About this role
Job summary
We are seeking an exceptional lawyer to join our team as Legal Counsel (Health). Working within a developing NHS in-house legal service, you will advise on complex, sensitive and often urgent legal issues arising from the delivery of healthcare.
Alongside your own complex caseload, you will provide leadership and supervision to the Healthcare Legal Services team and help us continue to develop a proactive and high performing Legal Services function that best supports the Trusts we represent.
Main duties of the job
As Legal Counsel you will
- 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.
About us
NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group (UHL Group) was formed on 1 November 2024, born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our communities.
We are one of the largest employers in region, with over 18,900 colleagues who are dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.
For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services that extend to more than two million people in the North West.
We operate from five hospital sites: Aintree University Hospitalis the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside, and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospitalis home to several elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospitalprovide specialist services incardiothoracic surgery,cardiology and respiratory medicine, both in the hospital and out in the community.
Liverpool Women's Hospitalspecialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK's largest single site maternity hospital each year. TheRoyal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single en-suite bedrooms and mainly focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification which sets out the main responsibilities of the role.
Provision of legal advice on a wide range of queries affecting our NHS Trust clients and staff members, sometimes in urgent and time-critical situations, requiring high level of knowledge and analytical skills and ability to communicate contentious, complex and sensitive issues clearly.
Management of a caseload of clinical negligence claims including high value birth injury (Obstetric) matters. Review and scrutinise expert reports and advice from panel solicitors, applying challenge and feedback as appropriate.
Management of a caseload of the most complex, difficult and high risk inquest matters. To advise, prepare and support members of staff who are required to give evidence. Attend inquests as the Trust's representative, liaising with families or other IP legal representatives, conducting witness examination as required and making formal legal submissions to HM Coroner as appropriate.
Review of commercial contracts, SLAs and agreements to identify areas of risk and advise Trust appropriately.
Production of reports for, and attendance at, senior Trust meetings as required.
Deputise for General Counsel in their absence across all matters.
Oversees delivery within Healthcare Legal Services including planning and tracking of workloads and appropriate escalation to General Counsel.
Line management, supervision and mentoring of the Legal Services team (Healthcare) including direct line management of other solicitors.
When submitting your application please confirm whether you have used a generative AI tool (for example, Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT) in preparing your application and, if so, briefly describe how you used it.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Qualified Solicitor or Barrister with extensive post qualification experience in healthcare law (or equivalent experience gained pre-qualification)
- Current practicing certificate or registration
Desirable
- Masters degree in Healthcare or Medical Law
Experience
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
Knowledge
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
Desirable
- Risk management systems including Datix and InPhase
Skills
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
Other
Essential
- Rights of Audience in Civil and Coronial Courts
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Aintree
Liverpool
L9 7AL
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.liverpoolft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)