Paralegal - Motor Fraud - Glasgow

Job Introduction

After a period of consolidation in the counter-fraud market, this is an exciting time for the Motor Counter-Fraud Team as it is poised for substantial growth following some significant client wins. Currently the team has 1 Partner in Scotland and four partners in England & Wales (with teams in Birmingham and Newcastle), together with 80 handlers, working alongside the largest Intelligence Team in the country. 

There is one position available in the team which can be based from either our Glasgow or Edinburgh office. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to work flexibly to meet their personal and work commitments as part of our Flex Forward initiative.   

The fraud work includes:

• Minimal Impact Cases – Low Speed/Significant Trauma Cases
• Phantom Passengers
• Contrived Claims
• Semi-staged / Staged Claims
• Exaggerated Claims 

The Motor Counter-Fraud Team is a multiple award-winning team.  It has a reputation for not only defending the claims themselves (the main aim is full repudiation), but also for proactively tackling those organisations and professional enablers behind the claims, particularly for organised fraud. The team adopts a collaborative approach where both reactive and proactive investigation is promoted, working hand in hand with our clients and agencies such as IFED and the new Regional Fraud teams.

Our investigative work has resulted in a number of outstanding successes for our clients: findings of fraud in civil courts, cases which are being developed for contempt proceedings, and, where a police referral has been made, sentences handed down in successful criminal prosecutions. The success of the team is due to innovative legal strategies and the use of sophisticated analysis, such as telecommunications work, to ensure the insurance fraud industry is equipped to combat these claims.

Role Responsibility

To handle a wide variety of pre-litigation and litigated cases where fraud is suspected.  Experience of handling fraudulent claims would be advantageous but is not essential as fraud training will be provided.

The successful candidate will report into the team Supervisor and Partner as detailed above and be expected to: 

• handle a varied caseload of pre-litigated but mainly litigated work covering the above types of claim with an appropriate level of supervision, across a variety of clients;
• assume responsibility for quality control and benchmark compliance on own caseload, including accuracy and timeliness of management reporting and information.
• ensure strict and ongoing adherence to benchmark standards in all work undertaken.
• act as a point of contact for clients, demonstrating a level of knowledge and skill commensurate with experience
• exercise full compliance with DAC Beachcroft protocols on billing and credit control and demonstrate a high level of financial management in respect of own files.
• achieve a minimum budgeted annual target of 1,440 chargeable hours per year
• build an awareness of the Firm's other services, marketing and business development. Build effective internal and external networks.
• maintain and develop technical knowledge through attendance at training sessions, reading appropriate publications and comply with the Law Society of Scotland CPD requirements
• complete ad hoc projects as delegated by the Team Manager/Partner.

The Ideal Candidate

The expectation is that the successful candidate will have experience of handling claims at all levels within the Scottish court system and will have a sound knowledge of Scottish legal procedure. 

Technical Skills & Experience

• Paralegal with experience of litigating in the Scottish courts
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Excellent legal drafting skills
• Confident negotiating skills
• IT literate with good knowledge of Outlook, Word and Excel.  Knowledge/previous experience of a case management system is also essential as are good keyboard skills
• Ability to work autonomously on high volumes of work
• An ability to adopt a commercial perspective to legal issues but is also able to see the commercial impact beyond one individual claim.
• From a fee earning perspective, the ability to work to and consistently achieve targets, an organised, measured and systematic way of working and an ability to work under pressure.

Personal Skills

• Client focused with an ability to manage build strong relationships with client and third party contacts at all levels
• Able to work to deadlines, prioritise own workload effectively under pressure and manage conflicting priorities
• Proactive and energetic with a tenacious approach to identifying issues and solving problems
• Quality and customer service oriented with a concern for accuracy and an eye for detail
• Team oriented.  A collegiate approach to sharing knowledge and working with colleagues across locations is essential
• Able to progress tasks using own initiative, seeking guidance and input from Partner/Supervisor where appropriate
• Confident oral and written communication skills
• Confident negotiator and communicator
• Flexible with a positive attitude to change, both internally and in the context of clients' business

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,500 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 Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in 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 all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

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