Head of Legal (Employment Law)

Middlemore are retained with PE backed business in the Cheshire region, who are seeking an experienced employment lawyer to lead its employment law agenda across the group. This is a newly created, hands-on role for someone who can combine strategic advisory work with practical day-to-day support across a broad range of people-related legal matters.

This is a newly created role, designed to:

• Reduce reliance on external employment counsel and reinvest that spend into internal capability.
• Provide faster, commercially focused advice directly to the People team, Executive Leadership Team and wider business.
• Build a centre of excellence for employment law, strengthening the partnership between Legal and People while supporting future growth and organisational change.

The role

• Lead the provision of employment law advice across the group, acting as the main point of contact for the People team and senior management.
• Advise on complex employee relations issues including grievances, disciplinaries, whistleblowing, restructures, and senior exits.
• Manage employment litigation and tribunal claims end to end, including instructing and overseeing external counsel where required.
• Draft, review, and maintain employment contracts, policies, handbooks, and template documentation to a consistently high standard.
• Support organisational change matters including restructures, redundancy programmes, and post-acquisition integration.
• Provide employment law input into M&A activity, commercial transactions, and new market entry.
• Ensure ongoing compliance with employment legislation and horizon scan for relevant legislative and case law developments.
• Advise on executive hiring, settlement agreements, restrictive covenants, and confidentiality arrangements.
• Deliver practical training to managers and the People team to build capability and confidence.
• Work in partnership with the People team to embed sound legal thinking into policy and process from the outset.

About you

• Qualified solicitor in England & Wales, or equivalent jurisdiction, with a strong specialism in employment law.
• Significant post-qualification experience, typically 10+ years, gained in private practice, in-house, or both.
• Strong current knowledge of UK employment law.
• Experience within a regulated environment, particularly financial services or telecoms, would be beneficial but is not essential.
• Commercial and pragmatic, with the ability to translate legal risk into clear, actionable advice.
• Confident advising and influencing senior stakeholders, including at board level.

What’s on offer

• Salary - c£120k - £140k + bonus, benefits
• A role with genuine scope to influence at senior level.
• The opportunity to support the business from day one and contribute to an environment that values inclusivity, innovation, agility, and grit.