Legal Costs Draftsperson

Legal Costs Draftsperson

Cardinal House, Parsonage Gardens, Manchester
£25k - £32k (dependent on experience)

35 Hours Per Week (Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm)
Reporting to: Costs Team Manager

Company Information

Veritas Solicitors LLP is a busy multi-disciplinary practice based in Manchester City Centre, providing a personalised service to private and commercial clients alike. With areas of specialism including include Personal Injury, Clinical and Dental Negligence, Financial Mis-selling, Data Breach, Civil Disputes, Professional Negligence, Commercial Property, Housing Disrepair, Business Interruption Claims, Immigration and Private Client (Wills, Statutory Declaration, Powers of Attorney); Veritas Solicitors is fully capable of dealing with many areas of practice, meeting the needs of both individuals and businesses alike.

Our objective is to be the firm of choice for clients on their challenging legal issues and significant business transactions. We specialise in matters that require individual attention, exceptional experience, and a high level of sophistication. On offer is an intense, pragmatic and highly individualised focus on client matters drawing on substantial experience of advising a range of UK & International clients to achieve their goals.

Job Purpose

You will have responsibility for managing your own case load of costs matters including drafting Points of Dispute, drafting and challenging Costs Budgets, implementing strategy and negotiating whilst progressing claims with attention to detail. It is expected as you grow within your capacity and ability, having additional responsibility in handling complex and higher value case matters.

The successful candidate may also be required to work in the costs recoveries team, which will entail drafting Schedules/Bill of costs, preparing responses, exploring, and implementing suitable strategies to negotiate settlement and running claims to a successful result.

• Handle a varied workload of costs matters or costs recovery files
• Acting as a point of contact for clients, always demonstrating excellent customer service and professionalism
• Ensuring full compliance with clients' SLAs and Veritas internal protocols
• Responsibly conduct quality assessments and compliance control on your own caseload, with focus on accuracy and information reporting
• Ensure continuous improvement and compliance to company standards in all work undertaken.
• Demonstrating a high level of financial management knowledge in all matters of work
• Supporting marketing and business development activity within the team
• Maintain an awareness of the firm's strategies and plans.
• Maintaining and developing technical knowledge through training and personal development plans
• Handle confidential information compliantly with the firm's data security procedures

Competency Requirements

• Solicitor, Legal Executive, or costs draftsperson / Lawyer with experience of costs challenges or costs recoveries.
• Confident negotiator and communicator, who can communicate clearly and concisely both verbally and in written form IT literate with a good working knowledge of Excel and Word.
• Previous knowledge or experience of a case management system would be an advantage but is not essential
• Willingness to follow a process driven system, working within set parameters.
• Ability to work on own initiative without close supervision Able to demonstrate strong team working skills and that they are a flexible and self-motivated team player
• Maintain excellent organisational skills whilst being able to effectively prioritise and organise a busy workload.
• Experience of working within a thriving, deadline driven environment and proactively supporting the team
• Have an ability to take a commercial viewpoint to legal issues and adapt knowledge to suit the situation.
• Producing work quality to a high standard ensuring a focussed attention to detail is applied
• Flexible with an ability to adapt to rapid change, internally and in the framework of clients' businesses.
• Must be able to work under pressure often handling a high-volume caseload towards specific deadlines.

Skills & Qualifications

• We will also consider candidates with no direct costs experience if they have comparable litigation experience.
• Ideally 12 months previous experience in a similar role.
• Good working knowledge of Costs Law.
• Knowledge of Proclaim case management & Costs Master software (desirable).
• Confident in cost negotiation

Career progression opportunities are available for right candidate.

Employee Benefits

• Competitive salary £25,000/£32,000 (dependent on experience and ability)
• Annual reviews
• Birthday privilege
• 24 days annual leave
• Employee assistance program
• Pension scheme
• Christmas shutdown
• Holiday buy scheme
• Bespoke training and development opportunities
• Family leave policies
• Convenient City Centre based - fantastic location!
• Growth and development prospects - opportunities to gain experience within your capacity and in line with the business which is exciting.