Legal Assistant Manchester, England
Job description
Legal Assistant/Paralegal - Employment Law - Hybrid working
Do you have corporate paralegal experience, have experience in employment law and want to work in-house? If so, we an exciting opportunity for a Corporate Paralegal to join us based out of Birmingham, Manchester or London to support our dedicated team.
As a Paralegal you can look forward to gaining experience by being responsible for a diverse and challenging caseload. The team deals with all aspects of employment law.
What you’ll be doing…
· To check the legal inbox daily for correspondence and pass on to the Employment Lawyer and update the electronic files.
· To check claims for jurisdictional issues, correct Respondent and ACAS Certificate compliance highlighting these to the Employment Lawyer.
· To provide assistance to the Employment Lawyer in undertaking an initial assessment on the merits of cases and provide a summary.
· To assess and obtain relevant documents from HR to prepare our response to claims.
· To upload documents pertaining to the claim on the electronic file, date and describe them.
· Produce a chronology of key events relevant to the legal and factual issues of the documents received from HR in preparation for submission of the Grounds of Resistance.
· To assist the Employment Lawyer in drafting further and better particulars when required.
· To draft basic applications e.g., to vary the timetable in an Order or witness availability to the Tribunal and assist in drafting more complex applications as required by the Employment Lawyer, e.g., application for strike out/deposit orders/Unless orders.
· Assisting the Employment Lawyer with drafting witness statements.
· Facilitating the disclosure process, including drafting lists of documents and bundle indexes.
· Timely and accurate preparation of bundles for preliminary and full merit hearings to include collating relevant documents and photocopying.
· Diarising hearing dates and dates by which tribunal directions should be complied with and passing on dates to the Employment Lawyer.
· Assist the Employment Lawyer with periodic review of tribunal cases to assess next steps, ensure Orders have been complied with by both parties and take appropriate action.
· Support the Employment Lawyer with Employment Lawyer research where required.
· Liaise with counsel and Chambers including solicitors as appropriate and provide written briefs to counsel when required and as directed by the Employment Lawyer.
· Prepare a monthly employment law tribunal information and statistics spreadsheet. Ensure this is maintained and updated monthly.
· Supporting other parts of the business regarding queries such as employment tribunal statistics
· Attending Employment Tribunal/Appeal hearings and taking notes of the proceedings.
· Provide written case summaries and monthly updates on important areas and developments in employment law and disseminate to HR practitioners.
· Provide wider support and assistance to the Legal Team.
· Provide administrative support to lawyers and enhance office effectiveness.
What you’ll need…
· Proficient written and verbal communication skills appropriate to the position.
· Ability to manage multiple tasks or caseloads.
· Ability to work independently and confidently on cases appropriate to the level of the role.
· Good attention to detail in particular when preparing bundles, updating systems and receiving and sending correspondence.
· An understanding or ability to grasp the legal and factual issues in a case grounded in a sound analysis of the law.
· Ability to critically assess cases and anticipate appropriate action.
· Legal research skills and the ability to simplify legal concepts and apply them to facts.
· Ability to apply pragmatic solutions to legal issues regarding HR legal queries.
· Time management skills and the ability to work well under pressure and to tight deadlines.
· Office administrative skills for tasks such as filing, typing and letter writing.
· Ability to confidently interact with barristers, solicitors including senior management effectively and professionally to achieve a desired outcome e.g. negotiating fees.
· General IT skills and knowledge of legal database certifications such as LexisNexis or Westlaw.
· Ability to draft applications for Tribunal/Court including drafting witness statements.
Knowledge
· Evidence of Employment Law, essential.
· Appropriate knowledge of case management software and familiarity with software such as Adobe, Excel and Outlook.
· Familiarity with Tribunal processes and the life of a case in the Employment Tribunal up to Court of Appeal is desirable.
· Overall familiarity with legal procedures, protocols and Civil Court system is desirable.
· Familiarity with The Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 and Presidential Guidelines is desirable regarding the guidelines.
Experience
· Knowledge and application of employment law in practice, at least 2 years’ PQE.
· Experience and involvement in managing cases relating to aspects of employment law such as: unlawful deduction from wages, unfair dismissal and discrimination.
· Responding to case management orders as appropriate.
· Drafting basic claims and witness statements.
· Indexing, collating, paginating and checking bundles, photocopying and assembling electronically and/or scanning.
· Experience of or demonstrable potential to work with electronic filing systems/databases or case management systems.
· Experience of working in a commercial legal team desirable.
· Experience of working with a degree of autonomy in managing cases.
· Qualifications: CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ), or Diploma or LPC or SQE other equivalent qualification.
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: £35,000.00-£40,000.00 per year
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Manchester
