Legal Assistant

Notting Hill Genesis; Greater London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent annual leave

Flexible working opportunities

Generous pension scheme

Enhanced parental pay

Employee assistance program

Health cash plan

Staff discounts

Cycle to work scheme

Life Assurance x 4

Job summary

Notting Hill Genesis is seeking an experienced housing lawyer to provide legal support to operational teams on tenancy and lease breaches, with a focus on escalated arrears and recovery via legal action. You will work with local officers and tenancy sustainment and safeguarding teams to ensure debt is escalated appropriately after all reasonable support options have been put in place.

You will lead on rent and service charge recovery, manage other legal cases, draft and respond to all necessary

Qualifications

• Good spoken and written English.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong organisational skills, accuracy and attention to detail.
• Proficiency using legal databases and MS Office suite.
• Legal drafting skills.
• Familiar with Civil Procedure Rules, debt recovery actions.
• Good research skills.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• Proven ability to develop and sustain relationships within the legal team, operational team clients and third-party stakeholders.
• Proven judgment and discretion in risk identification.

Responsibilities

• Lead on rent and service charge recovery cases referred to you by the operational teams, with the goal of maximising income for the organisation.
• Manage other legal cases assigned to you. Provide support to Paralegals, team managers and team leaders as required.
• Work and support paralegals and collaborate with other departments on cases that may require input to recover service charge debt.
• Represent NHG in external settings such as court, multi-agency meetings, local authority engagement meetings, mediation and casework panels.
• Prepare, draft and respond to all necessary legal documentation and bundles, evidence and witness statements as required.
• Work effectively with panel solicitors where cases require external involvement.
• Take ownership and accountability for your caseload and identify risk with mitigations.
• Collaborate with operational teams to ensure legal escalation when appropriate and focus on tenancy sustainment.
• Advise operational teams to identify and mitigate legal risks; feed into policy and practices.
• Maintain up-to-date legal knowledge and support training for colleagues.
• Update systems and reconcile data to provide clear caseload and risk views.
• Work with managers to review risk and limit external instruction with cost focus.
• Provide visible support to the business, including surgeries, training and advice drop-ins.
• Provide administrative support for the legal team including inbox management and record keeping.
• Follow team procedures and policies and relevant organisational policies.

Skills

Good spoken English

Written English

Verbal communication

Organisational skills

Attention to detail

MS Office

Legal drafting

Debt recovery knowledge

Independent work

Relationship building

Judgment and discretion

Tools

Legal databases

MS Office suite

Job description

What You’ll Do

You will form an integral part of the legal team by providing legal support to the operational teams on a range of housing management related issues including tenancy and lease breaches with particular focus on escalated arrears and pursuing effective recovery via legal action. You will work closely with the local officers and tenancy sustainment and safeguarding teams to ensure debt is escalated appropriately, once all reasonable support options have been put in place.

Job Introduction

What You’ll Do

You will form an integral part of the legal team by providing legal support to the operational teams on a range of housing management related issues including tenancy and lease breaches with particular focus on escalated arrears and pursuing effective recovery via legal action. You will work closely with the local officers and tenancy sustainment and safeguarding teams to ensure debt is escalated appropriately, once all reasonable support options have been put in place.

How You’ll Do It

• Lead on rent and service charge recovery cases referred to you by the operational teams, with the goal of maximising income for the organisation.
• Manage other legal cases assigned to you. Provide support to Paralegals, team managers and team leaders as required – particularly those where there is a crossover with arrears to ensure cases are managed in a joined-up way. This may include housing and lease management issues including disrepair.
• Work and support paralegals and work effectively with other departments on cases that may require their input to successfully recover service charge debt.
• Represent NHG well in external settings such as court, multi-agency meetings, local authority engagement meetings, mediation and casework panels on tenancy and lease breaches.
• Prepare, draft and respond to all necessary legal documentation and bundles, evidence and witness statements as required.
• Work effectively with panel solicitors where cases require external involvement.
• Take ownership and accountability for your caseload in accordance with performance indicators. Seek advice, flag risk and offer mitigations on issues that may rise.
• Work closely with the operational teams and tenancy sustainment and safeguarding teams, to be confident that legal escalation takes place once all reasonable proactive engagement with residents has been exhausted, always focusing on tenancy sustainment objectives.
• Support and advise operational teams to ensure legal risks are identified and mitigated appropriately. Proactively feed into policy and practices to support this.
• Demonstrate adequate legal knowledge for the role, be inquisitive and keep up to date with developments in the law.
• Work alongside legal colleagues to deliver meaningful training, guidance and advice to operational teams. Operations Support and Legal.
• Update required systems and reconciled data from various sources to provide a clear update on caseload and risk.
• Work with managers and wider operational teams to review risk and limit the instruction of external solicitors with cost focus in mind.
• Provide visible support to the business, carrying out surgeries, training and advice drop ins regularly.
• Provide excellent administrative support for the legal team including inbox management, excellent record keeping and document handling.
• Work in accordance with team procedures and policies to ensure sound working practices and effectiveness of the team.
• Ensure that you follow and keep up to date with all relevant Notting Hill Genesis and statutory policies and related procedures including health and safety and financial regulations.

The ideal candidate

We believe great service starts with great people, and we are committed to recruiting and developing passionate, enthusiastic, and talented individuals who can add value to our thriving organisation.

Pending confirmation of legislative changes, this role may require a qualification to demonstrate competence . If not already qualified, there may be an expectation to study towards a professional qualification.

Essential:

• Good spoken and written English
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organisational skills, accuracy and attention to detail
• Proficiency using legal databases and MS office suite
• Legal drafting skills
• Familiar with the Civil Procedure Rules, particularly as it relates to debt recovery action.
• Good research skills
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment
• Proven ability to develop and sustain strong relationships within the legal team, operational team clients and third-party stakeholders (internal and external)
• Proven ability to exercise good judgment and discretion including identifying and flagging risk
• No specific legal qualifications are required but you must be able to demonstrate relevant experience of working with income and debt recovery practices within a legal department or practice, housing association or similar

What’s in it for you?

Once you join us, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to grow within our organisation. You’ll also have access to a wide range of learning opportunities to help you achieve and maximise your potential.

• Excellent annual leave allowance and flexible working opportunities (qualifying period may apply)
• Generous pension scheme
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, and adoption pay in addition to statutory entitlements (qualifying period may apply)
• Employee assistance - free confidential advice and counselling services provided by independent specialist organisations .
• Health cash plan
• Staff discounts - we give our staff access to discounts at hundreds of major retailers, gyms, restaurants, entertainment, days out, insurance, and much more.
• Interest free loans - season ticket loan, tenancy deposit loan, and training loan
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Life Assurance x 4 annual salary

All About Us

Notting Hill Genesis is a not-for-profit organisation providing affordable homes for Londoners and it is now one of the largest housing associations in London. We are both a landlord and a developer, with more than 65,000 existing homes and we employ around 1,800 employees.

We welcome applications from everyone. We actively monitor the diversity of our workforce and strive to show equal representation throughout all levels of the organisation . We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident employer amongst other diversity commitments .

To find out more about our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion please visit:

NHG reserves the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role, so we advise you to submit your application at your earliest opportunity.