Paralegal - Professional Liability
Department: Professional and Commercial Risk
Employment Type: Permanent
Location: Leeds
Description
Do you want to build your career in professional liability work, supporting a varied and intellectually stimulating caseload with meaningful client exposure? Are you interested in developing your experience within a specialist defence practice, acting for insured professionals and insurers?
If so, we have an opportunity to join our market-leading Professional and Commercial Risk team as a Paralegal.
You will work closely with experienced solicitors in defending professional liability claims, supporting the team across all stages of a case. The role offers excellent exposure to both pre-action and litigated claims, regular client contact, and the chance to develop strong technical and procedural skills within a supportive environment.
We work collaboratively across our teams. While colleagues are encouraged to develop particular areas of expertise, we actively promote cross-team working. This allows paralegals to gain exposure to a broad range of work, learn from specialists across the practice, and develop their skills in delivering practical and effective solutions for our clients.
Key Responsibilities
Specific responsibilities include but are not restricted to:
- Supporting senior fee earners in all aspects of high value and complex litigation and professional liability claims.
- Assisting with the management of both pre-action and litigated matters, including progressing tasks to agreed deadlines.
- Legal research and document preparation, including drafting routine correspondence and assisting with witness statement preparation.
- Reviewing documents to analyse facts and issues, identifying next steps, and supporting disclosure exercises.
- Liaising professionally with clients, insurers, experts and counsel, and responding to ad hoc requests for information.
- Contributing to fee-earning and non-fee-earning activity as appropriate, including knowledge sharing, training, and preparing updates for clients and the team.
- Exercising full compliance with DAC Beachcroft protocols on billing and credit control and demonstrating a high level of financial management.
- Building an awareness of the Firm’s other services and building effective internal and external networks.
- Handling confidential information in line with the firm’s data security protocols.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- Educated to degree level, ideally in Law or a related discipline, with experience in a legal environment desirable but not essential.
- Demonstrable interest in professional liability work.
- Commercially aware, with the ability to take a practical, client-focused approach to legal issues.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with confidence dealing professionally with clients and colleagues.
- Attention to detail in preparing and reviewing documents.
- Highly organised, able to prioritise tasks and manage deadlines effectively.
- Able to work with a good level of self-sufficiency, while recognising the limits of own authority and experience.
- A collaborative, flexible team player, with strong IT skills, including Word and Outlook.
