Description
DAC Beachcroft's Employment, Pensions and Immigration team is one of the largest teams in the UK. The team works for a range of market leading clients across the financial services, healthcare and commercial sectors and is recognised as Band/Tier 1 in both the latest Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 UK rankings.
DAC Beachcroft’s Northern England offices; Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle EPI teams work closely together, with a focus on providing a seamless service to our client base across the North and nationally, giving DAC Beachcroft a market leading powerhouse in the North of the country.
The Newcastle team has a strong reputation in the North East market, acting for a stable of significant household name corporates as well as being a market leader in the public and independent health sectors.
For more information on our Employment and Pensions expertise please go to https://www.dacbeachcroft.com/en/gb/expertise/services/employment-and-pensions/
The Newcastle team currently comprises 2 partners, 19 lawyers, an apprentice, and 6 paralegal and administrative colleagues. To support the continued expansion, we are seeking an additional Paralegal to join the team, primarily supporting our solicitors with their caseload of employment claims. This role will, at least initially, include working with our team supporting a major national retailer in its defence of high-profile multiple equal pay claims.
This is a fee earning role and a core element of the role will be to undertake a wide range of document management activities including collating and redacting documents and preparing document bundles for use at Tribunal and Court hearings. Attendance and supporting witnesses and Counsel and taking notes at hearings across the country may also be required, either in person, or remotely.
Key Responsibilities
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Undertaking a wide range of document management activities, with a particular focus on more complex and document-heavy exercises.
- This includes the full range of disclosure tasks in litigated cases and level reviewing documents for data subject access requests (DSARs) under data protection legislation.
- Both may involve formulating and applying search terms to electronically held data provided by the client, sifting and reviewing raw data for relevance (whether through e-discovery platforms or other electronic means), identifying non-relevant/privileged/business confidential material, collation, redaction and indexing ready for production, and working collaboratively with clients' IT / discovery management personnel.
- Assisting with drafting and lodging defences to claims
- Drafting agendas and lists of issues for case management discussions.
- Drafting briefs to counsel and liaising with barristers and clerks.
- Drafting applications to Employment Tribunals and liaising with Tribunals.
- Researching points of law
- Considering evidence to establish relevant witnesses and checking availability.
- Drafting basic witness statements
- Assisting with the drafting of COT3 settlements.
- Drafting costs applications and preparing schedules of loss/costs.
- Regular liaison with other paralegals, trainees and lawyers to ensure the efficient management of caseloads and deadlines.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
Ideal Candidate:
- A good academic record with a minimum 2.1 in Law or a related subject, or equivalent qualification (e.g. CILEX, LPC, SQE) and/or experience.
- Previous experience of working as a paralegal within an employment team is desirable, but not essential. Full training and development will be provided for any specialist areas of work, including DSAR work.
- Familiarity with e-disclosure tools and platforms would also be preferable, but not essential.
- A confident communicator. Able to deal effectively with internal and external contacts in both verbal and written communication in a clear, concise and friendly manner.
- Close attention to detail and an eye for quality.
- Sound IT skills.
- A flexible and self-motivated team player
Additional Information
As a Disability Confident Scheme employer, we’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you need any reasonable adjustments at any stage (including the application, assessment or interview process), please contact [email protected] in confidence with the vacancy reference in the subject line, and we’ll be happy to help.
About DAC Beachcroft
We are a leading international legal business with over 3,000 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We are market leaders in insurance, health and real estate but with a full-service offering, including growing Financial Services and Tech capabilities. We represent a wide range of clients – from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for nearly all of the top-20 UK and global insurers, we're 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-five housebuilders.
We are a fast-growing international business with offices around the globe. In addition to our 11 UK offices, we also have offices in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Lima, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Paris, Rome, Santiago de Chile, and Singapore plus a representative office in Miami and broad network of affiliations across the globe.
At DAC Beachcroft we are committed to and recognise the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion across the board, including and beyond the protected characteristics. We take decisions based solely on merit. We value, welcome and seek out people with different backgrounds and life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, ways of thinking and identities.
We are happy to talk flexible working with our Flex Forward scheme. We would encourage you to talk to us about our approach to flexible working during the hiring process if you would like to explore this further.
Note for Recruitment Agencies
DAC Beachcroft manages all vacancies via our in-house recruitment teams, prioritising direct sourcing and referrals. When external support is required, roles are released to selected agencies on our Preferred Supplier List (PSL).
Speculative CVs sent to any DAC Beachcroft employee without prior instruction from our recruitment teams (LLP and CSG) will not be accepted, and no fees will be payable.
For PSL queries, please contact: [email protected] or [email protected]