Costs Lawyer

Slater Gordon; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading law firm in Manchester is seeking a skilled Costs Lawyer to enhance their Legal Costs team. This role involves vital responsibilities including drafting legal documents, overseeing budget negotiations, and providing comprehensive technical advice. The firm offers hybrid working and extensive professional development opportunities, ensuring a supportive environment for career growth.

Benefits

Hybrid working

25 days holiday allowance plus bank holidays

Health and Wellbeing Programs

Group Income Protection

Life Assurance cover

Discounted lawyer led legal services

Qualifications

• High degree of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to develop strong relationships with stakeholders.
• Hands-on attitude, drive, and discipline.

Responsibilities

• Draft Bills of Costs and associated documents.
• Negotiate and agree costs with paying party solicitors.
• Manage and support team members.

Skills

Technical expertise in costs

Strong analytical skills

Effective communication

Relationship management

Job description

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We are recruiting for a skilled Costs Lawyer to join our specialist Legal Costs department in Manchester.

Responsibilities to include:

The primary responsibility of the Costs Lawyer is to play an active part in the provision of an effective costs service to the Serious Injury Practice.

The duties will involve working with colleagues, on a combination of the following:

• Drafting Bills of Costs (including Precedent S Electronic Bills), N260’s, Schedules for JSM and Precedent H Cost budgets using costmaster
• Overseeing the Issuing of the Notice of Commencement and associated documents
• Issuing Court documents such and Part 8 proceedings
• Dealing with budget negotiations
• Preparing Precedent R and Precedent T documents
• Providing appropriate technical advice to fee earners
• Negotiating and agreeing costs with paying party solicitors
• Liaising with Fee Earners on the progress of their cases
• Preparing Points of reply
• Preparing matters for provisional assessment/Detailed Assessment
• Instructing Counsel to attend at Detailed Assessment
• Ensuring financial targets are met
• Managing and supporting the development of team members, promoting continuous learning and improvement of skills as part of normal duties

About You:

• High degree of technical expertise in costs
• Ability to develop strong and effective relationships with all stakeholders
• Hands-on, with a “can-do” attitude, demonstrating drive, discipline, patience and flexibility
• High degree of accuracy, excellent analytical skills and strong attention to detail, but capable of identifying and resolving wider issues.
• Well organised with an ability to prioritise and manage conflicting demands effectively.
• Clear and influential communicator, able to address different types of audiences in appropriate ways, both written and verbal.
• Genuine enthusiasm for providing a high standard of client service and an ability to promote a positive attitude.

What we offer in return:

We have a wide range of core and voluntary benefits:

• Hybrid working – 2 days per week working in the office (must live a reasonable distance to commute to the office)
• 35 hours per week – Monday to Friday
• 25 days holiday allowance plus bank holidays
• Buy and sell annual leave up to 5 days
• Aviva Digicare+ Workplace App providing you with services including annual health checks, access to Digital GP’s, mental health consultations, 2nd medical opinions and much more
• Employee Assistance Programme where you can access free webinars for stress awareness and counselling sessions
• Group Income Protection which will support you with an income if you are unable to work long term, as a result of a qualifying illness or injury
• Health and Wellbeing Programmes and apps including gym discounts, private medical insurance, cycle to work scheme, meditation sessions and much more
• Life Assurance cover
• Benefits Hub providing discounts to over 700 services including cinema tickets, food and drink, travel, and high street stores
• Free legal help and discounted lawyer led legal services

Your Professional Development

We will support and encourage you with developing your career with an award- winning law firm. We run courses across our offices and are continuously monitoring and updating the learning and development offering based on what you tell us. We can support you with your continuous professional development by providing funding for professional qualifications, attending external training courses and providing you with a range of internal learning resources.

Our Values

Like all great businesses, we strive to recruit the best people and uphold the highest legal standards. Our people bring something a little different. We hire people who can challenge, remove roadblocks and deliver outstanding customer service. That's why at Slater + Gordon we go further with our values.

How we work is guided by the S+G Way. This means:

· We do what we say we will

· We don’t wait we create

· We own it, we sort it

· We respect and encourage each other

· We make time to live

The S+G Way defines the specific behaviours and actions that our colleagues and our customers care about the most. We know this, because our colleagues helped to create the way, through a series of interactive workshops and interviews.