Senior Legal Counsel (Commercial)
Wellington City Council
Shape the future of Wellington while providing trusted legal advice on some of the city's most significant commercial projects and initiatives.
Wellington City Council is looking for an experienced Senior Legal Counsel (Commercial) to join our Legal, Risk and Assurance team on a permanent basis.
Working at the heart of a complex and dynamic organisation, you'll provide strategic, solutions-focused legal advice that supports the delivery of services, infrastructure, and projects across the city. With a primary focus on commercial contracts and projects, you'll help the Council make well-informed decisions while managing legal and organisational risk.
Āu ake mahi - What you'll do
As a trusted advisor, you'll provide pragmatic legal advice across a diverse range of commercial matters, supporting senior leaders and teams across the organisation. You'll draft, negotiate, and review medium to high-risk contracts, provide pragmatic legal advice on commercial matters, identify and manage legal risks, and work alongside external legal providers to achieve quality, cost-effective outcomes.
This role offers exceptional variety, with responsibility for supporting a broad portfolio of commercial contracts and projects across Council. You'll work on significant infrastructure, technology and service delivery projects, and initiatives involving arts, culture and the city's public spaces. You will provide practical legal advice that helps the organisation achieve its objectives while managing risk.
You'll also contribute to strengthening the Council's legal capability through practical guidance, templates, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Ngā tohu me ngā wheako - Qualifications and experience
You'll be a commercially minded lawyer with strong drafting, negotiation, and advisory skills, and the ability to provide practical, risk-based legal advice. You'll be confident translating complex legal issues into clear and actionable guidance for non-lawyers, and have experience advising on complex commercial contracts and projects. You'll be comfortable managing a varied portfolio of work while balancing commercial, legal, and reputational considerations. The diversity and complexity of the work will appeal to a lawyer who enjoys variety and can quickly understand different business contexts and operational needs.
You'll hold a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), be eligible to hold a current practising certificate, and have at least five years' post-qualification experience. Whether your background is in-house or in private practice, you'll bring sound commercial judgement, excellent relationship-building skills, and a genuine interest in contributing to the projects and services that make Wellington a vibrant and thriving city.
While in-house experience would be an advantage, we welcome applications from lawyers with strong private practice commercial experience who are interested in applying their skills in a collaborative in-house environment and contributing to projects and services that make a difference for Wellington.
Nōu te rourou - What's in it for you
Working for the Council offers you a range of benefits including 5 weeks annual leave, flexible working options, health and wellbeing support, Council staff discounts and a range of learning and development programmes and opportunities.
View our Employee Value Proposition Video to see what our employees say about working at WCC.
Diversity
We want your application to enable you to portray the real you. Skills are gained across many areas of our life, not just formal employment. If you can demonstrate the skills listed in the advert through whānau life, community or mahi aroha (volunteering) we encourage you to apply and share your story with us in your cover letter.
We welcome applications from all people and like our workforce to reflect the diverse communities we serve.
Accessibility support
We want to make sure any accessibility requirements you may have are well supported so the selection process is equitable for everyone. Please let us know if there are any adjustments or support we can offer to make our process more accessible to you by emailing: recruitment@wcc.govt.nz
Applications close 11 September 2026. Please note that we may engage with applicants prior to the vacancy closing and/or close applications ahead of this date so we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.
All applications must be submitted online and must have the right to work in New Zealand - we will not accept emailed applications.
Pre-employment checks: All employees must undergo a Criminal Conviction Check, the results of which will be held on your employee file if employed.
If you have questions, please contact Charlotte Haigh, Manager Legal Services Commercial and Property, charlotte.haigh@wcc.govt.nz
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