Legal

We have the largest in-house specialist legal department of any union or professional association in the UK. Together we advise and represent more than 2,000 members each year on a diverse range of work-related problems and provide a full advocacy service if they are unfortunate enough to be referred to their professional regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Comprehensive legal support for our members

We cover all aspects of employment law, so as a member of the Employment Team you could be involved with everything from unfair dismissals and redundancies through to complex reorganisations, whistleblowing, TUPE, equal pay and discrimination cases, and run cases in both the tribunals and higher courts. As a member of our Regulatory Team you’ll help us represent more than 1,200 members before the NMC each year and also challenge vetting and barring processes that result in unfairness to our members, invoking human rights and other relevant legislation. You will support nurses and health care support workers through inquest proceedings, where the employer declines to do so.

In addition you may organise, through agent solicitors, criminal law advice and representation for work-related incidents. You may also defend clinical negligence claims under our RCN indemnity scheme; and recover compensation for accidents, whether occurring at work or elsewhere. On average we recover more than £6 million compensation for our members each year.

On top of that, you could provide legal advice on all aspects of health care, with particular reference to the nursing family, and regularly deliver training and legal updates to many of our 435,000 members and other RCN staff. As one of our lawyers you’ll be involved in drafting RCN responses to government and other bodies’ consultations, whether on new law (from assisted suicide to whistleblowing reforms), or on innovative ways of delivering health services in both the public and private sectors.

Our legal teams are located across England, in seven of the nine RCN regional offices, from Exeter to Sunderland. We employ all types of lawyer, from paralegals through to solicitors and barristers, in addition to expert administrative support staff.

As well as geographical teams, we allocate our staff into regulatory and employment law teams. These meet regularly to share practical knowledge and expertise, and to receive legal updates from specialist barristers.

Why apply?

By working for the RCN you can expect to enhance your legal knowledge and expertise, while providing a critically important and widely acknowledged first-class legal service to members of the largest nursing professional union in the world.

Find out why Jenifer thinks you should join us in the video below.