Main Responsibilities

• In this role, you will provide high quality paralegal and administrative support to the lawyers across the Legal division, with a particular focus on Litigation, FOI and Employment.
• You will, among other things, conduct legal and general research; gather, collate and organise information and documents for legal matters; prepare initial drafts of documents, including correspondence; assist with the conduct of litigation and preparation for hearings (for example, by preparing disclosure and hearing bundles); and assist with reviewing documents in connection with legal matters.
• You will be able to handle and take responsibility for large amounts of data and prepare draft Freedom Of Information responses and take principal conduct for requests for BBC materials and information by third parties. You will conduct initial relevant information searches using technology solutions where appropriate and apply appropriate legal redactions to search results.
• You will be responsible for providing administrative help to the Legal Department where required, including helping to maintain legal records and databases and assisting with practical arrangements such as room bookings, team meetings and team rotas, and diary management.
• This is a role that would suit an experienced paralegal working towards legal qualification e.g. GDL or similar.

Are you the right candidate?

• You will have relevant experience working as a paralegal in a professional legal environment and will possess experience of a variety of legal issues, ideally with some experience of litigation and other formal dispute resolution processes (either in the High Court or in a specialist Tribunal such as the Employment Tribunal).
• Your experience will be supported by a law degree, or a non-law agree accompanied with a Graduate Diploma in Law.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills are essential, as is the ability to manage, organise and distil large volumes of information and documents. You will be confident in document management and in preparing documents both in hard copy and electronically.
• You will also need to have exemplary organisational skills and the ability to meet deadlines and prioritise competing obligations, and to solve problems under pressure.
• You will also have an ability to understand the varied needs of clients across the BBC and to advise and communicate with them on legal and other matters. You will have an understanding of the issues affecting the BBC and the media industry.
• It is also important you are highly computer literate, with skills across a range of IT packages and the ability to learn new IT systems quickly.
• You will be committed to creating and upholding an open, positive and inclusive workplace culture based on respect for colleagues in all roles and from all backgrounds.

About The BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, more. Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory

Package Description

Job Reference: 23403

Band: B

Salary: Up to 34,000 plus London weighting depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Contract type: 4 x Permanent role

Location: London – Hybrid – typically 3 days a week in the office

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits – We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the rreasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk. For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk.

FREELANCERS

Freelancers are eligible to apply for an internal role if they are on a Worker Contract and they have worked continuously for 6 months. If they have worked for less than 6 months continuously or have a break of 3 weeks or more between engagements, they must seek Divisional HR approval to apply for an internal role prior to submitting an application.

If they are unsure which contract they are on, they can speak to their booker or the HR BP, however if it helps – both a PAYE freelance or Modus Gross contract is considered a Worker contract and covered by the Worker terms found here.

Job Introduction

We are recruiting for an experienced paralegal to join the BBC Legal team, to provide valuable technical legal, document management and administrative support across the legal function.

This is a permanent role, starting from August 2025, and is based in London.

The BBC Legal Division is responsible for providing legal advice to the BBC and for developing and implementing the BBC’s legal strategy. The BBC Legal Division is led by the BBC’s General Counsel and provides legal assistance and advice across the BBC. It is made up of the following departments: General Counsel’s Office, Litigation and FOI (Freedom of Information), Intellectual Property, Employment, Programme Legal Advice, and Corporate Legal. Our overall structure is similar to that found in private practice firms and we support on a wide range of diverse matters. Whilst this means the work can be challenging and fast-paced at times, we operate under a hybrid working model which means you will be required to work part of the week in the office and part of the week remotely.

This role provides a rare opportunity for an excellent breadth and diversity of work. You would be one of a small cohort of paralegals working principally within the BBC Litigation and FOI team and/or the BBC Employment Legal team, with some opportunities to work with and support other areas of Legal as required (e.g. Programme Legal Advice, Corporate and Intellectual Property). You would offer valuable support in helping the organisation comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You will also be required to provide administrative support within the Legal Department according to business need.

In addition to the wide range of practical work experience and training opportunities that the role would provide, you will also have the opportunity to accrue some Qualifying Work Experience, if desired, for the purposes of progressing your route to qualification. You will be required to undertake training (to be provided by BBC Legal) as part of the role. Please note that the role does not include or guarantee any funding for the formal pathway to qualification as a solicitor.

Main Responsibilities

• In this role, you will provide high quality paralegal and administrative support to the lawyers across the Legal division, with a particular focus on Litigation, FOI and Employment.
• You will, among other things, conduct legal and general research; gather, collate and organise information and documents for legal matters; prepare initial drafts of documents, including correspondence; assist with the conduct of litigation and preparation for hearings (for example, by preparing disclosure and hearing bundles); and assist with reviewing documents in connection with legal matters.
• You will be able to handle and take responsibility for large amounts of data and prepare draft Freedom Of Information responses and take principal conduct for requests for BBC materials and information by third parties. You will conduct initial relevant information searches using technology solutions where appropriate and apply appropriate legal redactions to search results.
• You will be responsible for providing administrative help to the Legal Department where required, including helping to maintain legal records and databases and assisting with practical arrangements such as room bookings, team meetings and team rotas, and diary management.
• This is a role that would suit an experienced paralegal working towards legal qualification e.g. GDL or similar.

Are you the right candidate?

• You will have relevant experience working as a paralegal in a professional legal environment and will possess experience of a variety of legal issues, ideally with some experience of litigation and other formal dispute resolution processes (either in the High Court or in a specialist Tribunal such as the Employment Tribunal).
• Your experience will be supported by a law degree, or a non-law agree accompanied with a Graduate Diploma in Law.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills are essential, as is the ability to manage, organise and distil large volumes of information and documents. You will be confident in document management and in preparing documents both in hard copy and electronically.
• You will also need to have exemplary organisational skills and the ability to meet deadlines and prioritise competing obligations, and to solve problems under pressure.
• You will also have an ability to understand the varied needs of clients across the BBC and to advise and communicate with them on legal and other matters. You will have an understanding of the issues affecting the BBC and the media industry.
• It is also important you are highly computer literate, with skills across a range of IT packages and the ability to learn new IT systems quickly.
• You will be committed to creating and upholding an open, positive and inclusive workplace culture based on respect for colleagues in all roles and from all backgrounds.

About The BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, more. Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory

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