Senior Solicitor

Leek Wootton

Permanent

Full Time

£58,431.00 - £62,195.00

To provide legal advice and representation to Warwickshire Police officers and staff on a range of operational matters, including litigation and advocacy (including Magistrates, County and Higher Courts).

You will be responsible for conduct of a range of legal matters, including operational advice, civil preventative orders, civil litigation, police property law, civil disclosure, applications in the family court regarding disclosure and judicial reviews.

Main Responsibilities

• To provide timely, comprehensive legal advice across a wide range of practice areas including operational matters and civil litigation.
• Management of own caseload and court commitments.
• To support and represent the Force at legal hearings including Magistrates, Crown, County Courts and Inquests and other Tribunals as required.
• To attend meetings as required, whilst promoting productive working relationships with other teams and departments and outside stakeholders, including external agencies, courts and tribunals and other partners.
• To ensure both yourself and the wider team comply with the In-House Claims Handling Agreement in place with the insurers on civil claims, to specifically ensure reserves and notifications are up to date and accurate and to play a key role in insurance audits to maintain a positive relationship with the insurers.
• To maintain the necessary standards of professional behaviour under the Police Code of Ethics and the SRA/Bar Council and maintaining Continuing Professional Development.
• To undertake other duties commensurate with the nature, level of responsibility and grading of this post, as required.

Special Conditions

The duties of this post:

• Have been designated as ‘Politically Sensitive’ under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (as amended).
• Requires travel across the force area and to court, as required.
• Includes some exposure to disturbing/unpleasant images or tasks e.g. Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPO) and Sexual Risk Order (SRO) applications and Inquest work
• Advocacy

Knowledge

Person Specification

Essential

• Qualified solicitor with practising certificate for England and Wales or Barrister, with at least 5 years post qualification experience.
• Law Degree
• Rights of Audience
• Knowledge of a range of legal disciplines to include –
• Police operational law
• Civil Preventative Orders (e.g. SHPO, SRO, Closure Orders, Stalking Protection Orders)
• Some criminal law,
• Information Management,
• Proceeds of Crime Act (forfeiture and account freezing orders)

Desirable

• General litigation
• Civil litigation: including significant knowledge and experience in the conduct and management of public liability claims (claims for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment, assault/battery, malicious prosecution, misfeasance and Human Rights), and of the Civil Procedure Rules
• Police Conduct Regulations
• Judicial Review

Experience

• Significant experience of advising on a wide range of legal matters;
• Demonstrable experience of advocacy skills
• Experience of problem solving;
• Experience of managing and prioritising own caseload within a legal team environment

Key Skills

• Exceptional communication and influencing/negotiating skills, including strong advocacy and presentation skills;
• Able to deal with conflict to reach a satisfactory resolution while maintaining strong working relationships
• Ability to work calmly and professionally under pressure and to tight deadlines, demonstrating a flexible and agile approach;
• Ability to use own initiative and work largely unsupervised;
• Ability to mentor and develop others within the team
• Competent in the use of IT including Microsoft packages