Solicitor/Associate - Asbestos & Occupational Disease

We’re a national law firm with a local reach. Our philosophy is ‘we're legal and financial experts that care’ – something you’ll find in the way we work with our clients and how we support our teams. But we’re more than just a law firm – we’re a team of people working together to help individuals and businesses navigate life’s ups and downs. Working here you’ll feel a part of our friendly and inclusive environment.

We’ll value you for who you are and what you bring. We support each other and push boundaries to achieve incredible things and make a real difference to our clients and communities.

We're always looking to support our colleagues to work in a way that works best for them and everyone else, including our clients, the business and the regulators. Please speak to a member of our Recruitment and Onboarding team for more information.

Your Role and What You'll Be Doing

We are currently looking for a talented Solicitor or Associate to Join our Asbestos and Occupational Disease team in Birmingham.

Our Asbestos and Occupational Disease team is a large and well-established team that deals with occupational disease claims, which includes a significant number of asbestos related disease claims (mesothelioma, asbestosis and pleural thickening), representing clients across the West Midlands.

You’ll join Iain Shoolbred who has specialised in asbestos related claims for more than a decade and who has a particular expertise in mesothelioma claims. Iain also heads up a team dealing with claims for pleural thickening and asbestosis and is a specialist in claims for benign asbestos-related illness.

The personal injury teams at Irwin Mitchell don’t just deal with compensation claims. We also work with our clients and their families to ensure all of their rehabilitation needs are met. It’s a unique, bespoke approach that really makes a difference to people whose lives have been turned upside down by injury or occupational illness.

You’ll have the opportunity to get involved in an interesting and diverse caseload, right from the beginning you’ll play a key part in securing justice for our clients and making a real difference in their lives. You’ll have the confidence to hit the ground-running and have the ability to work independently on litigated cases, whilst also supervising junior colleagues.

The role is based out of our Birmingham office but is a hybrid role, part of the firm’s ‘flexible by choice’ policy. The team currently has 2 consecutive anchor days per week in the office, with the remainder being home working.

Your role will involve:

• Working on litigated cases and investigations on asbestos related disease claims.
• Taking instructions from clients and giving legal advice, including obtaining evidence and pursuing litigation, to achieve appropriate resolutions for the clients.
• Developing relationships with nurses, other medical professionals and victim support groups to provide an exceptional client experience and generate new cases.
• Managing your own caseload, while also assisting the Partners and senior team members on High Value cases, and providing supervision to junior members of staff.

About You

• Qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive with demonstrable experience ideally within multi-track asbestos related disease claims, if not then within wider disease or personal injury claims.
• Experience of handling your own cases, including your own litigated cases.
• A clear enthusiasm for this area of law and a commitment to securing the best outcomes for your clients.
• An ability to work with empathy and integrity.
• Experience in line management and supervision of junior team members.
• An aptitude for business development and a passion for growing strong clients and referrer relationships.
• Demonstrable experience of excellent oral and written communication skills, including, producing quality drafting and undertaking in-depth research to assist with client matters.

This role would best suit a qualified Solicitor or Legal Executive with around 4 plus years PQE although we are happy to consider applications outside of this if you believe you can add value to the role.

Our Benefits - What We Can Offer You

• 25 days holidays as standard plus bank holidays - You can ‘buy’ up to 35hrs of extra holiday too.
• Generous and flexible pension schemes.
• Volunteering days – Two days of volunteering every year for a cause of your choice (fully paid)
• Westfield Health membership, offering refunds on medical services alongside our Aviva Digital GP services.

We also offer a wide range of well-being initiatives to encourage positive mental health both in and out of the workplace and to make sure you’re fully supported. This includes our Flexible by Choice programme which gives our colleagues more choice over a hybrid way of working subject to role, team and client requirements.

We have been ranked in the Best Workplaces for Wellbeing for Large Organisations for 2024!

Our responsible business programmes are fundamental to who we are and our purpose. We’re committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where our colleagues can flourish, and we have established a number of inclusion network groups across our business to support this aim.

Our commitment to Social Responsibility, community investment activity and tackling climate change is a fundamental part of who we are. It’s made up of four strands: Our People, Our Community, Our Environment and Our Pro Bono.

Additional Information

As part of the Irwin Mitchell Group’s on-boarding process all successful applicants are required to complete the group’s employment screening process. This process helps to ensure that all new employees meet our standards in relation to honesty and integrity therefore protecting the interests of the Group, colleagues, clients, partners and other stakeholders.

We carry out pre employment screening to establish your eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record and financial checks ­with our trusted 3rd parties.

The employment screening process will fully comply with Data Protection and other applicable laws.

Irwin Mitchell LLP is an equal opportunity employer.