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Bevan Brittan is a UK-Top 100 commercial law firm providing a comprehensive range of legal services from offices in Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, and London.

The firm advises businesses across construction, energy & resource management, higher education and financial services, complementing the firm's market leadership within housing, local government and health & social care.

We currently employ over 500 people, including over 80 Partners, and our award-winning teams provide construction, commercial, corporate, property, regulatory, employment and litigation (commercial and clinical negligence) legal advice.

Bevan Brittan is named among 'The Times Best Law Firms 2022' and has recently either won or been shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards.

We are driven by our 4 values: Relationships, Results, Reputation and Responsible. These give us a sense of purpose and ensure we always work collaboratively with clients and colleagues, continually improve, make the right choices and act with integrity.

Bevan Brittan is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

The Team

Housing is one of our core markets and focus areas for growth. The Bevan Brittan Housing Management team has experienced significant growth over the last couple of years and is now one of the largest housing management practices in the country. Our track record of delivering high quality advice means that growth is set to continue, with a number of major tender wins adding to an already impressive list of clients based across the country and nationally.

We advise a considerable number of registered providers, ranging from many of the top ten largest providers in the country at one end of the spectrum to smaller, specialist providers at the other and everything in between. We assist our clients to tackle anti-social behaviour, tenancy fraud, unlawful occupation, disrepair claims, access issues and rent arrears as well as assisting them to manage changes to legislation and the consequential effects that changes in government policy have on their organisations. Our housing clients are passionate about achieving their corporate objectives, and we are passionate about helping them do so.

Whilst the majority of our work is for housing associations, we also increasingly provide housing management services to a range of other types of organisation including local authorities, care providers, the NHS, universities, charities, and private landlords.

The Role

We have an excellent opportunity for a Paralegal to join our team.

The role will involve supporting the Solicitors within the team with their caseload, but will also offer the opportunity to build a personal caseload of appropriate cases. The clients you will be advising will mostly be housing associations, local authorities and specialist supported accommodation providers.

The successful candidate will work very closely with our dynamic and passionate team of Housing Management lawyers to advance cases to court. The work will be varied, challenging, interesting and often urgent. Examples of the types of work that the Paralegal will need to undertake are as follows:-

• Drafting County Court claims
• Witness evidence
• Preparing disclosure lists and documents
• Liaising with Counsel, opponents and the Courts
• Undertaking research on more unusual or complicated cases
• Preparing slide decks for training seminars
• Preparing trial bundle indexes and bundles
• Drafting costs schedules for hearings
• Arranging case conferences, witness meetings and conferences with Counsel
• Ensuring compliance with litigation deadlines
• County Court advocacy on routine matters

The role will also include contact with clients to take instructions and progress cases.

What we are looking for from you

The successful candidate will have the following experience:-

• Working for or with social landlords and experience of housing disrepair work desirable
• A genuine interest in social housing
• Competent in all IT applications, including Word, Excel and Outlook
• Strong attention to detail and a clear communication style (both written and verbal)
• Punctual with good time management skills and the ability to manage and prioritise a range of tasks
• Commitment to good customer service
• Good empathy skills and the ability to deal with a range of different personality types when working with clients and witnesses
• Commitment to meeting or exceeding personal targets
• Willing to listen and learn
• Good team player with a willingness to assist colleagues
• Self-motivated, enthusiastic, committed and approachable
• Ability to remain calm and professional when under pressure

Work-life Balance

We offer a substantial benefits package to all employees, which includes 25 days holiday (plus the option to buy up to an additional 5 days), a generous pension scheme and private medical insurance through Vitality (including "phone a GP service", discounted gym membership and 'Vitality' Partner discounts).

All of our people are entitled to a biennial private health assessment through Nuffield Health and are included in the group life assurance scheme. We also have an Employee Assistance Programme (free telephone support and counselling service) and a cycle scheme (Save Tax & NI on a bike for cycling to work).

Where possible, we want to offer all Bevan Brittan people flexibility to work their week in a way that suits them - we operate a hybrid working model based on the needs of our clients, teams and that of the individual. Our core business hours are 9am - 5:15pm Monday to Friday, however we are open to individuals working more flexibly around those times and would welcome a conversation with you if you have any questions.

Responsible Business

To us, being a responsible business is second nature; a core part of Bevan Brittan's identity, running through our culture and embodied by the clients we serve.

Bevan Brittan seeks to play an active role within its local office communities. Through regular fundraising events, support for local initiatives and annual charity donations at Christmas, we have established a culture of giving within the firm. In December 2021 we donated a total of £60,000 to our four regional office charities, with each charity receiving £15,000 to help fund their vital services.

Our current selected charities are InUnity (Birmingham), Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (Bristol), and Maggie's Cancer Care (Leeds).

We want to demonstrate our commitment to these causes through actions rather than words; colleagues from across the firm are already heavily involved, living and breathing the four pillars of our Responsible Business strategy:

• Community Engagement
• Environmental Sustainability
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Wellbeing

Collectively, these four pillars ensure we look after our colleagues' wellbeing; offer an environment in which all can progress on merit, regardless of personal circumstances or background; give something back to the communities in which we work; and protect the environment.

Bevan Brittan is proudly a carbon neutral firm. We have achieved the UN's Climate Neutral Now accreditation and our environmental sustainability plan is focussed on achieving our net zero carbon target.

Each lawyer has the opportunity to undertake pro bono legal work for local charities and not-for-profit organisations. This has seen colleagues support the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (Bristol), Moseley Road Swimming Baths (Birmingham), Yorkshire Cat Rescue (Leeds), Great Western Credit Union (London), and several others.