Paralegal - Employment in Newcastle upon Tyne

Department: Employment, Pensions and Immigration - North

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Newcastle

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.

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.

The Newcastle team currently comprises 2 Partners, 15 lawyers 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

• 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 also conducting the first level review of data subject access requests (DSARs) under data protection legislation, with a view to taking greater responsibility and ownership for DSAR review exercises over time.
• In relation to the equal pay claims, substantial client contact as part of our team in gathering and preparation of evidence.
• Both may involve formulating and applying search terms to electronically held data provided by the client, sifting and reviewing raw data for relevance, 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 brief 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

• A good academic record with a 2.1 in Law or a related subject, or equivalent qualification / experience (e.g. CILEX, LPC, SQE).
• 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 equal pay and 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.