Professional Negligence Paralegal - Bristol

Job Introduction

The team advise insurers and professionals when faced with the threat of a negligence claim, acting on numerous high value and sensitive claims for clients throughout the UK including a number of major London Market clients. The Bristol (and Newport) team specialise in defending negligence claims against a variety of professionals including solicitors, surveyors and other property professionals and insurance brokers.

The team are particularly experienced in the deployment of alternative dispute resolution techniques, including mediation and arbitration. The team also acts in the defence of regulatory/disciplinary proceedings brought by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Role Responsibility

Specific responsibilities include but are not restricted to:

• Support senior fee-earners in managing a mixed workload of professional negligence in accordance with client protocols
• Run a case load of smaller claims, subject to supervision
• Carry out research tasks to a high standard, particularly in relation to technical legal and procedural issues
• Assist fee-earners in the course of litigated proceedings, particularly with document handling, disclosure (including e-disclosure), case management hearings etc
• Assist fee-earners in preparing for mediations including preparation of mediation bundles and logistical arrangements
• Act as a point of contact for clients where necessary, demonstrating a level of knowledge and skill commensurate with experience
• Aim to achieve a minimum budgeted annual target of 1440 (1500 for bonus purposes) chargeable hours per year
• Maintain and develop technical knowledge through attendance at training sessions and reading appropriate publications
• Exercise full compliance with DAC Beachcroft protocols on billing and credit control and demonstrate a high level of financial management when supporting others in managing files and in relation to own files, where appropriate

The Ideal Candidate

A Paralegal, ideally with relevant professional indemnity or litigation/regulatory experience. LPC preferred but graduates (2.1 and above) will be considered.  Previous experience as a paralegal would be helpful but is not necessary.

• Any prior experience of handling claims against professionals would be highly desirable but is not necessary.
• Keen to learn, enthusiastic and determined with a genuine interest in litigation, insurance and/or professions.
• Organised and IT literate in order to produce (for example) spreadsheets and tracked-changed documents.
• Ability to deal confidently and professionally with clients on day to day issues.
• Able to demonstrate a reasonable level of self-sufficiency and initiative, combined with an awareness of the boundaries of own competence/authority.
• Experience in adhering to client Service Level Agreements and providing management information would be advantageous.
• An ability to adopt a commercial perspective rather than an ‘academic’ approach to legal issues.
• Change oriented with a positive, flexible approach towards the implementation of new initiatives.
• Committed, team oriented and collegiate with a willingness to share knowledge with and support other members of the team.

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