Costs Lawyer

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Our Private Client Practice Group offers excellent service and legal advice and are commited to delivering an amazing client experience for companies in the UK. We all need a lawyer to look after our personal affairs at some point in our lives. Whether it's helping to buy a new home, settling a legal dispute or claiming compensation for a life-changing accident or medical injury, the law protects what is important to us. Today we call our Private Client offering Shoosmiths Access Legal because that's precisely what it does. It gives our private clients access to the law through friendly, approachable people who know that understanding individual need is the first step to making the law work.

Our Clinical Negligence team advises private clients on complaints and claims involving any type of medical negligence.

You will be required to work as part of a team handling costs for the Litigation Teams. You will undertake work for a number of offices within the firm and be involved in a range of issues including:

• drafting bills of costs for detailed assessment
• drafting Replies to Points of Dispute
• drafting Costs Budgets and liaising with the opponent with a view to narrowing the issues or agreeing ahead of a CCMC
• undertaking negotiations with the opponent
• preparing applications for interim payments
• working in line with internal SLAs and Costs Team benchmarks

You will work as part of a team and be able to work on your own initiative, whilst also supporting your team colleagues.  The ability to organise your day and to prioritise work is essential whilst remaining calm and professional in your approach. 

Essential Experience:

• Costs Lawyer or Costs Draftsperson with at least 2 years’ experience
• experience of managing a case load of files
• good working knowledge of the CPR

Desirable Experience:

• experience of dealing with personal injury costs at all levels, especially Multi Track
• experience of using CostsMaster
• experience of working to billing and time recording targets
• experience of building relationships with internal contacts at all levels

Additional Skills and requirements for the role are:

• IT literate with experience of using Word, Excel and the internet
• Confident communicator and negotiator
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to prioritise, be organised and efficient
• Flexibility with the capability to adapt to change, new practices and cope under pressure but with the ability to recognise when to seek assistance
• Able to integrate within a team and able to work on your own initiative
• Friendly and helpful approach
• Quality and customer service orientated
• Client focused with an ability to build strong relationships with clients                        

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted.  These checks will include references, proof of ID and current address, Personnel Vetting credit search (which will only highlight insolvency or County Court Judgements); Terrorism Check (against data supplied by the Bank of England) and a Criminal Records check

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.