Head of Costing - Legal

Slater + Gordon Lawyers (S+G) is a leading Australian Personal Injury and Class Actions law firm. Our people are passionate advocates for clients, providing a personal and caring service. For their part, our clients value an expert, tailored service from people they can depend on. We are people caring for people.

We pride ourselves on offering accessible, world class legal services to people from all backgrounds and socio-economic circumstances. We work hard to simplify the legal process for them and provide support and guidance along the way.

At S+G you're exposed to varied and interesting work and the constant opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of everyday people.

S+G employees enjoy a genuine opportunity for professional development in an environment that values and recognises high performance.

If you are motivated, hardworking, and enjoy a fast-paced workplace, then consider a career with us. As a firm committed to promoting social justice, our staff value being part of an inclusive and diverse team. Candidates from all cultural backgrounds and social groups are encouraged to apply for this position.

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S+G acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations peoples today.

Diversity + Inclusion

S+G is committed to creating an inclusive workplace that values diversity and ensures equal opportunities for all. S+G is an equal opportunity employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or other legally protected attributes. We understand that everyone has different needs. If you require reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please let us know in your application.

We now have an exciting and unique opportunity to join our National Personal Injury Division as our Head of Costing. This role will have you responsible for providing expert Legal Costs advice on personal injury related matters nationally, together with, leading a team of Costing professionals and internal Legal Cost Agreements team members to deliver expert advice.

In this role, you will be recognised as a deep subject matter expert with superior case management skills and be a leader in Legal Costing. You will also manage and build the technical capability amongst the lawyer cohort through a formal mentoring program.

We are open to your location, as this position is pivotal to our national personal injury practice groups. With flexible work arrangements in place and office space in either Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane CBD, this role will ideally suit someone with previous experience in a similar role, or someone looking to broaden their skill base into people leadership and development.

Day to day responsibilities will include:

• Being the internal costings expert for Personal Injury matters; including:
  • Expert preparation and management of costs matters including preparing Bills of Costs, legal submissions, Notice of Objection and other legal documents
  • Conducting relevant legal research in respect to assigned matters
• Preparation of reports on costs and preparing advice on projected costs recovery and exposure
• Managing external relationships with costing firms and providers
• Prepare and attend to manual costing of files (from time to time)
• Providing expert advice on issues such as security for costs, the validity of solicitor-client cost agreements and making or accepting of offers to settle the costs dispute
• Negotiate on behalf of the Firm in a costs dispute
• Ensuring compliance with Law Society file management matters at all times
• Appear as an expert for or on behalf of the Firm in court proceedings
• Collaboratively working with Personal Injury Practice Groups to identify process efficiencies and practice management improvements on costing issues
• Managing capacity within the Internal Costings team, including mentoring, settling cost advices, solicitor / client cost applications and advising on engagement of external cost consultants as necessary

Key to your success in this role, the following personal attributes and prior experience will be:

• Experience in a similar role
• Accredited legal costs specialist (highly desirable, but not essential)
• Prior experience or exposure to running a small team (desirable)
• Sound experience and insight into industry, legislative changes and general market awareness
• Ability to gauge and mitigate operational, reputational, financial risk to ensure positive outcomes
• Strong communication skills
• Working well with others

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply directly to Slater and Gordon. We prefer to talk with you personally and are not accepting applications from recruitment agencies.