Job summary
- Main area
- Legal Services
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 318-26-T0687
- Employer
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
- Town
- Gloucester
- Salary
- £57,528 - £64,750 (pa, pro rata if part-time)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 10/11/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 20/11/2026
Employer heading
Senior Lawyer, Band 8a
Band 8a
At Gloucestershire Hospitals, our people are at the heart of everything we do. As the county’s largest employer, we are proud to provide high-quality acute, elective, and specialist services to more than 650,000 people across our county. Our care is delivered across Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General and Stroud Maternity Hospital.
With over 9,000 employees representing more than 95 nationalities, bringing together a mix of cultures and experiences to the care that we deliver. Whether you’re beginning your NHS journey or looking to take the next step in your career, this is an exciting time to join us. We’re investing heavily in innovation, research, and transformation, with more than 100 active clinical studies and major developments underway across our hospitals.
We take pride in working as one team, driven by a shared ambition to grow, develop, and continually improve. Every contribution is valued and by combining our collective strengths, we support not only our diverse communities but one another. You can expect a warm, supportive culture and colleagues who are passionate about teamwork, professional development and delivering exceptional care. We offer structured development programmes, mentoring and leadership opportunities to help you progress in your career.
We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from a comprehensive package that includes flexible working opportunities, generous annual leave, the NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, local discounts, access to on-site nurseries, reduced public transport costs, reward and recognition schemes and a wide range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
Be part of Gloucestershire Hospitals, explore your future with us today.
Job overview
The role of the Senior Lawyer is to support the Legal Services team in the provision of a dedicated in-house legal service in order to mitigate risks and achieve cost savings across the following core areas:
- Claims: management of clinical negligence and third-party claims, in line with NHSR’s schemes. To work closely with clinicians and Trust Divisions to robustly defend claims and protect the interests of the Trust
- Inquests: support and representation of staff in the Coroner’s Court, working closely with local Coroner’s Officers on a large portfolio of inquests
- Healthcare advice: including advice for clinical and non-clinical situations
- Disclosure requests: assisting the Coroner, Police, Local Authority, and any other authorized third party as required. These may be complex proceedings.
- Training: providing internal and external training on core work areas.
The proposed interview date is: 20th November
Main duties of the job
The Senior Lawyer will have experience in one or more of the above detailed core areas managed by the Legal Team.
The Solicitor will be required to undertake the following duties:
1. Clinical Negligence Claims
2. Reporting
3. Third Party Claims
4. Training
5. Inquests
6. Other Court cases
7. Healthcare advice
8. Support to staff
9. Clinical governance and learning
10. Development
11. To participate in the on-call rota for urgent Police requests
12. To Assist with any other reasonable request by the Head of Legal Services, as appropriate
Working for our organisation
We take pride in placing people at the centre of everything we do, working together as a united team. Driven by a shared ambition to continually grow, develop, and learn, we recognise and value every contribution. By combining our experience and skills, we not only support our vibrant, diverse communities, but also support one another.
With a team of over 9,000 employees, we are proud to be the largest employer in Gloucestershire and rank among the top 10 largest Trusts in the South West region. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities and the chance to gain valuable experience in one or both of our innovative hospitals.
As well as generous annual leave allowance, you will have access to the excellent NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, access to two on-site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We are looking for a Senior Lawyer who shares our passion to support staff in the delivery of outstanding healthcare and demonstrates the Trust’s values to achieve that aim.
We recognise that working in-house is a niche role and would be keen to hear from candidates with relevant experience who have an interest in developing a fulfilling career in the NHS. We pride ourselves on providing all our advice and inquest representation in-house where possible, being accessible to all Trust staff for advice and support, and for our ability to get the best outcome on claims.
Additional Contact Details
Additional contact number: 0300 422 3160
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Law degree or equivalent
- Qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive with current appropriate legal experience
- Strong evidence of continuing personal and professional development
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of Managing Claims; clinical negligence claims would be advantageous
- Experience in any of the other core areas (inquests, healthcare advice, other court cases, disclosure)
Desirable criteria
- Experience of reporting and analysing data to demonstrate trends and learning
- Ability to supervise junior members of staff
- Experience of managing third party claims, including employers' and public liability claims
- Experience of working in-house for a large NHS organisation
- Knowledge of medical terminology from working with clinicians in an NHS environment
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable case management experience
- Ability to work collaboratively within an in-house legal team working across sites
- Experience of managing competing priorities in a stressful environment, displaying resilience
- High attention to detail
- Reliable point of contact for clinicians who require support
- Displays initiative in offering solutions and being keen to learn
- Displays initiative and a willingness to learn, alongside the drive to independently take forward a project for which they will have responsibility
- Ability to adapt to assist with other core areas of work, if required
Desirable criteria
- Interest in strengthening reporting provision on core areas and analysing data to demonstrate added value
- Interest in developing the Legal team’s intranet page as a means of reliable, informative communication with staff
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Caroline Pennels
- Job title
- Head of Legal Services
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 422 3555
- Additional information
Additional contact number: 0300 422 3160
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