Paralegal - Property (Technical)
Job Introduction
The Claims Solutions Group Property team in Birmingham provides advice and claims management to the insurance industry.
Our specialist property and recovery team is led in Birmingham by 4 partners and 5 associates. We provide expert and practical advice over a range of areas:
• Public Liability / Property Damage claims
• Policy coverage
• Property recovery
• Fraud recovery
We are now accepting applications from paralegals looking to establish an exciting career within a supportive team and ambitious firm. If you're interested in this role but have some questions you'd like to ask before applying, please contact Emma Colls ecolls@dacbeachcroft.com
Role Responsibility
The role is to work as a paralegal within the Property Technical team and will include:
• Developing your knowledge of legal issues arising from recovery claims and policy coverage issues.
• Developing your knowledge of litigation tactics and a sound working knowledge of CPR.
• Claims handling of a variety of litigated and pre-litigated files
• Task based activities on claims for solicitors, carrying out preliminary investigations and evidence gathering including ensuring the technical and expert evidence obtained by insurers loss adjusters is sufficient to prove causation;
• Obtaining witness statements; Contacting relevant parties to obtain contract documents; undertaking initial recovery of costs under the CCFA (no win no fee) agreement with insurers and preparing standard Part 8 Proceedings;
• Ensuring that the case management system and hard copy files are updated with diary dates as required by the case.
• Assuming responsibility for client protocol compliance both on own files and where working on task based assignments.
• Handling confidential information in line with the firms data security protocols
• Meeting and exceed internal targets for time recoding and billing.
The Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate should:
• Have a degree in Law (LLB or equivalent)
• Knowledge of the litigation process is required – either through experience, the LPC or ILEX.
• Be interested in and have a good working knowledge of general contract and tort;
• Be interested in and willing to learn insurance property damage law;
• Be interested in and willing to learn the technical aspects of construction and property investigation as required for the role
• Be change oriented, with a positive, flexible approach towards the implementation of new initiatives.
• Be IT literate, with a good knowledge of Microsoft Office and previous knowledge or experience of a case management system would be an advantage but not essential.
• Willingness to follow a process driven system, working within set parameters.
• Be team orientated, with a willingness to share knowledge with and support other members of the team.
• Have an ability to adopt a commercial perspective rather than an ‘academic’ approach to claims settlement.
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. 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.
DAC Beachcroft