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Solicitors Consultant

Job description

Job Role: - Solicitor Consultant

The Solicitor Consultant will join our clients Commercial Team, in a Directorate within the Organisation, which provides specialist legal advice to the Health and Social Care sector in Northern Ireland across an extensive range of areas and projects; supporting our clients to deliver and develop services required within the health and social care environment.

The Commercial Team is currently made up of an Assistant Chief Legal Adviser, 8 Solicitor Consultants, 1 Solicitor and support staff. This is an experienced and dynamic team which works within a supportive team environment allowing its members to develop and excel in providing specialist legal advice to our client base.

The position provides an exciting opportunity for the post holder to become involved in transformative work projects within the Health and Social care setting having a direct impact on the services provided to the NI population.

The post holder will provide timely specialist legal advice, assistance, and representation for clients in contracting, procurement of goods and services, and all commercial law matters.

Examples of some of the major programmes/ projects we provide advice to include.

IT Programmes/Projects.

  • Encompass -This programme was established to facilitate the digitally enabled transformation of our client’s service.
  • There are a number of ongoing projects in respect of IT solutions for services such as the NI Picture Archiving and Communications System and Laboratory Information Management System and there are a host of IT projects being planned for the Health Service over the next coming years.

Major procurement projects in;

  • Health Care; e.g. the Acute Elective Care PDPS.
  • Social Care; e.g. Domiciliary Care Services.
  • Clinical/non-clinical goods and services.

Other Commercial matters;

  • Large scale construction projects; contractual and contentious issues.
  • Pharma related matters including governance and contractual matters.

(Please note the above is not an exhaustive list).

He/she will provide these services in accordance with the standards established by the Chief Legal Adviser and the Organisation’s Service Level Agreements with its clients.

Location: - Belfast

Hours of Work: - Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (37.5 hours per week)

Salary: - £28.01 Per hour

What the role entails:

  • Provide specialist advice in situations of high clinical and commercial sensitivity and urgency including advice concerning end of life decisions, interdicts and judicial review.
  • Ensure that a high quality of legal service is delivered by clients by planning and organising the schedule of his/her own work in accordance with the operational requirements of their own and their Teams’ allocated client base in co-operation with the Chief Legal Adviser, and other Team members and with colleagues in relation to general or specialist group work, using his/her initiative, professional skills and organisational acumen.
  • Will, as required, complete sufficient training and self-development to meet the requirements laid down by the Law Society in terms of Continuous Professional Development.
  • As an Officer of the Court will have a direct individual professional obligation to the courts. The job holder also has direct individual professional responsibility and accountability to the Law Society.
  • Work in close association with Solicitors and support staff within, sharing information and experience and participating in the development of the various sections to enable the Directorate to enhance its expertise and meet present and future demands and expectations of clients in the most efficient and effective way.
  • Participate in lectures, seminars and at Conferences organised by and other bodies speaking to groups of staff in order to develop the knowledge and level of training of staff Board and Agencies in relation to legal topics relevant to our client in Northern Ireland.
  • Provide clients on a regular basis and as requested with accurate legal risk rating assessments in respect of their claims portfolios and estimates of projected settlement and expense values to support clients in the preparation of their annual financial performance budgets.
  • The Solicitor Consultant will assist in the training of administrative staff.
  • The Solicitor Consultant will ensure that staff are treated in accordance with the Organisation’s core values, policies and procedures.
  • The Solicitor Consultant may be required to participate in the Out-of-Hours Duty Rota, at the discretion of Senior Management.
  • The Solicitor Consultant will participate as required by the Chief Legal Adviser in management issues in particular the Directorate’s Quality Initiatives.
  • The Solicitor Consultant will participate in the Directorate’s Performance Management procedures.
  • The Solicitor Consultant will participate where necessary in job rotation arrangements/movement within the Directorate as required by service delivery requirements.
  • The Solicitor Consultant will undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time by the Chief Legal Adviser.

Essential Experience:

Hold a university degree or relevant professional qualification in Communications, Public Relations, or Public Affairs

AND

1A. A minimum of 3 years’ experience of developing and implementing communication, public affairs, and associated strategies.

OR

1B. 5 years’ experience of developing and implementing communication, public affairs, and associated strategies.

AND

2. A minimum of three years’ experience of working with and developing positive relations with the media.

3. A minimum of three years’ experience at management level, to include the management of people.

4. Demonstrate evidence of ability to performance manage large programmes of work, including evidence of setting and meeting targets and working to deadlines.