Chartered Legal Executive/Solicitor

Basis

Full time

Date posted

11/12/2025

Job reference

HJ0416

Background

Our team of expert military solicitors ensure service men and women have access to the specialist advice they need.

The department help military service personnel who need to bring a claim against the Ministry of Defence due to their failure to adequately protect from illness or avoidable injury.

The team advise on a full range of areas, including military deafness and cold and heat injuries.

The role

We are currently looking for a Chartered Legal Executive/Solicitor (1-3 year PQE) to join the military department, particularly focusing on a litigated caseload of multitrack PI claims. The role will be fixed term covering maternity leave.

Duties will include:

• Manage a litigated caseload of multitrack PI claims (industrial disease, RTA, EL/PL, occupiers' liability, product liability) under supervision.
• Run files from pre-action through to settlement or trial, ensuring CPR/Practice Direction and Pre-Action Protocol compliance.
• Take initial instructions, assess liability/causation/quantum, set case strategy, and maintain clear case plans with diarised key milestones.
• Draft and settle core documents: letters of claim/response, claim forms, Schedules/Counter-Schedules of Loss (interim and final) (with counsel where needed), direction questionnaire/draft directions witness statements, application notices/draft orders and instructions to experts/counsel.
• Instruct, brief and manage appropriate experts (medical and non-medical: engineering, employment, forensic accounting), including joint expert arrangements where proportionate.
• Conduct disclosure (giving and requesting), manage inspection, and prepare/maintain trial-ready bundles (including e-bundles).
• Prepare for and attend CMCs/CCMCs/PTRs and interlocutory hearings; handle suitable advocacy on routine applications/directions lists.
• Prepare accurate costs budgets (Precedent H) (with the assistance of costs lawyers where appropriate), budget discussion reports (Precedent R), and conduct costs management; monitor WIP, disbursements and proportionality throughout.
• Deploy ADR effectively: Part 36 strategy, joint settlement meetings and without-prejudice negotiations.
• Pursue interim payments for damages/costs where appropriate; implement and monitor rehabilitation under the Rehabilitation Code and Serious Injury Guide.
• Liaise with defendants/insurers/claims handlers, counsel, experts.
• Identify and resolve procedural, evidential and limitation risks promptly; escalate complex or high-exposure issues to Grade B/A supervisors.
• Ensure funding and costs protection are in place and compliant.
• Maintain meticulous file management on the case management system (time recording, attendance notes, task lists, key date register).
• Deliver high-quality client care: provide clear advice on liability, quantum, litigation risk and settlement/benefits implications.
• Keep up to date with developments in PI (Ogden updates, fixed recoverable costs regime boundaries, discount rate/case law) and share learning with the team.
• Support supervision of trainees/paralegals (file reviews, drafting feedback, allocation of discrete tasks) and contribute to internal know-how.
• Uphold regulatory duties (SRA Standards and Regulations, data protection, confidentiality, conflicts, undertakings, complaints handling).
• Contribute to business development (referrer relationships, networking, articles/webinars) as agreed with the team lead.

The successful candidate will be able to proactively manage their own case load with minimal supervision.

Skills & Qualifications

• Exposure to the claimant litigation process is essential
• Experience of independently managing a case load
• Previous experience of dealing with multitrack PI claims
• Organisation skills
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Excellent client care

Life at Hugh James

We never shy away from a challenge

We are a leading, full-service UK law firm. Since our beginning, we have been led by the things that matter. We care about fighting for the right outcomes. Solving the seemingly unsolvable. Protecting businesses, individuals and livelihoods. Supporting our people, our communities. Safeguarding our planet. Looking for a way forward? At Hugh James, challenges – of all sizes – are readily accepted.

The Hugh James difference

Our law firm has always been guided by the idea that self-belief is just as important as skillset. Our pursuit of righting wrongs and protecting what's important keeps us driving forwards. It's in our roots We won't stop until we find the answers; the outcomes that are needed.

We are focused on the work we do, the business we run, and our culture. Our entrepreneurial spirit has taken us from humble beginnings to a strong presence across the UK with offices in Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton and Plymouth – servicing clients from businesses, individuals and banks to public sector organisations, property companies, education establishments and utilities providers. Our collegiate culture, our forward-looking ethos, our values serve to make us bigger, better, bolder than ever before.

A positive force in the community

Our work with charities on a local and national level plays a huge part in our day-to-day lives. We work with a large range of charities, some of which we support through fundraising, donations, volunteering and others we partner with where our areas of work cross paths. Staff, clients everyone comes together through a shared passion to do good in the community and support those in need.

Some of our benefits on offer include:

Minimum of 25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Two Corporate Social Responsibility days

Birthday day off

Death in service equivalent to twice annual salary

Auto enrolment pension scheme

Hybrid working

Employee Assistance Programme

Discounts for local businesses

Professional fees paid (subject to requirement for your role)

Employee recruitment incentive scheme

Hugh James is an equal opportunities and disability confident committed employer.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this opportunity. If you have questions, please contact Jack Osborne.

We reserve the right to close our vacancies earlier than the given deadline if we receive sufficient applications for the role.