Employment Paralegal

This job is with Bates Wells, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

We are seeking a Paralegal to join our leading Employment department. This is an opportunity to get hands-on experience of employment law and to develop your skills and experience in this area.

Key Responsibilities

The Role 

• Document management including preparation of hearing bundles and reviewing and redacting data.
• Conducting legal research on a range of employment topics – producing written notes for fee earners, ensuring all other relevant information is considered.
• Drafting legal documents, ranging from employment contracts to Grounds of Claim / Resistance and witness statements.
• Drafting correspondence and advice notes to clients under supervision.
• Interacting with clients and providing client care.
• Reviewing documents and analysing the legal position for fee-earners.
• Supporting fee-earners during the litigation process at all tribunal and Court levels. This includes ensuring correct case management, handling documents, drafting applications to the Court and corresponding with Courts and Tribunals.
• Note-taking at client meetings and Court hearings.
• Checking legal forms and documents for accuracy.
• Proofreading legal documents.
• Supporting the department in running client-facing marketing events.
• Managing own workload and fee-earners expectations to deliver work on time.

Written communication: 

• Producing legally accurate letters of advice to clients under supervision. 
• Drafting correspondence to third parties including the Employment Tribunals.
•  Circulating internal legal updates to fee-earners. 
• Producing accurate attendance notes documenting telephone calls / meetings. 
• Producing accurate memorandums documenting the results of research. 

Verbal communication: 

• Communicating directly with a variety of clients on a daily basis including senior officials and high profile clients under supervision. 
• Taking instruction from fee earners. 
• Communicating information back to members of the team following research / problems encountered.

Interviewing and advising:

•  Taking attendance notes in client meetings. 
• Completing any necessary follow-up work from meetings as instructed. 
• Taking initial instructions from clients via the telephone / email, analysing the facts and identifying client objectives – recording these in a clear manner for the head of department. 
• Regularly researching and reporting to fee earners on the likely methods of achieving the client objectives taking into account the law, personal priorities / commercial practicalities and timing considerations. 

Development: 

• Participating in team meetings. 
• Attending internal training and external training as and when required. 
• Keeping up to date with developments in law and practice so that standard of work is not compromised. 

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Key experience 

• Degree educated, or equivalent. 
• Previous Paralegal experience desirable. 
• Ability to perform legal research. 
• Knowledge of legal terminology and principles. 
• The ability to analyse legal documents for accuracy. 
• A spirit of co-operation and a positive ‘can do’ attitude. 
• Commitment to the success of the firm. 
• Good team player. 
• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills are essential. 
• Excellent organisational skills, ability to use initiative and to work well under pressure. 
• The ability to work to tight deadlines. 
• Good spelling and grammar. 
• Ability to prioritise. 
• Strong communication skills with the ability to relate to people at all levels. 
• Ability to multi-task. 
• A willingness and capability to serve client needs and handle client relations at the highest level. 
• Personable but highly professional. 
• Enthusiasm for working in a busy working environment. 
• Flexibility to work outside normal office hours may be required from time-to-time. 

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