As a Senior Paralegal in the Clinical Negligence and Inquests team, you will support a wide range of case management and client-facing activities across both clinical negligence claims and inquest proceedings. This role offers the opportunity to undertake varied, meaningful work within a complex, interesting and important area of law.
You will be required to engage sensitively with distressing and complex subject matters (often involving serious injury, death, and working with recently bereaved families), while maintaining discretion and professionalism at all times. The work can be emotionally demanding, but is also highly rewarding, offering the opportunity to play a key role in thorough investigations, and providing support to clients during challenging circumstances. The role requires a high level of empathy, strong attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities effectively under pressure, alongside a clear commitment to maintaining the highest professional standards.
Key Responsibilities
Personalised Client Service
* Undertake a variety of fee earning tasks under the supervision and management of qualified lawyers to progress clinical negligence claims and inquests
* A mixture of assisting on others’ cases, and building your own caseload
* Supporting clients during times of distress/bereavement and providing excellent client service at all times
* Correspond appropriately with clients and third parties as necessary through telephone, email, letter and face to face.
* Draft documents such as witness statements, correspondence, letters of instruction, court forms, etc
* Attending conferences or court hearings (sometimes requiring overnight stays)
* Undertake effective legal research, using appropriate methods and sourcing, presenting the results accurately and clearly
* Highlight and escalate any issues to qualified lawyers
* Check to ensure all work complies with risk management policies and procedures
* All administrative duties associated with this role
Sustainable Growth
* Support fee earners with business development & marketing activities
* Attend RWKG BD events where appropriate
* Take an active part in promoting the firm through social media channels
* Updating the client relation management system to input data and manage the client information through the system including adding contact details, referrals and new clients.
* Represent the firm in a positive way when dealing with clients, third parties, charities and referrers.
Dynamic Culture
* Provide support for designated fee earners
* Work closely with other members of the team to ensure work is done to expected standards in required time frames
* Coordinate team activities such as meetings, training or social activities as required
* Build relationships within the team and liaise with other departments and the business services team as required
* Contribute effectively to the wider team, supporting others where workload dictates/capacity allows
* Demonstrate proactivity and creativity by seeking and suggesting improvements
* Be open, inclusive and supportive of others in the Firm, both in your team and business wide
Financial & Operational Excellence
* Accurately and promptly time record all chargeable work and achieve costs towards individual and team fee earning targets
* Take personal responsibility for efficient and effective case management
* Work towards personal objectives and be proactive about own development and learning
* Input into procedural changes, making suggestions for improvement and efficiencies. Take ownership of projects where appropriate.
* Make good use of the firm’s IT systems and embraces technology to support efficient and safe ways of working
Learn and embrace firm policies and business processes, ensuring compliance particularly with regards to confidentiality, security, data protection, file retention and destruction requirements
Legal qualifications (LLB or CILEx) (desirable)
Experience in inquests, clinical negligence or similar work areas (desirable)
Relevant work experience from which to demonstrate the skills required for this role (essential)
Excellent organisation skills with the ability to effectively prioritise a varied workload to meet deadlines (essential)
Solid understanding of Microsoft Office suite and other relevant IT platforms (essential)
Strong written and verbal communication skills (essential)
Ability to undertake basic legal work under supervision and use initiative where required (essential)
Enthusiasm and interest for this area of work and to provide high level customer service (essential)
Ability to travel away for hearings and inquests (desirable)
At RWK Goodman, you can enjoy a strong legal career, with exceptional client work. And you’ll be supported, every step of the way.
A progressive Top 100 law firm, over 650 colleagues. 36 specialist areas. 3 legal divisions. With offices across the South West, Thames Valley and London.
Committed to collaborative growth and shared success, we’re focused on delivering sustained positive change. Because we want to make a lasting difference to the world around us and achieve our vision of being the firm what clients want to work with and people want to work for.
To find out more about why we are different click here.
Some benefits will differ depending on the level of role. Please reach out to the Recruitment team for further clarification.
26.5–31.5 days’ holiday per year
Buying and selling holiday
Healthcare cash plan / private medical insurance
Life assurance
Pension scheme
Cycle to work scheme
Season ticket loan
Discretionary profit and performance-related bonus
Hybrid working
Employee Assistance Programme
Enhanced family leave
Recruitment referral bonus
Group income protection
Salary reviewed regularly
We know our people are what sets us apart. That’s why we continue to nurture and develop our colleagues and attract and retain the best talent.
We support colleagues with a robust programme of learning and development opportunities, underpinned by our transparent Career Development Framework (CDF), which shows exactly what you need to achieve to grow your career with us.
From mentoring initiatives, through to personal development programmes and courses, we are proud to offer a suite of opportunities to drive your career and achieve your ambitions.
We’re on a mission to create a dynamic and inclusive culture. And that starts with our recruitment process. If you have a disability, whether visible or not, we want to work with you every step of the way. Because we want to give you the best chance of success when you apply