Legal Counsel - Health

• Provide expert, authoritative and pragmatic legal advice on complex healthcare matters, including urgent and highly sensitive issues affecting patients, clinicians and the organisation.
• Manage a portfolio of the most complex, high risk and high profile healthcare legal matters.
• Lead on difficult and contentious inquests, including preparing witnesses, developing case strategy, undertaking advocacy and making legal submissions on behalf of the Trusts
• Provide senior legal oversight of complex and high value clinical negligence claims, scrutinising evidence and advice and applying constructive challenge where appropriate.
• Advise senior clinicians, managers and executive colleagues on emerging legal and reputational risks.
• Advise across areas including mental capacity, mental health, deprivation of liberty, complex discharge and other healthcare law issues affecting adults and older children.
• Develop effective relationships with key external stakeholders including Coroners and Coroners' Officers, NHS Resolution, Counsel, external solicitors, the Official Solicitor, Police and local authorities.
• Provide professional leadership, supervision and line management to lawyers within the Healthcare Legal Services team.
• Support learning from claims, inquests and legal advice, ensuring themes and risks are identified and appropriately escalated.
• Assist with the delivery of legal training across the organisation.
• Deputise for General Counsel as required.

Essential

• Qualified Solicitor or Barrister with extensive post qualification experience in healthcare law (or equivalent experience gained pre-qualification)
• Current practicing certificate or registration

Essential

• Experience working as a senior lawyer at a large, complex and dynamic healthcare organisation
• Line management and supervision experience of more junior staff including other qualified solicitors

Essential

• Extensive working knowledge of civil litigation (including but not limited to clinical negligence and personal injury) and Civil Procedure Rules, Coroners' Inquests and related legislation, other relevant law and precedent within the healthcare legal field including Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards etc.
• Good knowledge of legal precedent relating to Coronial inquests
• Experience in understanding and evaluating commercial contracts and situations and providing advice in respect of indemnity and contractual risk

Essential

• Proficient in use of Microsoft 365 applications
• Excellent communication (both written and verbal) and interpersonal skills with a wide range of staff, able to adjust communication style appropriately depending on audience
• Able to plan and manage workload to achieve deadlines, able to multi-task and juggle many competing priorities in a demanding environment
• Able to understand and assimilate very complicated medical and legal information and communicate this effectively to different stakeholders
• Able to persuade and negotiate
• Enhanced advocacy skills to include difficult and highly sensitive inquests where a client Trust is at risk of causative criticism and/or before a jury
• Excellent command of English language including excellent expression, spelling and grammar
• Ability to adjust and adapt depending on the evolving requirements of the role, willingness to learn to develop