Job Description
Company: Medical Protection Society
Job Title: Legal Adviser – (Healthcare Regulatory Solicitor)
Location: Leeds, United Kingdom
Salary: Very Competitive + Bonus
CapeClarke is exclusively retained by Medical Protection Society with regards to its search for a new Healthcare Regulatory Solicitor (Legal Adviser) for its newly refurbished office in Central Leeds.
About the Firm
Medical Protection Society are the world’s leading member-owned, not-for-profit protection organisation for doctors, dentists, and healthcare professionals.
Founded in 1892, they exist to protect and support the professional interests of almost 300,000 members around the world, helping them to understand and navigate the ongoing challenges of modern practice. Today they proudly support members in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
Their in-house experts can assist members with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that can arise from their professional practice. This can include assistance with clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests, and fatal accident inquiries.
At the MPS their philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. They do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, e-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures, and presentations. They also actively campaign for regulatory and legal reforms that benefit members and the wider healthcare professions.
The primary duties of the Legal Adviser (Healthcare Regulatory Solicitor) are as follows:
They are looking to add a further Legal Adviser (a qualified and practising solicitor, barrister or Chartered Legal Executive) to their Cases Legal Team in Leeds.
The Cases Legal Team provides legal advice and representation to MPS members in a range of non-claims matters, primarily in relation to Healthcare Regulatory cases (GMC, GDC and NMC), NHS Trust disciplinary proceedings and Inquests within England and Wales. Given the potential impact of these cases on a member’s career and reputation, they are focussed on providing the most expert, trusted, and valued service. The work is plentiful, varied and intellectually stimulating with excellent opportunities for professional development.
They work collaboratively and as part of a multi-disciplinary case management team that includes Medicolegal Consultants (MLCs) and Dentolegal Consultants (DLCs), all of whom are qualified medical or dental practitioners.
Aside from casework, all in the team are empowered to develop broader commercial awareness and skills that may involve participating in training, project work and key stakeholder engagement.
Main Responsibilities:
The Legal Adviser is responsible for providing an internal legal resource for the handling of non-claims case types to include healthcare regulatory (GMC, GDC etc.) matters, inquests and Trust disciplinary cases.
This includes the provision of advice to members and internal stakeholders; preparing cases for hearings; and, where appropriate, representing or instructing Counsel to represent their members at hearings before committees, tribunals and coroners.
As a Legal Adviser you will be responsible for managing your own caseload which is likely to be comprised of mostly GMC, GDC and / or inquest matters. You will work alongside and be supported by Legal Assistants in progressing your cases, which will require you to delegate and supervise the completion of tasks effectively.
You will report to and be line managed by a Lead Legal Adviser, who provides technical and operational management for Legal Advisers and Legal Assistants within the team.
Ideal Candidate:
This role would suit a practising solicitor, barrister or Chartered Legal Executive with a minimum of 5 years PQE experience in managing a caseload of healthcare regulatory, inquest and / or disciplinary cases; ideally on behalf of a healthcare professional. Experience of doing your own advocacy at inquests would be a plus, as would be experience of representing healthcare professionals in Trust disciplinary (MHPS) cases.
We are looking for a strong communicator to interface with a range of stakeholders; someone who operates with tact and empathy, and always in the best interest of their members. Excellent time management skills are essential, as the nature of the work will often involve working to tight deadlines and without compromising on quality of service.
Using your commercial and risk thinking, you will seek to determine the most cost-effective way to see a case through to resolution. Although you will work with a large degree of autonomy, you shall be supported to succeed every step of the way by a fantastic team.
For a confidential discussion about this opportunity at Medical Protection Society, please contact Craig Heywood at our exclusively retained Director, CapeClarke Legal Recruitment, on 07990068183 or by email to craig.heywood@capeclarke.com. All direct or third party CVs or enquiries will be directed to CapeClarke.