Senior Lawyer, Band 8a

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Gloucester; On-site; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

NHS Pension scheme

Exclusive benefits & flexible working

Two on-site nurseries

Discounts at local shops/restaurants

Job summary

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Senior Lawyer to join our in-house Legal Services team. You will mitigate risk, defend clinical negligence claims, and provide healthcare guidance across NHS sites, including Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General and Stroud Maternity Hospital.

You will work with clinicians and Trust divisions on inquests, disclosure, training, and broader governance.

Qualifications

• Law degree or equivalent.
• Qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive with current appropriate legal experience.
• Strong evidence of continuing personal and professional development.

Responsibilities

• Manage clinical negligence and other claims with in-house legal support.
• Provide healthcare guidance and inquest representation.
• Oversee disclosure requests and training for staff.
• Support staff, governance and learning initiatives within the Legal Team.
• Participate in when required on-call rota for urgent police requests.
• Assist Head of Legal Services with reasonable requests.

Skills

Attention to detail

Collaborative work

Communication

Initiative

Education

Law degree or equivalent

Qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive

Job description

Current jobs at Gloucestershire Hospitals

Site Gloucestershire Royal Hospital Town Gloucester Salary £57,528 - £64,750 (pa, pro rata if part-time) Salary period Yearly Closing 10/11/2026 23:59 Interview date 20/11/2026

At Gloucestershire Hospitals, our people are at the heart of everything we do. As the county’s largest employer, we are proud to provide high-quality acute, elective, and specialist services to more than 650,000 people across our county. Our care is delivered across Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General and Stroud Maternity Hospital.

With over 9,000 employees representing more than 95 nationalities, bringing together a mix of cultures and experiences to the care that we deliver. Whether you’re beginning your NHS journey or looking to take the next step in your career, this is an exciting time to join us. We’re investing heavily in innovation, research, and transformation, with more than 100 active clinical studies and major developments underway across our hospitals.

We take pride in working as one team, driven by a shared ambition to grow, develop, and continually improve. Every contribution is valued and by combining our collective strengths, we support not only our diverse communities but one another. You can expect a warm, supportive culture and colleagues who are passionate about teamwork, professional development and delivering exceptional care. We offer structured development programmes, mentoring and leadership opportunities to help you progress in your career.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from a comprehensive package that includes flexible working opportunities, generous annual leave, the NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, local discounts, access to on-site nurseries, reduced public transport costs, reward and recognition schemes and a wide range of health and wellbeing initiatives.

Be part of Gloucestershire Hospitals, explore your future with us today.

Job overview

The role of the Senior Lawyer is to support the Legal Services team in the provision of a dedicated in-house legal service in order to mitigate risks and achieve cost savings across the following core areas:

• Claims: management of clinical negligence and third-party claims, in line with NHSR’s schemes. To work closely with clinicians and Trust Divisions to robustly defend claims and protect the interests of the Trust
• Inquests: support and representation of staff in the Coroner’s Court, working closely with local Coroner’s Officers on a large portfolio of inquests
• Healthcare advice: including advice for clinical and non-clinical situations
• Disclosure requests: assisting the Coroner, Police, Local Authority, and any other authorized third party as required. These may be complex proceedings.
• Training: providing internal and external training on core work areas.

The proposed interview date is: 20th November

Main duties of the job

The Senior Lawyer will have experience in one or more of the above detailed core areas managed by the Legal Team.

The Solicitor will be required to undertake the following duties:

1. Clinical Negligence Claims
2. Reporting
3. Third Party Claims
4. Training
5. Inquests
6. Other Court cases
7. Support to staff
8. Clinical governance and learning
9. Development
10. To participate in the on-call rota for urgent Police requests
11. To Assist with any other reasonable request by the Head of Legal Services, as appropriate

Working for our organisation

We take pride in placing people at the centre of everything we do, working together as a united team. Driven by a shared ambition to continually grow, develop, and learn, we recognise and value every contribution. By combining our experience and skills, we not only support our vibrant, diverse communities, but also support one another.

With a team of over 9,000 employees, we are proud to be the largest employer in Gloucestershire and rank among the top 10 largest Trusts in the South West region. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities and the chance to gain valuable experience in one or both of our innovative hospitals.

As well as generous annual leave allowance, you will have access to the excellent NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, access to two on-site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We are looking for a Senior Lawyer who shares our passion to support staff in the delivery of outstanding healthcare and demonstrates the Trust’s values to achieve that aim.

We recognise that working in-house is a niche role and would be keen to hear from candidates with relevant experience who have an interest in developing a fulfilling career in the NHS. We pride ourselves on providing all our advice and inquest representation in-house where possible, being accessible to all Trust staff for advice and support, and for our ability to get the best outcome on claims.

Additional contact number: 0300 422 3160

Qualifications

• Law degree or equivalent
• Qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive with current appropriate legal experience
• Strong evidence of continuing personal and professional development

Experience

• Experience of Managing Claims; clinical negligence claims would be advantageous
• Experience in any of the other core areas (inquests, healthcare advice, other court cases, disclosure)
• Experience of reporting and analysing data to demonstrate trends and learning
• Ability to supervise junior members of 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 environment

Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to work collaboratively within an in-house legal team working across sites
• Experience of managing competing priorities in a stressful environment, displaying resilience
• High attention to detail
• Reliable point of contact for clinicians who require support
• Displays initiative in offering solutions and being keen to learn
• Displays initiative and a willingness to learn, alongside the drive to independently take forward a project for which they will have responsibility
• Ability to adapt to assist with other core areas of work, if required
• Interest in strengthening reporting provision on core areas and analysing data to demonstrate added value
• Interest in developing the Legal team’s intranet page as a means of reliable, informative communication with staff

We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.

You will only be contacted by the Recruitment Team via email if you are shortlisted for this post. Please ensure therefore that you check your e-mail account regularly.

IMPORTANT: If you require sponsorship in order to apply for this role, eligibility is subject to your individual circumstances ie. current/previous visa status and the relevant salary threshold. We cannot make that assessment for each individual at this stage, therefore we advise those that may require sponsorship to ensure they have self assessed and thoroughly understood their eligibility using the Home Office guidance here - UK Visas and Immigration - GOV.UK

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

Name Caroline Pennels Job title Head of Legal Services Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0300 422 3555 Additional information

Additional contact number: 0300 422 3160