Head of Personal Injury and Litigation

The Opportunity 

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a well-known top 100 law firm as the Head of Personal Injury and Litigation (Scotland) and part of their UK Leadership Team. 

Our client is a national, award winning firm with an enviable performance and growth reputation in the market. Due to continued growth and expansion, both organic as well as well as through recent partnerships and acquisitions, they are looking to recruit an experienced Solicitor/Partner to grow their offering in Scotland.

This is a crucial leadership appointment where the Partner appointed will have the exciting and crucial responsibilities of growing the team and implementing a new and effective operating model to which a significant portfolio of existing work can continue to be developed and serviced.  

This role is responsible for managing a significant personal caseload of Claimant injury pre-litigated and litigated claims across a variety of personal injury including: 

• Personal Injury 
• Accidents at work 
• Serious and catastrophic injury 
• Road traffic accidents 
• Bike accidents 
• Fatal accidents 
• Clinical Negligence  

As a member of the Executive within the wider group, this role is also responsible for leading the client relationship management / business development efforts as required within the portfolio of insurers, partners and referrers and support the building of a high performing culture and colleague engagement by creating stand out operational leadership on managing talent, team development, mentoring, sharing best practices and innovations.  

As a member of the leadership team UK wide, and reporting directly to the Head Office Managing Partner in England, the role will also involve setting and executing the team strategy, lead on managing performance and growth of the office in Scotland. 

Responsibilities: 

• Develop and lead the Scottish corporate legal strategy. 
• Ensure that existing contracts operate within expectations and identify opportunities to optimise profitability. 
• Demonstrate an effective, client focussed and innovative approach to dealing with claims. 
• Provide the Group with guidance on Scottish legal, regulatory & key macro developments. 
• Oversight and management of caseloads.  
• Oversee the full employment lifecycle including recruitment, reward, development and engagement of colleagues. 
• Contribute at a senior level to the Group Technical Advisory Group which sets case management strategy. 
• Provide ongoing technical support on matters for more junior fee-earners. 
• Ensure personal legal knowledge is kept up to date and new advancements are communicated to the wider team. 
• Maintain proper corporate interactions with relevant regulatory bodies.  

Assisting management: 

• Develop and implement a supervision structure that promotes trading performance and adequately mitigates trading & compliance risks 
• Attend regular one-to-one meetings with the Senior Partner to report on departmental priorities and financial performance as necessary. 
• Provide supervision of matters for more junior fee-earners, sign off work as and when required. 
• Ensure appropriate allocation of fee-earning matters within the team – regularly assess capacity of fee-earners and delegate work effectively where required. 
• Ensure business value through effective cost management. 

Client development: 

• Create and nurture a culture of customer service excellence and accountability for our customers and take an active lead in managing the client experience.  
• Attend client meetings where necessary. 
• Engage in high-level client relationship contact and development. 
• Report regularly on client development figures to the Group. 

You will: 

• Solid background at Senior Associate or Partner level currently. 
• Be a transformational leader and ideally, have at least six years’ post qualification experience in dealing with personal injury, or similar litigation matters 
• Ability to move between a strategic and tactical mindset. 
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal 
• Have an excellent academic background 
• Possess exceptional client care skills 
• Have excellent knowledge of IT systems and processes 
• Be a team player and able to get on with and lead others 
• Possess excellent leadership, coaching and mentoring skills 
• Have a self-starting, client focused and entrepreneurial attitude to business growth 

For more information and to apply, please send your CV and covering letter to Michael Dickson and Rebecca Little at applications@fwbparkbrown.com. For an initial confidential discussion, please contact our Edinburgh office on 0131 539 7087.