Personal Injury / Clinical Negligence Paralegal

Job content

Term:
Permanent

Working hours:
Full-time

Department:
Clinical Negligence/Personal Injury

Location:
Guildford

Company background

Penningtons Manches Cooper is a leading UK and international law firm which provides high quality legal advice tailored to both businesses and individuals. We address the specific objectives of each client through our flair and technical expertise and offer a personal service founded on a strong team ethic.
Today, we have UK offices in the City of London, Basingstoke, Birmingham, Cambridge, Guildford, Oxford and Reading while our overseas network stretches from Asia to Europe through our presence in Singapore, Piraeus, Paris and Madrid. With 130 partners and over 880 people in total, our main areas of practice are dispute resolution, corporate and commercial, real estate, private client and family.
We have established a strong reputation in a variety of sectors, particularly private wealth, shipping, technology and property. Our lawyers are also recognised for their expertise in life sciences, education, retail, sports and entertainment and international trade. In these areas, we’re acknowledged for our unparalleled market insight.
By joining forces with the partners and staff of Thomas Cooper in July 2019, we have added significant depth to our core practice. The move builds on the expansion of our litigation and arbitration offering and has introduced us to the maritime community in which Thomas Cooper has long been a key player.
Our continuing commitment to excellence is backed by a track record which dates back nearly 300 years. We pay great attention to matching your requirements with the right skills, delivered cost effectively and within the appropriate timescale.
Among our clients we count multi-national corporations, public companies, professional partnerships, banks and financial institutions as well as private individuals, owner managed businesses and start-ups. We are conscious that our culture and close working relationships are vital assets and we are determined to maintain these as we increase in size.
Our broad international focus is supported by well-established links with law firms throughout the world. Penningtons Manches Cooper is a member of Multilaw and the European Law Group, networks with representatives in over 100 countries, and many of our lawyers play leading roles in various international bodies.

Summary of role

The Role:

• Support to two fee-earners within the team in running their case loads – predominantly personal injury but some clinical negligence files
• Undertake fee-earning work and provide a profitable contribution to the work of the department.
• Draft documents and general correspondence.
• Research – carrying out research using legal publications, case law, the internet etc. preparing detailed reports of research results
• Dealing with initial client care documentation and follow up
• Obtaining and sorting medical records
• Arranging appointments
• Obtaining and collating documents and running disclosure lists and input into Schedules of Loss
• Preparing witness statements
• Preparation of bundles and assistance in arranging expert appointments
• Liaison with the Court
• First point of contact to take details from potential new clients
• Provide support to other members of the team as needed

Specific responsibilities:

• Preparation of client care documentation and dealing with part of file opening procedure
• Dealing with Court fee remissions for the team
• Setting up and running disclosure lists
• Collation of evidence of losses
• Arrangements for appointments
• Obtaining witness evidence and disclosure
• Creating bundles for court, defendants, experts etc
• Handling some new enquiries
• Being point of contact for certain clients

Essential and desirable criteria

• Degree or CILEX qualification
• At least 1 year’s experience working in a top tier personal injury or clinical negligence team
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• IT literate, confident user of MS office
• Ability to manage a busy workload and excellent organisational skills
• Ability to work either alone or collaboratively with other team members
• Confidence in client facing meetings and communications
• Attention to accuracy and detail
• Collaborative team member with ability to quickly build relationships with a wide range of people
• Receptive to facilitate and support change
• Sound organisational skills; flexible, pragmatic and problem-solving approach
• Comfortable working under pressure with the ability to plan and prioritise work; appreciation of fee earner needs and constraints; commercially aware
• Ability to manage cases, deadlines and time recording without a case management system (but with use of Outlook / Microsoft Office and Carpe Diem time recording)
• Achieve the competencies for a Paralegal

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent