Associate Solicitor

Job Introduction

DAC Beachcroft - Solicitor, Clinical Risk (3-5+ PQE)

DAC Beachcroft are seeking a Clinical Risk Solicitor with 3-5+ PQE to join our Newcastle office. This role presents an excellent opportunity for an ambitious and passionate individual to join an award-winning, progressive and highly specialised team.

Our Clinical Risk cluster is the biggest nationally- handling a challenging but fulfilling caseload of defendant clinical negligence work- acting for a variety of clients, which may include work for NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts, MDU, independent providers, and medical malpractice insurers.

This is a hybrid role with 2 days in the Newcastle office.

DAC Beachcroft Culture

We pride ourselves on our supportive, approachable culture. We are trusted, appreciated as individuals and embraced as part of a team. At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences, we celebrate and advocate for them. From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you as 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!

Our flexible approach means that we help our colleagues to be their best at work, while recognising that they have all sorts of different interests and commitments outside work. 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. Combine this with our supportive culture & hybrid working model, and you have: a Life that Works.

Main Responsibilities

• Handle a challenging caseload of defendant clinical negligence work on behalf of NHS Resolution. This will include drafting pleadings, witness statements and letters of response, conducting face to face negotiations and mediation of claims as well as preparing counter schedules.
• Act as first and primary contact for clients on a day to day basis providing them with commercially focused legal advice
• Adhering closely to client protocol and process
• Provide supervision and coaching to junior fee earners
• Make an appropriate contribution to non-fee earning activity e.g. knowledge sharing, training, client seminars, and business development
• Comply with the required standards for internal procedures e.g. financial
• Management of files, billing regimes etc. as well as the specific requirements of individual clients
• Writing articles for publication both for in-house and external publications
• Handle confidential information in line with the firm's data security protocols

The Ideal Candidate

• Experience in defendant or claimant clinical negligence, or defendant insurance law. Ideally 3-5+ PQE, however we are happy to consider applications at all levels
• Experience gained within an NHS Resolution panel firm would be preferable (but not essential) as would an understanding of the NHS and their business drivers, including knowledge of and ability to deliver against client protocols and KPIs
• Strong technical skills and an ability to understand and work through complex issues
• A demonstrable ability to adopt a commercial perspective rather than an ‘academic’ approach to legal issues and to be highly client focused
• Ability to operate with a high level of self-sufficiency, combined with an awareness of the boundaries of own competence/authority
• Team oriented and collegiate with an experience of and a willingness to mentor, coach and supervise less experienced members of teams
• Exposure to and success within business development activities
• Confident communicator with an ability to develop relationships, undertake client marketing and influence at all levels. Ability to deal confidently and professionally with clients on day to day issues, building up strong relationships
• Strong organisation skills to ensure a pragmatic and methodical approach to handling a variety of clinical negligence claims simultaneously, through an IT case management system
• Change oriented with a positive, flexible approach towards the implementation of new initiatives
• Able to handle a complex and constantly changing workload and to work under pressure
• Detail conscious with a concern for quality

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.