Commercial Disputes Lawyer in Bristol

We are looking for an experienced commercial disputes associate to join WBD Advance, our alternative legal services group. The team has over 100 lawyers, paralegals, management information specialists and legal project managers who provide a wide range of services and solutions to clients, and it supports the wider firm on high volume workstreams, end-to-end managed services and bespoke projects. The bulk of the team are in Bristol and Plymouth, so ability to attend either of these offices at least two days per week would be preferred, with the other days working from home.

The ideal candidate would have experience in commercial debt recovery and/or experience in defending consumer claims. You will join a sub-team of WBD Advance comprising 8 lawyers (from Managing Associate to newly qualified) and about 25 paralegals. The team work on recoveries and consumer claims for an impressive list of household name clients in retail, utilities, government, and technology services. We pursue complex debt claims in all litigation tracks, and defend consumer claims including claims for miss-selling, faulty goods and services, accessibility and discrimination, personal injury, and property damage.

What will you be doing? We are looking for a litigator, technically strong, and preferably with some previous experience of supervising others and/or of volume work, to undertake:

• Defence of small claims, fast track, the newly introduced intermediate track and multi-track claims – with all that this entails, including acknowledgements of service, defences, witness statements, set aside, strike out and summary judgment applications, instructions to counsel, consent orders, preparing bundles and statements of costs, defending injunction applications, defending and pursuing appeals in the County Court, pursuing and enforcing costs orders by instructing High Court Enforcement Officers, obtaining Charging Orders and Attachment of Earnings Orders;
• Alternative Dispute Resolution – attending telephone mediation appointments and without prejudice meetings and negotiating and settling claims, taking a commercial approach when necessary.

Our existing client base spans several different sectors; with the team having a high volume of instructions in the following areas:

• Technology claims – fraud including PAC fraud, overcharging, non-delivery of equipment, personal injury, data breach and other data complaints;
• Utilities suppliers' claims – harassment and discrimination, overcharging, disconnection and loss of service, missed appointments and regulatory compensation, disputes regarding tariffs;
• Disputes regarding central heating servicing; disputes involving vulnerable customers; data breach claims; Broker Commission claims;
• Financial institutions/online marketplaces – withheld funds due to incomplete Know Your Client (KYC) checks, discrepancies during KYC checks, claims for refunds following disputes raised through the marketplace, lost or damaged parcels, void event tickets, disputes regarding removed listings, suspended user accounts;
• Retail and hospitality and other goods suppliers and installers – discrimination claims, non-delivery of goods, defective products under the Consumer Protection Act, complaints about installation or repair of goods or supply of services.

Depending on level of experience, you will either work to one of the two senior lawyers within the team or take responsibility for managing one or more of the claims workstreams. In either case, the role will include technical supervision and development of paralegal team who support the workstreams, working closely with the Legal Solutions Centre Director and Partners, and the wider firm's Dispute Resolution team to continue to build these services. You may also work with project managers and legal technologists to onboard new workstreams or clients and embed them within our established model.

Your role in WBD Advance which also has its own claimant-side disputes team and an in-house costs Lawyer with whom you will work closely when projects and services overlap, will also involve being an advocate for innovation and service delivery within the firm to support on the optimisation of legal work, and to assist with winning of new clients. WBD Advance is a collaborative working environment with a varied workload and a track record of sustained growth, and so is great place for someone to consolidate all the knowledge that you've developed so far, build on your technical expertise, as well as gain experience in project management, people management and emerging legal technologies.

What are we looking for?

• To be a UK qualified solicitor.
• A minimum of 3 years' qualified experience working in commercial litigation, insolvency, insurance or a similar litigation specialism (volume experience would be advantageous);
• Previous experience of supervising at least 1 person, within a legal team.

What makes it great to work here? We continually work hard to create an open culture that sets us apart from other firms. Our culture gives us much more of a human feel, emphasising that we’re more than just suits! As signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, it's important to us that our people are able to maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and wellbeing and we’re very happy to talk flexible working.

Through our DEI initiatives we create an environment in which difference is valued. We have a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group, led by our Board Sponsor, which works with our colleague networks (we currently have firm supported networks for race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage, LGBTQ+, disabilities, neurodiversity, families, and women's career development and we’re in constant dialogue with our people about how we expand our networks to better support everybody). We encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities and sexual orientations. We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all.

If you have a disability or long term condition and need us to make any adjustments to give you the best possible recruitment process, please let us know by contacting the recruiter. Please also let us know if you need this job advert or the application form in a different format. We will offer an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term condition who meet the minimum criteria for this role. You can opt into this scheme within the application form.