Paralegal - Employment, Leeds
Job Introduction
DAC Beachcroft is looking to appoint a Paralegal to strengthen our Employment team in Leeds, on the back of some significant client wins and growth in work. Our Employment, Pensions and Immigration team is over 90 strong with 17 Partners and a presence in London, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol. In Leeds, we have a thriving and large commercial and insurance client base and also an enviable healthcare client base. Our clients include significant number of household names and listed businesses, and we regularly work on reported and market-leading employment law issues. Each team is highly ranked in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners Guides, with the Leeds team ranked in Tier 1 in Yorkshire (Legal 500 2021).
The team advises clients on employment tribunal litigation and also issues ranging from daily personnel matters, including disciplinary and grievance issues, to strategic management issues such as redundancy programmes, industrial action, and transfers of employees. We also work closely with our commercial and corporate colleagues to provide support on transactional matters.
Role Responsibility
Main responsibilities will include:
- Depending on experience, handling own caseload of tribunal claims, as well as supporting on more complex claims and dealing with client telephone and email queries around employment law
- Responding to ad hoc employment law and HR queries on various client helplines
- Undertaking a wide range of document management activities, including collating and working on an initial assessment of documents
- Considering evidence to establish relevant witnesses and checking availability, and drafting basic witness statements
- Assisting with drafting and lodging defences to claims
- Drafting agendas and lists of issues for case management discussions
- Considering directions and complying e.g. preparing disclosure lists and liaising with other side to agree upon a hearing bundle
- Drafting counter schedules of loss
- Drafting COT3s in advance of settlement and liaising with other side to agree COT3 wording in pursuance of settlement
- Drafting briefs to counsel and liaising with barristers
- Drafting applications to Employment Tribunals and liaising with Tribunals
- Drafting costs applications and preparing schedules of costs
- Providing support to lawyers on a variety of non-contentious and advisory matters such as redundancies, grievances, disciplinary issues and TUPE
- Regular liaison with other paralegals, trainees and lawyers to ensure the efficient management of caseloads and deadlines
The Ideal Candidate
- Previous experience of working as a an Employment paralegal and/or working on an advisory HR helpline
- Previous experience of handling employee relations issues either in an HR or legal capacity
- A confident communicator. Able to deal effectively with internal and external contacts in both verbal and written communication in a clear concise and friendly manner
- An eye for quality and sound IT skills
- A flexible and self-motivated team player
- Graduate in law or related subject/CPE
- It would be desirable if you have previous experience of handling your own caseload
- Practical experience of dealing with data subject access requests would be desirable
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.
Application Details
At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences we celebrate them. From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you like an individual. Our strength comes from your diverse ideas and bringing the whole you to work. So if you’re good at what you do, come as you are. We welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.
We also want you to be at your very best. Please feel free to let us know of any changes we can make at any point in the recruitment process that will help support your application. 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