Solicitor - Housing Management - North London

Morgan Hunt currently require a Solicitor - Housing Management for Housing Trust based in North London on a temporary basis.

Pay Rate: £63.57ph; Hours: 35 hrs Mon to Fri - 9am and 5pm - Hybrid 2 days office based; Location: North London; Duration: 6 month ongoing contract.

About the Role

Leading, and empowering a team to effectively deliver first class legal services improving business and customer outcomes whilst minimising risk and spend.

You will be a voice to the business on legal matters, particularly in housing management issues and associated legal risk, building great relationships with the operational teams in the process. You'll take ownership of cases, working collaboratively to drive them to conclusion.

Duties

• Lead and mentor a team of paralegals to ensure assigned casework is managed effectively and to high quality.
• Identify career progression, support and training needs in your team and put in place appropriate training and learning plans.
• Swiftly address performance and conduct issues in line with trust policy.
• Monitor your team's caseloads to ensure performance indicators are met. Lead on business reporting as required.
• Ensure cases are managed in accordance with practice management standards and procedures set for the team and report on compliance.
• Ensure a consistent, collaborative and visible service is being delivered during busy periods. Appropriately manage resources where staff are absent.
• Manage your own caseload of legal cases as required, providing specialist advice and to support the overall capacity of your team.
• Ensure high risk legal cases are flagged and prioritised. Anticipate risks to the organisation and propose mitigations.
• Work collaboratively with relevant teams on disrepair cases that present a risk to the organisation.
• Build and maintain relationships with third party panel solicitors. Ensure cases referred are managed in accordance with contract agreements and in line with trusts values.
• Manage legal spend in accordance with budget and matrix manage operational teams in order to have ownership of legal spend. To this end, maximise cost effectiveness through an evaluation framework weighing up risk and deciding when to settle cases and when to utilise panel solicitors.

Skills & Experience

Qualified Solicitor of England and Wales, with a valid Practising Certificate to enable the person in post to:

1. Undertake reserved activities as defined by the Legal Services Act 2007.
2. Be responsible for the supervision of members of the team who are not qualified to undertake reserved activities.

• PQE of at least 2 years.
• Experience of working within a social housing legal department in private practice, a housing association or local authority.
• Expert knowledge of housing law, landlord & tenant legislation, and litigation processes.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Strategic thinking with a focus on risk management and compliance.
• Ability to manage complex caseloads and deliver under pressure.
• Proficiency in using legal databases, case management systems and Microsoft Office suite.

Morgan Hunt is a multi-award-winning recruitment Business for interim, contract and temporary recruitment and acts as an Employment Agency in relation to temporary vacancies. Morgan Hunt is an equal opportunities employer, job suitability are assessed on merit in accordance with their skills, qualifications and abilities to perform the relevant duties required in a particular role.