Solicitor Team Leader – Personal Injury / Contested Litigation - 4+ PQE

There are plenty of senior PI roles where “leadership” really means carrying a big caseload while occasionally helping the person sitting next to you. This isn’t one of them. I’m working with an established North East law firm looking to appoint an experienced Solicitor Team Leader into its contested litigation department. And alongside the step up in responsibility, there is a genuinely important bonus element attached to the role. This is not one of those positions where the financial upside disappears the moment you move away from pure fee earning. They want someone taking real responsibility for a team, and the reward structure is there to recognise that. The role sits across serious injury and contested RTA work, with exposure to some genuinely interesting issues around liability, causation and allegations of dishonesty. There will also be crossover with the wider EL/PL practice, so they are looking for someone with a fairly broad claimant PI background rather than somebody who has spent their entire career in one narrow area. They are ideally looking around the 4–6 year PQE mark, although they are much more interested in the quality and breadth of your experience than whether you have previously had “Team Leader” written on your business card. Serious injury experience would be particularly useful, alongside a good grounding in RTA, EL/PL, disputed liability and causation. Experience dealing with dishonesty allegations would be another advantage. What makes the role interesting is that this is genuinely about leading people. You will work with experienced fee earners who largely know what they are doing and need guidance, oversight and someone they trust when a difficult issue lands on their desk. At the other end of the spectrum, there are more junior lawyers who will occasionally need a bit more support, training and, inevitably, the odd fire putting out. You will run regular one-to-ones, review performance and KPIs, identify training needs, mentor the team and provide a second pair of eyes on offers and important pieces of work. You will sit within the department’s management structure, contribute to wider decisions around the direction of the team and work alongside senior figures across the broader personal injury operation. For somebody already managing a team, it is a chance to take on a broader leadership position. For somebody around 4–6 years PQE who has perhaps become the unofficial senior person in the room without ever being given the title, it could be an even more interesting move. There is also very much a longer-term progression angle here. They would particularly like to speak with somebody ambitious who sees leadership as the next stage of their career and potentially has Partner aspirations further down the line. Importantly, that progression does not come at the expense of earnings. The bonus structure is a significant part of the overall package and should make this particularly interesting for someone who wants to move into management without feeling like they are financially penalised for doing so. If you are an experienced claimant PI solicitor, probably somewhere around the 4–6 year PQE mark, and the bit of your job you increasingly enjoy is developing other people, solving the difficult cases and helping shape how a department operates, this is worth a conversation. Especially if you want the responsibility, progression and financial upside to move together. Speak to Neil Campbell at QED Legal for a confidential discussion.