Costs Budgeter in Sheffield

Your Role and What You'll Be Doing

The Costs Management Team is responsible for recovery of the firm’s contentious costs from opponents and clients and preparing ‘Costs Budgets’ on behalf of the firm. Within this Costs Management Team sits a highly specialist team dedicated to the preparation of Costs Budgets, dealing with negotiations and often undertaking advocacy on the behalf of the firm. A ‘Cost Budget’ is used to manage legal costs throughout the litigation process. It is also referred to as a ‘Precedent H’ – this document should be prepared by parties caught by the provisions and verified with a statement of truth, considering all issues in the case. For the remainder of this job description the form will be referred to as a ‘Costs Budget’ rather than ‘Precedent H’. The ‘Costs Budget’ document is central to many types of litigation on the multi-track with a value up to £10 million.

The role involves dual skillsets:

• The ability to review the work undertaken and retrospectively cost accurately the incurred costs.
• The ability to comprehend instructions to prepare/forecast litigation costs to an eventual Trial.

Training can be provided on both if required but some prior experience is preferable, whether that is by virtue of previous costs related roles or general legal case handling. Together with the role of preparing ‘Costs Budgets’, a notable element of negotiation skills will be required together with the ability to assist in the preparation for Costs Case Management Hearings. A Costs Case Management Hearing (or ‘CCMC’) is the hearing when the ‘Costs Budget’ is “approved” by the court and the costs expendable on the litigation are decided by a Judge.

What You'll Be Doing

You’ll be responsible for preparing budgets and related work including, but not limited to, undertaking negotiations with opponents as necessary on Precedent R documents, preparing statements of issues agreed and not agreed, preparing budget comparison documents and other supporting documents, preparing Precedent T documents and supporting internal clients to apply for updated budgets as required.

You’ll be obtaining instructions from internal clients on all multi-track case types for the projection of future costs to be incurred to Trial. It will be necessary to liaise with our internal clients for the preparation of the ‘Costs Budget’. You’ll liaise with internal advocates or Counsel attending Costs Case Management Conferences and should be capable of being able to converse confidently regarding the contents of the ‘Costs Budget’ prepared. Whilst not essential for the role, for the right candidate we would potentially look to develop your skillset (as required) to undertake advocacy at CCMCs in relation to the ‘Costs Budget’ elements of the hearings.

Be involved in ensuring data is maintained for the work undertaken in the way of fully particularised personal time recording, maintaining ‘Costs Budget’ data on the firm’s internal systems and following the internal processes developed for ‘Costs Budget’ preparation and ‘Negotiations’.

About You

As our ideal candidate, you'll have:

• Prior experience of costs budgets, whether through a specific costs role or a general legal fee earning role.
• A comprehensive understanding of the relevant case law related to costs.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate clearly with stakeholders across the business.
• Demonstrable negotiation skills.
• Desirable financial or legal qualifications e.g.: ILEX Part 1 Year 1.
• Desirable Financial or law degree.

Our Benefits - What We Can Offer You

• 25 days holidays as standard plus bank holidays - You can ‘buy’ up to 35hrs of extra holiday too.
• Generous and flexible pension schemes.
• Volunteering days – Two days of volunteering every year for a cause of your choice (fully paid).
• Westfield Health membership, offering refunds on medical services alongside our Aviva Digital GP services.
• We also offer a wide range of well-being initiatives to encourage positive mental health both in and out of the workplace and to make sure you’re fully supported.
• This includes our Flexible by Choice programme which gives our colleagues more choice over a hybrid way of working subject to role, team and client requirements.
• We have been ranked in the Best Workplaces for Wellbeing for Large Organisations for 2024!
• Our responsible business programmes are fundamental to who we are and our purpose.
• We’re committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where our colleagues can flourish, and we have established a number of inclusion network groups across our business to support this aim.
• Our commitment to Social Responsibility, community investment activity and tackling climate change is a fundamental part of who we are. It’s made up of four strands: Our People, Our Community, Our Environment and Our Pro Bono.