Senior Lawyer, Band 8a in Gloucester

The role of the Senior Lawyer is to support the Legal Services team in the provision of a dedicated in-house legal service in order to mitigate risks and achieve cost savings across the following core areas:

• Claims: management of clinical negligence and third-party claims, in line with NHSR's schemes. To work closely with clinicians and Trust Divisions to robustly defend claims and protect the interests of the Trust.
• Inquests: support and representation of staff in the Coroner's Court, working closely with local Coroner's Officers on a large portfolio of inquests.
• Healthcare advice: including advice for clinical and non-clinical situations.
• Disclosure requests: assisting the Coroner, Police, Local Authority, and any other authorized third party as required. These may be complex proceedings.
• Training: providing internal and external training on core work areas.

Main duties of the job:

• Clinical Negligence Claims
• Reporting
• Third Party Claims
• Training
• Inquests
• Other Court cases
• Support to staff
• Clinical governance and learning
• Development
• To participate in the on-call rota for urgent Police requests
• To assist with any other reasonable request by the Head of Legal Services, as appropriate.

We are looking for a Senior Lawyer who shares our passion to support staff in the delivery of outstanding healthcare and demonstrates the Trust's values to achieve that aim. We recognise that working in-house is a niche role and would be keen to hear from candidates with relevant experience who have an interest in developing a fulfilling career in the NHS.

Person Specification:

• Qualifications: Law degree or equivalent; Qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive with current appropriate legal experience; Strong evidence of continuing personal and professional development.
• Experience: Experience of Managing Claims; clinical negligence claims would be advantageous; Experience in any of the other core areas (inquests, healthcare advice, other court cases, disclosure); Experience of reporting and analysing data to demonstrate trends and learning; Ability to supervise junior members of staff; Experience of managing third party claims, including employers' and public liability claims; Experience of working in-house for a large NHS organisation; Knowledge of medical terminology from working with clinicians in an NHS environment.
• Knowledge and Skills: Ability to work collaboratively within an in-house legal team working across sites; Experience of managing competing priorities in a stressful environment, displaying resilience; High attention to detail; Reliable point of contact for clinicians who require support; Displays initiative in offering solutions and being keen to learn; Ability to adapt to assist with other core areas of work, if required; Interest in strengthening reporting provision on core areas and analysing data to demonstrate added value; Interest in developing the Legal team's intranet page as a means of reliable, informative communication with staff.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.