Senior Solicitor

£58,413.00 - £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).

Location: Leek Wootton

Duration: Permanent

Contract: Full Time

• 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.
• Support and represent the Force at legal hearings including Magistrates, Crown, County Courts and Inquests and other Tribunals as required.
• 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.
• 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.
• Maintain the necessary standards of professional behaviour under the Police Code of Ethics and the SRA/Bar Council and maintaining Continuing Professional Development.
• Undertake other duties commensurate with the nature, level of responsibility and grading of this post, as required.

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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
• Excellent problem solving and decision making skills and demonstrable professional judgement
• Ability to mentor and develop others within the team
• Competent in the use of IT including Microsoft packages