Paralegal - Professional Liability

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

• 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.