Environmental Health Practitioner / Senior Paralegal - Litigation

Job Code: 26204/SH

Practice Area: Employment, Pensions & Regulatory

Recruitment Partner: Samantha Houghton

Office: Leeds

We are one of Europe's most innovative Law firms as voted by the Financial Times.

We have won numerous awards, including being independently ranked as 1 of the top employers for working families, as well as being in the top 2 law firms for employee satisfaction.

With offices nationwide and overseas, we are growing and are looking for top talent to come on board and be part of our success.

The Regulatory Compliance and Investigations team is looking for an experienced Environmental Health Practitioner to work as a Senior Paralegal. We require an officer who will thrive and meet the challenge of working within a highly motivated area, specialising in food and health and safety. You will be a qualified Environmental Health Practitioner, Health and Safety qualifications would be an advantage. Current knowledge of Food Safety and Health and Safety legislation is essential.

The national team is led by Steffan Groch (Chair of Health and Safety Lawyers Association) and deals with high profile and technically challenging cases. The team has acted on a number of influential reported cases including clarifying the law in terms of how to interpret the legal concept of risk. The team is recognised as a leading specialist in the defence of corporate manslaughter. In addition to its core H&S expertise the team also supports clients on a broad range of regulatory matters including food safety, product safety and Environmental (amongst others).

This role will involve supporting the senior fee earners who advise and represent clients across the full regulatory compliance spectrum. The team represents clients faced with investigations and prosecutions involving the Health & Safety Executive, Environment Agency, local authorities (trading standards and environmental health) Police and Office of Fair Trading across the full spectrum of regulatory specialisms including corporate manslaughter, health and safety, fire safety, environmental, food safety, trading standards, consumer protection, professional and disciplinary, bribery and corruption and proceeds of crime.

Clients are supported through all of the legal issues that arise with the context of regulatory compliance including advising on regulatory inspections and challenging the actions of regulators, requests for interviews under caution or statements, compliance with and appeals against statutory enforcement notices, prosecutions and court proceedings including coroner's inquests, crisis management, product recall and managing disputes or incidents with a regulatory dimension. They assist organisations with internal investigations associated with regulatory challenges and interventions. Advice is also given on regulatory risk and strategic legal compliance issues in order to avoid an investigation or prosecution, including risk management support, director's duties, crisis management, accident impact and response, audit, training and coaching.

We are seeking applications from enthusiastic and driven candidates with suitable experience of operating within H&S regulation. The candidate should be EHORB/EHRB/REHIS registered. Candidates should able to demonstrate a keen interest in handling a wide variety of interesting and challenging regulatory work. We are looking for a team player with strong communication skills and attention to detail as well as commercial acumen.

Main function of job

To progress cases, advise clients and deliver results within required time frames, both as a fee earner in their own right and as a support to the partners and senior fee earners. To provide the highest service level to external clients, to provide and maintain management information under the terms of client service level agreements.

Relationships

Responsible to: Line manager/Partners

Liaison with: Employees at all levels within DWF and Clients

Main Duties
Understand client requirements and manage cases / non contentious advice in line with service level agreements and best practice. Deal with a caseload of H&S regulatory matters as well as assisting the team. Analyse risk and further develop sound judgement enabling the justification of decisions to clients internally and externally. Prioritise work effectively and maximise efficiency and ensure client service level agreements and court deadlines are met. Achieve time recording targets split between chargeable and investment time in any one financial year. Understand the individual role in the context of the wider business and pro-actively seek to contribute to increased efficiency in developing a workload appropriate to level of technical and legal knowledge. Build working relationships internally and externally in order to develop business networks and create a solid understanding of the Firm's direction and client needs. To ensure that client relationships are maintained at all times and developed where possible, supporting client development initiatives / events as appropriate. Develop increased levels of technical and commercial knowledge via training or supervised working practices. Use of the Case Management system and use of standard documentation wherever appropriate. Record all time accurately. Follow all the Firm's policies and procedures. Ensure confidentiality is maintained at all times.
The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at DWF

Nurturing talent is very important to us. We are committed to equal opportunities in all areas of work and business. We want people to achieve their best, which will positively impact on our clients and communities in which we live and work. At DWF we empower people to be themselves within an inclusive and supportive environment, enabling everyone to achieve their full potential in line with their abilities and career aspirations.

Disability Support

As an inclusive employer, DWF wants to see every candidate performing at their best. Please log in to Clear Talents at to tell us what reasonable adjustments you may need and to discover how we might improve your recruitment experience, examples of reasonable adjustments could include: additional time for exercises, a hearing induction loop, a request for information in an alternative format. DWF are committed to an ongoing programme of improvements to provide access to all.

To apply, please click 'apply now' and provide the job reference number 26204/SH

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email Samantha Houghton
on .

Salary: . Date posted: 22/03/2017