After five years with Free Movement, CJ McKinney is, sadly, moving on for a new job at the House of Commons Library. He started here as deputy editor in 2017 and was promoted to editor in 2021. His final day will be Friday 22 July. I’ll be putting together a proper appreciation of CJ and his huge contribution to this website and to the wider immigration law and policy community a bit later. It may involve charts. For now, though, the process begins of recruiting a replacement…

The Free Movement website is highly influential in the immigration law community and the wider immigration policy space. We have over 3,000 members, over 25,000 email subscribers and the site receives millions of visitors every year. We make most of our articles available for free to anyone searching for information but we charge repeat visitors using a paywall. Our training courses are heavily relied on by immigration lawyers and our articles and briefings are read by journalists, politicians and policy makers.

My plan is to recruit someone to manage the main content for the blog. We already have a deputy editor responsible for training starting with us at the beginning of August. The new role could be as a Deputy Editor or full-on new Editor depending on the experience of the successful candidate.

The main functions of the role are:

• Monitoring developments in immigration law and policy
• Commissioning, writing or producing content to keep the immigration law and policy community up to date and informed
• Working with and editing our crack team of expert contributors

There’s lots more to the role but that is the core of it. Recording and editing podcasts/videos, coming up with ideas for new content, attending training courses and conferences, networking, legal analysis, statistical analysis, posting job adverts, managing the weekly newsletter, using software including WordPress, Mailchimp, Trello, Slack and OptinMonster, commercial acumen and more have all been important parts of the job as performed in the past. We have put together a job description reflecting the role as it stands at the moment. But it is a role which can adapt to a considerable extent.

The role is highly flexible. It involves working entirely remotely from home with considerable flexibility as to working times. It could be a four or five-day week and I would be open to a job share proposal by two individuals. The role can be self-employed or employed as preferred.

Applications are by way of a covering letter and CV. I will want to see evidence of excellent writing and robust editing ability. A background in law is essential and expert knowledge of immigration law will be a definite advantage. It is hard to give a salary range because I am open to taking on an experienced senior lawyer with commensurate salary expectations; or it might be someone more junior who could grow into the role. I would anticipate paying somewhere in the range £35,000-£60,000 depending on experience.

The deadline for applications is 11 July 2022 at 5pm, but I will be keeping an eye on applications and would urge candidates to apply sooner rather than later. If the right applicant comes along I will offer the role immediately. If you could like to discuss the role informally or signal an interest, drop me a line at colin@freemovement.org.uk and we can arrange a video call.

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS ROLE ARE NOW CLOSED.