Solicitor

Location: Dorset service - This can be a hybrid role based on service demands, generally 3 days a week in the Bournemouth office.

Salary: Grade 5 - £38,724 or Grade 6 - £44,323 per annum depending on experience

Hours: Full time - 35 per week

Contract: Permanent

Closing date: Tuesday 27th October 2026 at 11.30 pm

Join Shelter as a Housing Solicitor, in our mission to drive systemic change and fight for Justice.

If you are a dedicated Solicitor with a strong commitment to addressing the housing crisis we welcome you to apply for this role.

At a time when the housing emergency continues to deepen, your experience could help transform lives and challenge the systems that perpetuate injustice. Come and play a central role in our mission as a Solicitor to defend the right to a safe, and secure home.

Working with Shelter means being part of a passionate team that believes a safe home is a fundamental right. Here, your legal skills don't just change lives-they shape a fairer housing system.

About the role

You will be delivering high quality legal services, through casework and ensuring Legal aid contract requirements and performance targets are met.

Also, you will be able to identify test case opportunities to address systemic bad practice and so achieve change for a greater number of people. The role will work closely with the Managing Solicitor and the team at the Dorset Hub.

About You

In this role, you will:

• Be a qualified Solicitor - we are open to newly qualified candidates with a demonstrable interest in social justice, as well as those who have 3+ years PQE and a strong track record in housing law and Legal Aid work

• Deliver high-quality legal advice and representation under our Legal Aid contract, including at Bournemouth and Weymouth County Court

• Challenge unfair housing practices and systemic causes of homelessness through strategic casework and litigation

• Work closely with our Dorset Hub team to strengthen housing rights awareness across Dorset

• Support Trainee Solicitors and Legal Advisers, ensuring high professional standards and compliance.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

About The Team

Our legal Teams (Managing Solicitors, Solicitors, Legal Advisors and Trainees) are based throughout the England hubs. We are currently based in London, Plymouth, Bristol, Norwich, Birmingham, Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Sheffield and Newcastle, generating an income while addressing the housing crisis.

Our team in Dorset has been providing housing advice and support services within the area for over 20 years. We have office bases in Bournemouth and Weymouth as well as working in community venues and partner organisation sites. We deliver a wide range of housing rights, legal services, community and support work and advocate for change to fix the broken housing system.

About Shelter

Home is a human right. It's our foundation and where we thrive. Yet everyday millions of people are being devastated by the housing emergency.

We exist to defend the right to a safe home. Because home is everything.

We need ambitious, passionate people to join us. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. To win this fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement. In all our people decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, equitable and transparent. We are committed to combating racism both within and outside Shelter. We welcome you on our journey to becoming truly anti-racist.

How to Apply

Please submit your work history, with a supporting statement with responses to the 'About You' points 1-7 outlined in the job description of no more than 1000 words. Please provide specific examples following the STAR format and ensure you demonstrate how you address the behaviour below throughout your responses:

• We prioritise diversity and have an inclusive and open mindset

Safeguarding Statement

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

Recruitment Agencies

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.