Strategic Legal Projects Manager

Job Title: Strategic Legal Projects Manager

Organisation: Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)

Duration: fixed term contract of 2 years, with possibility of extension depending on funding.

Location: Remote/Hybrid/London depending on working days (our anchor day is in London on a Tuesday, with occasional other travel within the UK)

Reports to: Director of Strategic Litigation and Advice

Annual leave: 25 days per annum, plus bank holidays, pro rata, and the week between Christmas and New Year off.

Salary: £33,000 to £38,000 per annum salary (actual salary for 2 days a week, £13,200 - £14,800), depending on skills and experience. NB: pension is 5% of salary

Working Hours: 14 hours per week, plus 1 hour lunch break (NB. evening working is required to attend 5 scheduled evening meetings per year, which ordinarily finish no later than 6.30pm).

Application deadline: 9:00 am Tuesday 25th August 2026

Interviews are anticipated to be held on 10 and 11 September 2026 online. Shortlisted candidates will be notified Thursday 3rd September 2026.

Applications from individuals only – no agencies. Please do not use artificial intelligence in completing your application form.

Application:

Please submit a completed application form highlighting why you are applying for this position and how you meet the personal specification, providing examples where applicable. Please return this by 9:00 am, Tuesday 25 August 2026, along with a completed equalities monitoring form. Full details on how to apply can be found on our website (linked).

Applications should be submitted as a Word document or in another editable format. If an application is not submitted in this format, it will not be considered.

Successful candidates must be eligible to work in the UK.

About the Role

This is a new role which will be pivotal to the work of the Strategic Legal Projects Team. The post-holder will work with the Director of Strategic Litigation and Advice to coordinate the delivery of the Strategic Legal Fund (SLF). This is an innovative programme of grant funding, supporting strategic legal work that benefits people who are disadvantaged or discriminated against because of their immigration status. We define strategic litigation as work where the impact goes beyond an individual case and results in changes to law, policy and practice that will benefit a wider group of people. The fund supports pre-litigation research, and third-party interventions in cases before the courts, as well as advocacy related to the legal activities undertaken. Grants can be awarded to non-governmental organisations and law firms.

The post provides an opportunity to contribute strategically to supporting the legal sector working on migrants’ rights in the UK. You will gain experience of all aspects of the grant-making process in the intersection of legal and policy work on issues facing people seeking asylum, migrants and refugees in the UK today.

The ideal candidate may be someone wishing to develop a career in philanthropic work in this area or build relationships with esteemed human rights lawyers and social justice organisations. Whatever their interest, they will bring to the work a flair for organising, project management to include building relationships and supporting joint working and the vision to see the separate grants as part of a coherent whole.

For further information about the Fund and the type of work we support see the website on the job advertisement linked.

Main Tasks:

· liaise with applicants including legal practitioners and organisations working with migrants across the UK;

· co-ordinate the meetings of an expert panel and decision-making panel;

· carry out financial due diligence checks in relation to potential grants;

· manage monitoring and evaluation, collecting reports from grantees and available data evidencing outcomes, and contributing to reports and updates for ILPA and for the funders;

· communicate updates and successes by grantees on the SLF website and on social media;

· build capacity of groups and individuals working in support of migrants’ rights, including working with the Legal Project Officer to ensure the work of the Strategic Legal Advice Committee (SLAC) and the SLF align and complement each other.

Person Specification

Essential

1. A proven record of project management or grant management;

2. Good working knowledge of the refugee and migrant sector in the UK;

3. Experience of coordinating networks of organisations or individuals, including running meetings;

4. Experience of working and communicating with a range of external stakeholders;

5. Excellent written and oral communication skills;

6. Excellent attention to detail;

7. Excellent planning, coordination, organisational, time management, strategic problem-solving and independent working skills, including:

a. an ability to take a proactive approach to independent working,

b. managing workstreams effectively,

c. confidently taking responsibility for tasks and decisions,

d. meeting tight deadlines, and

e. taking a calm and diligent approach to problem solving;

8. Good IT skills and competency in the use of office IT programmes and equipment and managing and updating a website.

9. Commitment to the principles of a non-racist, non-sexist, just and equitable system of immigration, asylum and nationality law

10. Commitment to the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, and taking a proactive approach to espousing these principles

11. Commitment to be a champion of ILPA by positively encouraging and collaborating with your team, identifying and encouraging opportunities for growth and celebrating success

Desirable

1. Experience of grant-making;

2. An understanding of strategic litigation and good legal analysis skills;

3. A project management qualification such as PRINCE2 or equivalent;

4. Experience of using accounting packages and CRMs and experience of Quickbooks and Salesforce

About the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association

The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) is a professional association and registered charity, the majority of whose members are barristers, solicitors, advocates and IAA regulated advisers practising in all aspects of immigration, asylum and nationality law. ILPA currently has approximately 4500 individual member contacts.

Founded in 1984 by leading practitioners in the field, and 42 years on, stronger than ever, ILPA exists to promote and improve advice and representation in immigration, asylum and nationality law, through an extensive programme of training and disseminating information and by providing research and opinion that draw on the experiences of members.

Our vision is a fair and effective immigration system that respects human rights and the rule of law. We realise this by empowering members to provide the best possible advice and support for migrants and collaboratively working to improve law, policy and practice.

ILPA is represented on numerous Government, official and non-Governmental advisory groups and regularly provides high-level evidence to Parliamentary and official enquiries. ILPA is at the forefront of engagement with the Home Office, NGOs and other Government departments.

To our members, ILPA is a community where they come to share knowledge, keep up to date with changes and receive high-quality training to enable them to practise effectively. Members also rely on ILPA to be their voice in seeking change for the better to immigration, asylum and nationality law and practice. This we do through the work of our expert legal team, engaging with policymakers and stakeholders, and drawing on the experiences and expertise of our members.

ILPA is an equal opportunities employer. We acknowledge that the legal and charitable sector can be less accessible to people from minoritised or racialised communities and lower socio-economic backgrounds, and we are committed to unsettling the status quo. In this role you will wear many hats and we recognise that the successful candidate may not have all the skills and experience listed in the personal specification. We welcome applications from you if you can see yourself in this role and have an appetite to gain new skills, knowledge and experience. We particularly welcome applications from individuals who have lived experience of the UK immigration system

We also encourage applications from people who have previously unsuccessfully applied for roles at ILPA. We will consider each application afresh. We appreciate that individuals are always learning, growing, and adding to their knowledge and experience.

About the ILPA Team

You would be joining a small team, of around 12 team members. Under our current hybrid work policy, we have one anchor day (currently a Tuesday), in London, together with team members living in England and Scotland. On average, once every two months, there will be an online meeting in the evening that you will need to attend. As this is a two day a week role there is flexibility on what days are worked.