Legal Assistant​/Paralegal

Positive Employment is currently recruiting for a Legal Assistant/Paralegal for our client a local government organisation in Lewisham.

The successful candidate will provide maternity cover for the paralegal in the housing and disrepair team.

This role is a 6-12 month contract with the possibility to extend. This role is hybrid working 2 days in the office, 3 from home.Duties and Responsibilities but not limited to:

• Manage a caseload of 40 mixed disrepair and housing cases (supervised by the Principal Lawyer/Senior Lawyer.
  
  Drafting defences, witness statements and application notices, settling claims and dealing with costs issues.
• Attending legal, income and housing management meetings.
• Carry out some administrative tasks including:
  • Ensuring that an accurate log is kept of all existing and new housing and disrepair cases.
  • Arranging for the payment of external invoices.
  • Arranging Counsel for hearings and sending bundles to Counsel.
  • Entering hearing dates into the Legal Housing Calendar.
  • Sharing the monitoring of the dedicated Legal Housing inbox (with the Legal Assistant in the team) to deal with enquiries relating to new and existing cases and assisting external solicitors with clients and escalating matters when necessary.

• A law degree or a graduate diploma in law.
• Previous experience working as part of a housing and disrepair team as a legal assistant/paralegal (Desirable).
• Knowledgeable about relevant housing legislation.
• Previous experience working for a local government organisation.