Associate x 3 - Clinical Risk, Leeds

Job Introduction

DAC Beachcroft is looking to strengthen our Clinical Risk team in Leeds and currently has an opportunity for two Associates to join us.  These roles present an excellent opportunity for ambitious and commercially minded individuals to join a progressive and highly specialised team.

Acting for NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts, the MDU, independent providers, and insurers, our market leading highly rated Leeds team has a proven track record in high value complex claims across all medical specialisms.

Despite the current pandemic restrictions, the Clinical Risk team remains busy resulting in the need to recruit.  As a business, we have adapted our approach to the change in circumstances as a result of Covid-19 and will continue to do so as this unfolds.  DAC Beachcroft has successfully on-boarded a large number of new joiners across the business during the lockdown period and there is a wealth of support on offer to our candidates throughout the interview and on-boarding process.  This serves to ensure that our new starters receive a warm welcome and well-supported integration into the firm, despite this currently being on a remote basis.

If you require any further information on our process, our recruitment team would welcome any queries.  Please contact Richard Boyce at rboyce@dacbeachcroft.com.

Role Responsibility

• Handling a challenging caseload of defendant clinical negligence work.  This will include drafting pleadings, witness statements and letters of response, conducting face to face negotiations and mediation of claims as well as preparing counter schedules.
• Acting as first and primary contact for clients on a day to day basis providing them with commercially focused legal advice.
• Adhering closely to client protocol and process.
• Making an appropriate contribution to non-fee-earning activity e.g. knowledge sharing, training, client seminars, and business development.
• Working to required standards for internal procedures e.g. financial management of files, billing regimes etc. as well as the specific requirements of individual clients.
• Writing articles for publication both for in-house and external publications.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following:

• An Associate with experience in defendant or claimant clinical negligence, defendant personal injury/litigation/insurance law or other equally relevant transferrable skills.
• Experience gained within an NHS Resolution or MDU panel firm would be an advantage but is not essential.
• Strong technical skills and an ability to understand and work through complex issues.
• A demonstrable ability to adopt a commercial perspective rather than an ‘academic' approach to legal issues and to be highly client focused.
• Team oriented and collegiate with an experience of and going forward show a willingness to mentor, coach and supervise less experienced members of teams.
• Strong organisation skills to ensure a pragmatic and methodical approach to handling a variety of clinical negligence claims simultaneously, through an IT case management system.
• Given the ability to work remotely applications are welcome from candidates based further afield.  

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,400 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities.  We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami.  We also have associations/alliances with firms in Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Peru, Central America, Argentina, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are known for our market-leading presence in sectors such as Insurance, Health and Real Estate.  This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability.  We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies.  We act for the majority of the top 30 insurance and financial services companies operating in the UK.  We are the asset management lawyers for the UK’s largest shopping centres and act for 9 of the UK’s top 10 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 155 Chambers UK 2019 practice area and individual lawyer rankings, including 30 rankings at 'Band 1' level. In Legal 500 UK, 2018, the firm received top tier ranking for 32 of its practice areas and 59 practice areas in the top two tiers.  In March 2018, we were named as one of Legal Week's Best Legal Advisors for the third year running, achieving category-leading satisfaction scores for our commercial approach, service delivery, quality of legal advice, communication & responsiveness and overall relationships.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work.  For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

DAC Beachcroft is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from every sector of the community.  We also welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.  If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV. Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft recruitment team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible.  We do work with recruitment agencies and where we require external support we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us.  Speculative CVs sent by any agency to any DAC Beachcroft employee without a specific request by the recruitment team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our recruitment team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft