Permanent
Full time
Salary £56, ,688.00
Job Purpose
To provide legal advice and representation to Warwickshire Police officers and staff on a range of matters, including litigation and advocacy.
You will be responsible for conduct of a range of legal matters, which include
* Civil litigation, predominantly defending claims against the police
* Civil disclosure
* Other litigation/operational advice
Main Responsibilities
* To provide timely and comprehensive legal advice across a wide range of practice areas including civil litigation and operational matters.
* Management of own caseload and court commitments.
* To support and represent the Force at legal hearings including Magistrates, Crown and County Courts (and other Tribunals as required).
* To attend meetings as required, whilst promoting productive working relationships with other teams and departments and outside stakeholders, including external agencies, courts and tribunals and other partners.
* To ensure both yourself and the wider team comply with the In-House Claims Handling Agreement in place with the insurers on civil claims, to specifically ensure reserves and notifications are up to date and accurate and to play a key role in insurance audits to maintain a positive relationship with the insurers.
* To maintain the necessary standards of professional behaviour under the Police Code of Ethics and the SRA/Bar Council and maintaining Continuing Professional Development.
* To undertake other duties commensurate with the nature, level of responsibility and grading of this post, as required.
Special Conditions
The duties of this post :
* Have been designated as 'Politically Sensitive' under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (as amended).
* Requires travel across the force area and to court, as required.
* May include some exposure to disturbing/unpleasant images or tasks
* Advocacy
Knowledge
Person Specification:
Essential
* Qualified solicitor with practising certificate for England and Wales or Barrister, with at least 5 years post qualification experience.
* Law Degree
* Rights of Audience
* Knowledge of a range of legal disciplines to include –
* Civil litigation: including significant knowledge and experience in the conduct and management of public liability claims (claims for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment, assault/battery, malicious prosecution, misfeasance, data breach, Human Rights and so on), and of the Civil Procedure Rules.
* General litigation
* Police operational law
Desirable
* Civil Preventative Orders (e.g. SHPO, SRO, Closure Orders, Stalking Protection Orders)
* Some criminal law,
* Information Management
* Police Conduct Regulations
* Judicial Review
Experience
* Significant experience of advising on a wide range of legal matters;
* Demonstrable experience of advocacy skills
* Experience of problem solving;
* Experience of managing and prioritising own caseload within a legal team environment
Key Skills
* Exceptional communication and influencing/negotiating skills, including strong advocacy and presentation skills;
* Able to deal with conflict to reach a satisfactory resolution while maintaining strong working relationships
* Ability to work calmly and professionally under pressure and to tight deadlines, demonstrating a flexible and agile approach;
* Ability to use own initiative and work largely unsupervised;
* Excellent problem solving and decision making skills and demonstrable professional judgement:
* Ability to mentor and develop others within the team
* Competent in the use of IT including Microsoft packages