Cost Litigation Assistant - 2nd November 2026

Express Solicitors; Manchester; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Express Solicitors is seeking a Costs Litigation Assistant in Manchester. The role welcomes Finance or Business graduates with no law experience and offers full training, mentorship, and structured support from a costs team and solicitors to manage the financial side of legal cases.

You will handle costs schedules, cost breakdowns, budgets, risk assessments, and communications with service providers to recover costs, with clear progression routes into more senior cost roles.

Qualifications

• Graduates from Finance or Business fields welcome.
• No prior law experience required.
• Full training provided.

Responsibilities

• Prepare costs schedules for trial.
• Draft cost breakdowns at case conclusion.
• Liaise with providers and barristers on fees.
• Prepare risk assessments.
• Make calls to progress cases and cost payments.
• Assist with cost budgets.
• Review client work and prepare chronologies.

Skills

Attention to detail

Motivation

Education

Finance or Business degree

Job description

Costs Litigation Assistant Cohort 2nd November 2026

Would you like to try something new and take your career in a new direction? We welcome graduates from Finance, Business and related fields who are eager to consider a new career in Law.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented Business or Finance graduates to join our legal team as a Costs Litigation Assistant. Don't worry you don't need to have experience in law! We believe that your degree experience will give you a great foundation to build on.

We provide full training on all aspects of the role. You'll have access to structured training from your Line Manager, mentorship from experienced colleagues, and ongoing support from your work Buddy.

You will get involved in:

• Preparation of costs schedules for trial.
• Counting and drafting breakdowns of costs at case conclusion, to assist with recovery of costs from between the parties to litigation and to assist with calculating client charges.
• Liaising with service providers to our clients such as barristers to ascertain final fees and fee estimates.
• Preparation of risk assessments.
• Making telephone calls to progress cases in terms of costs negotiations and payments on account of cost.
• Assisting with the preparation of cost budgets.
• Reviewing the work done for the client and preparing chronologies and descriptions of the steps taken.

We offer a Salary is £28,500 per annum, as well as a monthly commission of £200 if targets are achieved.

We have a cohort of Costs Litigation Assistants starting on Monday 2nd November 2026. If you are available to start full time from then, we would love to hear from you.

We provide full training through our Costs Training Programme on all aspects of the role. A Costs Litigation Assistant works with the costs team and solicitors to manage the financial side of legal cases. This includes preparing, checking and negotiating costs, bills and schedules (which are lists of expenses). They also help make sure the firm recovers the money it's owed.

Training will be given in new starter groups and one to one at your desk (both in person and over MS Teams).

We are committed to providing our employees with the guidance and resources they need to succeed in their roles and advance their careers.

This role has great career progression routes such as:

• Trainee Costs Draftsperson: A tailored in-house training programme rotating throughout the three different costs roles (file handling, technical bill drafting and budgeting)
• Trainee ACL lawyer, which is a formal qualification from the Association of Cost Lawyers for those who haven't completed a law degree.
• Solicitors Training Contract to qualify as a Solicitor for those who have completed a law degree.

What are we looking for?

• A degree such as Finance, Business