Solicitor (education law) or senior solicitor (DOE)

Job title: Solicitor (education law) or senior solicitor, depending on experience and PQE

Service: Legal practice unit

Reporting to: Head of education law

Salary range: Our salary ranges for solicitors start from £27,750 for one year PQE and from £30,500 for three years' PQE. Our ranges for senior solicitors start from £34,000 for seven years' PQE and from £38,000 for 12 years' PQE. Salary is negotiable depending on experience and ability to provide supervision to junior members of the team. The post holder will also benefit from eligibility for our bonus scheme.

Work pattern: Full-time (However, part-time minimum three days per week will be considered in line with operational need and pay prorated accordingly)

Contract type: Permanent

Coram is the UK's oldest children's charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.

Coram Children's Legal Centre (CCLC) is the UK's specialist centre for children's rights championing access to justice through information and advice, legal practice and representation, policy and strategic litigation. Our legal practice unit provides advice and representation in child and family law, education law, community care law and asylum and immigration law.

Purpose of the role: To provide high quality legal advice, assistance and representation to young people, parents, carers and other client groups through the conduct of education and discrimination law casework.

Main duties and responsibilities:

1. To conduct legal casework in compliance with the legal practice unit’s (LPU) procedures and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) requirements, including:

• Communicating with clients to take instructions
• Providing high quality legal advice in writing and in person to clients
• Representing clients at all stages of their matter including in relation to appeal hearings, judicial reviews and hearings before the county court
• Developing case strategies to assist clients resolve their issues
• Correctly assessing eligibility for and applying for legal aid and ensuring compliance with Legal Aid Agency (LAA) requirements throughout the conduct of a matter
• Liaising with clients, witnesses, counsel, experts, the court and other involved persons in a matter
• Drafting case documents, including pleadings, witness statements, advice letters, instructions to counsel and experts, funding documents such as high costs case plans, instructions to costsdraftspersons, narratives seeking enhancement, representations and appeals against refusal of funding
• Billing privately paying clients where appropriate cases are allocated
• Ensuring file keeping of a high standard in compliance with the LPU’s operating manual

2. To support the head of education law to develop a variety of work for the education law team (ELT), including privately paying matters to complement the teams current legal aid funded work.

3. To provide supervisory support to less experienced fee-earners in the ELT including appraising performance.

4. Where fee-earners are absent, to cover work on their caseloads.

5. To record both chargeable and non-chargeable time and to achieve a monthly chargeable hours target.

6. To meet an annual fee income target, to be monitored on a monthly basis.

7. To undertake other administrative and non-chargeable tasks as required.

8. To keep up to date in all areas of education and discrimination law as it impacts children and young people and to be responsible for disseminating relevant information to other fee-earners.

9. To participate in and contribute generate ideas to CCLC policy meetings and be willing to take forward policy work as required.

10. To give training, present at seminars, workshops or seminars either internally or externally on relevant matters.

11. To recognise and challenge all forms of discrimination and prejudice in the workplace.

12. To treat everyone with respect, dignity and fairness and to acknowledge and celebrate diversity.

13. To maintain an awareness of your own and others’ health and safety and comply with Coram group health and safety policy and procedures.

14. To maintain confidentiality of information; it will be necessary to comply with all requirements related to the Data Protection Act/ General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Qualifications:

1. Be a qualified solicitor with no conditions or restrictions on practicing rights. (E)

2. Experience of supervising the work of others and ability to meet the Legal Aid Agency’s supervisor requirements. (D)

Knowledge, skills and experience:

1. A good level of experience in conducting education law casework matters. (E)

2. Be able to evidence a good past track-record of billing and time recording performance. (E)

3. Be able to work hard, on own initiative and with enthusiasm to deadlines. (E)

4. Be able to deal and work with clients of a wide variety of cultural, ethnic and educational backgrounds and with those who may be vulnerable and have experienced abuse or harm. (E)

5. Be committed to high quality legal casework, advice-giving and client care. (E)

6. Be able to communicate effectively in writing and over the telephone. (E)

7. Be flexible to juggle several competing tasks at the same time and prioritise tasks. (E)

8. Be able to manage a caseload and to run it to a high standard of efficiency and quality. (E)

9. Be able to assist other fee-earners in their work by undertaking steps on their cases. (E)

10. Be able to work within the centre’s policies, procedures and standards(E)

11. Willingness to actively contribute and participate in team meetings, the wider work of the centre and marketing and business development initiatives. (E)

12. Experience in using Microsoft Office, email, the internet and legal research programmes. (E)

13. Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the commercial realities of legal aid funded work and an appetite to develop alternative models of funding. (E)

14. Experience of working in a solicitors’ office, operating under the Lexcel standard. (D)

Behaviours and values:

1. A commitment to children’s human rights and support for CCLC’s aims. (E)

2. Willingness to work flexibly, independently and remotely as well as part of a team in a shared office and, where necessary, outside normal hours. (E)

(E = Essential; D = Desirable)

Please submit your application here.