Costs Draftsperson / Paralegal

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 500 lawyers and legal professionals based in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: property, corporate services, litigation and private client advisory.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

Our Costs Team provides specialist advice to legal professionals across the firm’s Litigation Division and externally to individuals and multinational corporations.

Our team has a wide experience of court Litigation from County Court through all appellate levels and English Arbitration predominately LMAA and LCIA.

Whilst our work is predominately in Civil Litigation Costs we also work closely with our Social Housing, Contentious Probate and Regulatory/ Defence Teams.  

The depth and range of expertise means the team can work together on complex matters on cost effective terms, providing our clients with true value for money.

Birketts is recruiting for an ambitious, driven and forward-thinking Costs Draftsperson/ Costs Paralegal to come and join our growing Costs Team on a permanent basis. The role can be based either from our modern office in Ipswich town centre, situated 5 minutes’ walk from the train station or our recently refurbished Norwich office also a short walk from the train station. The possibility of remote working for part of the week, may also be considered.

You will be given early responsibilities, with the opportunity to manage your own small caseload (and fee-earn alongside the experts). 

You will provide professional, proactive, high level legal support to the Costs Team.

• Drafting Statements of Costs for Court hearings
• Preparing costs budgets (Precedent H) and budget discussion reports (Precedent R)
• Assessing opponent’s costs, advising client on settlement parameter and negotiating with opponent
• Assisting with and preparing bills of costs or points of dispute for detailed assessment proceedings
• Working to deadlines
• Maintaining accurate time-costing procedures
• Ensuring compliance with file management
• Assisting with administrative tasks.

Professional Skills:

• To immediately clarify instructions from fee earners and the client should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit;
• To respond to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally and take accurate telephone messages(name/number/company), passing them on to the relevant fee earners etc. immediately;
• To provide full support to fee earners in the full range of activities that are performed and to carry out any other duties as reasonably requested.

General Approach

• Show initiative when responding to queries and actively try to seek solutions to problems;
• To support and build working relationships with the Costs Team as well as other members of the wider Litigation Division;
• To effectively liaise with staff from other departments and external contacts as required.

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a dynamic and growing team dealing with high quality and varied Costs work.

We are looking for:

• Experience of working within a law firm or professional office environment preferable.
• Relevant experience of costs litigation an advantage but not essential.
• Excellent attention to detail together with analytical and organisational skills
• Committed team player who can adapt well to new challenges.
• Ability to use own initiative and show sound judgment
• Excellent computer/technical skills in particular working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite of software including Outlook, Excel and Word
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Ability to communicate with colleagues at all levels of seniority and liaise effectively with other internal departments and external contacts
• A flexible, highly motivated, proactive and ‘can do’ working style
• Commitment to ongoing learning and development.

We are committed to recruiting individuals on merits of suitability for each role, on the basis of qualifications and experience. All applications are treated fairly and equally regardless of sexual orientation, race, disability, religious beliefs and any other protected characteristic, ensuring that there are equal opportunities at all stages of the recruitment process.

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share / Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance   - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid ESG day (Environmental, Social and Governance)
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Eye Care Voucher
• Agile Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy