Job Description
Personal Injury - Senior Lawyer
Are you an experienced personal injury litigator ready to take the next step in your career? Do you thrive in a collaborative environment where your expertise supports both clients and colleagues? Thompsons Solicitors is looking for a Senior Lawyer to join our National Litigation Unit (NLU)—a key role for someone who wants to combine high-quality casework with meaningful supervisory responsibility.
Flexibility and working hours
We offer genuine flexibility and autonomy in how you manage your workload, alongside a hybrid working model that supports a balance between office and home working. Our working hours operate between 7am and 7pm, with start times as late as 11am available to fit around individual needs. This flexibility is underpinned by a culture that trusts you to manage your diary and client work effectively.
This is a key role...
As a Senior Lawyer in the NLU, you’ll play a central role in delivering justice for our union members and their friends and families. You’ll be helping to shape the performance, development and culture of the wider team.
This is an opportunity to use your technical expertise, your judgement, and your leadership skills to make a real impact—both on client outcomes and on the success of the Unit.
In this role, you will:
* Supervise and support G3 and G4 Lawyers, ensuring best practice in client care and case management.
* Manage your own caseload of complex FT ex-portal accident claims from start to finish.
* Work closely with Team Managers and the Regional PI Manager to allocate cases effectively and monitor team caseloads.
* Encourage problem-solving, creative thinking and strong communication across the team.
* Support colleagues where underperformance or case management issues arise.
* Ensure accurate time recording and compliance with all firm policies.
* Monitor and manage disbursements, supplier use, funding, billing and costs recovery.
* Deliver work in line with KPIs, targets and NLU objectives.
* Contribute to recruitment activities, including shortlisting and interviewing.
* Deliver training through induction and the NLU Training Academy.
* Act as a key partner to the Regional PI Manager in driving performance and fostering a positive team culture.
Who we are looking for...
The ideal candidate will be an admitted solicitor or CILEx with higher rights with around 5 years of relevant experience handling a full EL/PL Fast Track caseload within the EX Portal. You will have experience managing cases from commencement of litigation through to conclusion, including issuing and serving proceedings, reviewing and responding to defences, and progressing matters in line with court directions. Experience dealing with interim applications, instructing counsel where required, and supporting matters through to trial is essential.
This role offers the opportunity to demonstrate strong client care and communication skills, sound judgement, confident decision-making, and a solid level of legal knowledge and expertise. It will suit someone who naturally delivers legal services with a personal approach, showing care, understanding, and sensitivity when supporting clients throughout the litigation process.
What we offer
We offer more than just a job; we offer growth. With access to exceptional training opportunities and clear progression pathways, this role provides the perfect environment for you to thrive and have your expertise and dedication recognised.
* Contributory pension scheme (up to 11%)
* £4500 Car allowance
* Permanent health insurance
* Healthcare Cash Plan (Medicash)
* Life assurance
* 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
* 5 days additional leave over Christmas
* Employee Assistance Programme
* Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
* Cycle to work scheme
* Subsidised sports and social club
* Annual travel and parking loans
* Financial assistance for professional development
About Thompsons Solicitors
For 100 years, leading social justice law firm, Thompsons Solicitors, has been fighting for the rights of the injured and mistreated and changing lives for the better. Since 1921, we have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with trade unions to implement key legal reforms and give a voice to those who might otherwise have been disadvantaged and marginalised.
Thompsons ran:
• the case that established the right for injured workers to be compensated in 1937
• the first asbestos case that was successful in the House of Lords in 1972
• the first equal pay for equal value claim in the UK (1988) and later in Europe (1993)
• the case against UK construction companies for blacklisting union members in 2016
• hundreds of cases on behalf of women who received negligent treatment at the hands of disgraced breast surgeon, Ian Paterson (2017) and behalf of those injured by mesh (2019).
Today, Thompsons employs 800 staff who work at 18 offices right across the UK. Key areas of legal specialism include: personal injury, serious injury, asbestos diseases, medical negligence, road traffic accidents, accidents at work, industrial diseases and trade union law. As a point of principle, the firm has never worked for employers or insurers.
Over the last 100 years, we have consistently won the cases that have advanced the law for working people, but, as long as there are employers who put profit before the safety and rights of their workforce, there is always more to do. We continue to expose injustice, holding those responsible to account and campaigning for positive change.
We want to hear from anyone who is keen to progress a legal career with a firm that won’t let up in its quest for fairness.