Paralegal in Bristol

As a Senior Paralegal in the Clinical Negligence and Inquests team, you will support a wide range of case management and client‑facing activities across both clinical negligence claims and inquest proceedings. This role offers the opportunity to undertake varied, meaningful work within a complex, interesting and important area of law. You will be required to engage sensitively with distressing and complex subject matters (often involving serious injury, death, and working with recently bereaved families), while maintaining discretion and professionalism at all times. The work can be emotionally demanding, but is also highly rewarding, offering the opportunity to play a key role in thorough investigations, and providing support to clients during challenging circumstances. The role requires a high level of empathy, strong attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities effectively under pressure, alongside a clear commitment to maintaining the highest professional standards.

Responsibilities

• Undertake a variety of fee‑earning tasks under the supervision and management of qualified lawyers to progress clinical negligence claims and inquests.
• A mixture of assisting on others' cases and building your own caseload.
• Supporting clients during times of distress/bereavement and providing excellent client service at all times.
• Correspond appropriately with clients and third parties as necessary through telephone, email, letter and face‑to‑face.
• Draft documents such as witness statements, correspondence, letters of instruction, court forms, etc.
• Attend conferences or court hearings (sometimes requiring overnight stays).
• Undertake effective legal research, using appropriate methods and sourcing, presenting the results accurately and clearly.
• Highlight and escalate any issues to qualified lawyers.
• Check that all work complies with risk management policies and procedures.
• All administrative duties associated with this role.
• Support fee earners with business development and marketing activities.
• Attend BD events where appropriate.
• Take an active part in promoting the firm through social media channels.
• Update the client relationship management system to input data and manage the client information through the system, including adding contact details, referrals and new clients.
• Represent the firm in a positive way when dealing with clients, third parties, charities and referrers.
• Provide support for designated fee earners.
• Work closely with other members of the team to ensure work is done to expected standards in required time frames.
• Coordinate team activities such as meetings, training or social activities as required.
• Build relationships within the team and liaise with other departments and the business services team as required.
• Contribute effectively to the wider team, supporting others where workload dictates or capacity allows.
• Demonstrate proactivity and creativity by seeking and suggesting improvements.
• Be open, inclusive and supportive of others in the firm, both in your team and business wide.
• Accurately and promptly time‑record all chargeable work and achieve costs towards individual and team fee‑earning targets.
• Take personal responsibility for efficient and effective case management.
• Work towards personal objectives and be proactive about own development and learning.
• Input into procedural changes, making suggestions for improvement and efficiencies; take ownership of projects where appropriate.
• Make good use of the firm's IT systems and embrace technology to support efficient and safe ways of working.
• Learn and embrace firm policies and business processes, ensuring compliance particularly with regards to confidentiality, security, data protection, file retention and destruction requirements.

Qualifications

• Legal qualifications (LLB or CILEx) (desirable).
• Experience in inquests, clinical negligence or similar work areas (desirable).
• Relevant work experience from which to demonstrate the skills required for this role (essential).
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to effectively prioritise a varied workload to meet deadlines (essential).
• Solid understanding of Microsoft Office suite and other relevant IT platforms (essential).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills (essential).
• Ability to undertake basic legal work under supervision and use initiative where required (essential).
• Enthusiasm and interest for this area of work and to provide high level customer service (essential).
• Ability to travel away for hearings and inquests (desirable).

Benefits

• 26.5-31.5 days' holiday per year.
• Buying and selling holiday.
• Healthcare cash plan / private medical insurance.
• Life assurance.
• Pension scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Season ticket loan.
• Discretionary profit and performance‑related bonus.
• Hybrid working.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Enhanced family leave.
• Recruitment referral bonus.
• Group income protection.
• Salary reviewed regularly.

Diversity and Inclusion

We are on a mission to create a dynamic and inclusive culture. If you have a disability, whether visible or not, we want to work with you every step of the way. If you need any reasonable adjustments to accommodate your disability, such as extra time on written assessments, an accessible interview room or a quiet space before and after the interview, please speak to us so that we can work together to help bring your best self.