Paralegal - Property
Job Introduction
The Property team in Birmingham is part of our Claims Solutions Group. Our specialist property and recovery team provides expert and practical advice over a range of areas:
• Property subsidence (involving bringing legal proceedings where necessary to mitigate damage to property caused by third party trees, failed foundations, failed underpinning, escape of water etc)
• Property recovery (fire, escape of water, impact of vehicles into property etc)
• Fraud recovery
• Motor recoveries (involving recoveries against negligent third parties for causing damage to motor vehicles) and
We are currently accepting applications from paralegals who are looking for an exciting career within a supportive team and ambitious firm.
If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Sarah Carter-Barford: scarterbarford@dacbeachcroft.com
Role Responsibility
The opportunity is within the Commercial & Household Recoveries team and is predominantly a claimant based role. It will initially commence in the General Recoveries team but will be expected to work in any of the teams within Property Risk Solutions.
Main responsibilities include:
- General recoveries tasks consisting of predominantly investigatory work on all small claims files with some task based work on fast start and multi track claims;
- Investigating liability on a variety of general recoveries claims, ranging from escapes of water, flooding, impact and fire damage etc.
- Handling their own case load, including negotiating quantum and settlement of damages with third parties
- Task based activities on claims for solicitors, carrying out preliminary investigations and evidence gathering as follows 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 salient documents; drafting letters of claim, issuing proceedings, disclosure, instructing Counsel/experts, progressing a file through to Trial.
The candidate will:
- Exercise full compliance with DAC Beachcroft LLP protocols on billing and credit control and demonstrate a high level of financial management in respect of own files.
- Aim to achieve a minimum budgeted annual target of 1440 chargeable hours per year.
- Handle confidential information in line with the firms data security protocols
The Ideal Candidate
- Have a minimum of a degree in Law (LLB or equivalent) or Cilex qualification;
- Be interested in and preferably have a basic understanding 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 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.
- Be change oriented, with a positive, flexible approach towards the implementation of new initiatives.
- 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 2,500 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