Legal Costs Team Leader

To lead, motivate and engage a team of Costs Lawyers; mentoring and supporting the team members in the progression of their cases; supporting the delivery of client SLAs, KPIs and MI

Requirements

; facilitating the proactive resolution of costs on a range of Complex Injury claims whilst attaining objectives and targets. The Costs Team Leader should be able to establish strong working relationships within the Costs team; the wider Keoghs business; and with our clients through use of excellent oral skills and succinct written communications. Support and mentoring with the Costs Team Leader’s Personal Development Plan will be provided to enable development in role and career progression.

This role is in the Complex Injury Costs team. The Costs Team Leader will be supported by Lead Lawyer, Yvonne Booth. You will be responsible for your own small caseload, progressing each file from receipt of papers from the Complex Injury team to resolution of costs.

In addition, as team leader, a key part of the role is the leadership, motivation, engagement and technical development of your team members. The role will include: Planning and distributing workload across the team, paying appropriate attention to individual team member’s current capability, to ensure the timely and profitable completion of cases Measuring and reporting on a weekly and monthly basis the financial and performance MI for the team against agreed targets and KPIs ·Conducting team meetings, including disseminating information from operational leadership or departmental meetings to the team and seeking feedback and views from team members Mentoring team members with their technical development through the Costs team’s technical framework, providing supervisory support and regular feedback in 1-2-1 meetings to enable them to attain appropriate financial authority levels and progress in role Consideration and implementation of strategies for effective and robust claims handling against specific claimant firms and CHOs to be able to successfully challenge costs claimed.

Compliance with benchmarks set by Keoghs and by clients whilst driving settlements and ensuring quality of delivery to enable retention on insurer client panels To ensure effective delegation of work to junior team members and paralegals; ensuring more senior team members are fully engaged in the development and technical progression of junior team members; with the Team Leader maintaining oversight to ensure the delegation of work to maximise profitability Effectively deal with complaints through agreed handling processes Work with the Business Unit Director to manage team members according to the firm’s policies and employment laws, ensuring HR procedures are followed To ensure compliance with the SRA Standards & Regulations 2 years’ experience as a minimum in a similar costs draftsperson / negotiator role, either for claimant or defendant, handling own caseload of high value costs claim Degree and/or LPC and/or ALCD Knowledge of current cost case law and insurance litigation practice and process Experience of the Detailed Assessment process including preparing Bills, Schedules of Costs, Budgets, Points of Dispute and considering replies Previous experience of client liaison -taking instructions