Senior Lawyer, Band 8a

The Methodist Church in Britain; Bradley Stoke; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous annual leave

NHS pension scheme

Flexible working opportunities

Discounts at local shops and eateries

Access to on-site nurseries

Discounted public transport

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Senior Lawyer to join its in-house Legal Services team. The role focuses on clinical negligence and third-party claims across multiple hospital sites, including participation in urgent police on-call requests and internal training.

The successful candidate will handle inquests, provide healthcare advice, manage disclosures, and contribute to governance and staff development within a busy NHS setting.

Qualifications

• Law degree or equivalent.
• Qualified solicitor or legal executive with current legal experience.
• Strong evidence of continuing personal and professional development.

Responsibilities

• Manage clinical negligence and third-party claims, working with clinicians and divisions to defend claims.
• Represent staff at inquests in the Coroner's Court, working with local Coroner's Officers.
• Provide healthcare advice on clinical and non-clinical situations.
• Handle disclosure requests from coroners, police, local authorities and other authorised third parties.
• Deliver internal and external training on core legal work areas.
• Handle other court cases and support staff.
• Report on and analyse claims and other core areas.
• Take part in the on-call rota for urgent police requests.
• Contribute to clinical governance and learning.
• Take part in own professional development.

Skills

Case management

Team collaboration

Prioritisation

Attention to detail

Stakeholder liaison

Proactive approach

Education

Law degree or equivalent

Qualified solicitor or legal executive

Continuing professional development

Job description

This Senior Lawyer post sits within the Legal Services team at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, delivering the Trust's legal advice and representation in-house. The work centres on clinical negligence and third-party claims, inquests, healthcare advice, disclosure requests from coroners, police and other authorised bodies, and internal and external training. The role stands out for its in-house setting across more than one hospital site and an on-call rota for urgent police requests. Applicants need experience in at least one core area, and clinical negligence experience is an advantage.

What the job involves

• Manage clinical negligence and third-party claims, working with clinicians and divisions to defend claims
• Represent staff at inquests in the Coroner's Court, working with local Coroner's Officers
• Provide healthcare advice on clinical and non-clinical situations
• Handle disclosure requests from coroners, police, local authorities and other authorised third parties
• Deliver internal and external training on core legal work areas
• Handle other court cases
• Support and advise staff
• Report on and analyse claims and other core areas
• Take part in the on-call rota for urgent police requests
• Contribute to clinical governance and learning
• Take part in own professional development
• Carry out other reasonable requests from the Head of Legal Services

What’s required

Qualifications

• Law degree or equivalent
• Qualified solicitor or legal executive with current legal experience
• Strong evidence of continuing personal and professional development

Registration & licences

• SRA registration, if qualified as a solicitor

Experience

• Managing claims (clinical negligence claims an advantage)
• Experience in at least one other core area: inquests, healthcare advice, other court cases or disclosure

Skills & knowledge

• Demonstrable case management experience
• Collaborative working within an in-house legal team across sites
• Managing competing priorities in a stressful environment, with resilience
• High attention to detail
• Reliable point of contact for clinicians who need support
• Initiative in offering solutions, willingness to learn and drive to take forward a project independently

Other

• Ability to adapt to assist with other core areas of work

Nice to have

• Experience of reporting and analysing data to show trends and learning
• Ability to supervise junior staff
• Experience of managing third-party claims, including employers' and public liability claims
• Experience of working in-house for a large NHS organisation
• Knowledge of medical terminology from working with clinicians in an NHS setting
• Interest in strengthening reporting on core areas and analysing data to show added value
• Interest in developing the Legal team's intranet page to communicate with staff

What’s offered

• Generous annual leave allowance
• NHS pension scheme
• Flexible working opportunities
• Discounts at local shops and restaurants
• Access to two on-site nurseries
• Discounted public transport
• Reward and recognition scheme
• Health and wellbeing initiatives