Job summary
Sherwood Forest Hospitals are seeking a skilled Legal Advisor to manage a varied and complex portfolio of clinical negligence, employers' liability, and public liability claims, while also providing expert support on inquests and wider healthcare legal matters. This role is central to ensuring the Trust meets its legal, regulatory and governance obligations while supporting high-quality patient care.
Key Responsibilities:
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Lead preliminary investigations into clinical negligence claims and inquests, reviewing healthcare records, analysing evidence, and preparing detailed case assessments.
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Identify and support witnesses, take statements, and quality-assure reports to ensure accuracy and consistency.
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Handle highly sensitive information with tact, supporting staff through legal processes and highlighting risk issues to promote learning and safety.
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Manage complex cases proactively, ensuring compliance with deadlines, protocols and NHS Resolution requirements.
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Liaise with NHS Resolution, panel solicitors, coroners, and internal teams to progress claims, inquests and disclosure.
You will bring strong analytical skills, excellent communication, and the ability to manage sensitive and complex legal matters with professionalism and confidence. Experience in healthcare law, claims management or inquests is highly desirable. Apply now to join our team!
Main duties of the job
To understand the role in more detail, please refer to the attached job description and person specification.
About us
We are an award-winning NHS Foundation Trust working alongside health and social care colleagues across the county to provide acute and community healthcare services to more than 420,000 people across Mansfield, Ashfield, Newark and Sherwood, and parts of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.
We put the patient at the heart of everything that we do and it is our aim to make sure that every patient is treated as we would want a member of our own family to be treated. At the same time, we expect our staff to be caring, kind and courteous to each other and to look out for each other. We believe that we are truly a clinically-led organisation.
We are proud that our Trust colleagues have voted us the best acute Trust to work for in the East Midlands for seven years running in the National NHS Staff Survey, while the Care Quality Commission has rated our Trust as 'outstanding' for care and our King's Mill Hospital as the only 'outstanding' NHS-run hospital in the East Midlands.
Not all of our roles are eligible for visa sponsorship. To find out which roles are eligible, please refer to the shortage occupation list found here:
Skilled Worker visa: eligible healthcare and education jobs - GOV.UK
Home Office guidance has changed as of 9th April. Anyone that requires switching visa type may not be eligible for sponsorship even if the role is on the shortage occupation list.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To understand the role in more detail, please refer to the attached job description and person specification.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To understand the role in more detail, please refer to the attached job description and person specification.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive (CILEx) - (We will consider applications from people without the qualification, but they are willing to work towards this within the Trust.)
- Law qualification or equivalent training and experience
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- Specialist training in healthcare/claims/inquest practice
- Advocacy training / Higher Rights (civil) or equivalent experience
Further training
Essential
- Commitment to undertake relevant training and maintain professional competence
Desirable
- Experience of delivering training to multidisciplinary audiences
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience managing a caseload of claims and/or inquests (or demonstrable equivalent experience in a comparable legal/insurance setting)
- Experience analysing complex information and drafting reports, witness statements and correspondence to a high standard
- Experience working to tight deadlines and managing competing priorities
- Experience liaising with a wide range of stakeholders, including clinicians and senior managers
- Experience supporting witnesses at hearings and/or conducting advocacy where appropriate
- Experience supervising, mentoring or supporting junior colleagues
Desirable
- NHS Trust in-house claims/inquests experience
- Experience of committee work and governance reporting
- Experience of service improvement / process redesign
Contractual requirements
Essential
- Ability to travel between Trust sites and external venues as required
- Ability to work flexibly to meet service demands and hearing timetables
- Commitment to confidentiality and compliance with Trust policies and professional standards
Desirable
- Full UK driving licence (if required for role)
Knowledge requirements
Essential
- Detailed understanding of claims and inquest processes within healthcare, including clinical negligence/CNST, EL/PL and Coroner's inquests
- Working knowledge of NHS Resolution guidance/requirements and relevant preaction protocols.
- Understanding of information governance, confidentiality and data protection in a healthcare context.
Desirable
- Knowledge of wider healthcare law issues within remit (e.g., consent, capacity, safeguarding interface, court orders, police requests).
- Experience of thematic reporting / learning from claims
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive (CILEx) - (We will consider applications from people without the qualification, but they are willing to work towards this within the Trust.)
- Law qualification or equivalent training and experience
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- Specialist training in healthcare/claims/inquest practice
- Advocacy training / Higher Rights (civil) or equivalent experience
Further training
Essential
- Commitment to undertake relevant training and maintain professional competence
Desirable
- Experience of delivering training to multidisciplinary audiences
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience managing a caseload of claims and/or inquests (or demonstrable equivalent experience in a comparable legal/insurance setting)
- Experience analysing complex information and drafting reports, witness statements and correspondence to a high standard
- Experience working to tight deadlines and managing competing priorities
- Experience liaising with a wide range of stakeholders, including clinicians and senior managers
- Experience supporting witnesses at hearings and/or conducting advocacy where appropriate
- Experience supervising, mentoring or supporting junior colleagues
Desirable
- NHS Trust in-house claims/inquests experience
- Experience of committee work and governance reporting
- Experience of service improvement / process redesign
Contractual requirements
Essential
- Ability to travel between Trust sites and external venues as required
- Ability to work flexibly to meet service demands and hearing timetables
- Commitment to confidentiality and compliance with Trust policies and professional standards
Desirable
- Full UK driving licence (if required for role)
Knowledge requirements
Essential
- Detailed understanding of claims and inquest processes within healthcare, including clinical negligence/CNST, EL/PL and Coroner's inquests
- Working knowledge of NHS Resolution guidance/requirements and relevant preaction protocols.
- Understanding of information governance, confidentiality and data protection in a healthcare context.
Desirable
- Knowledge of wider healthcare law issues within remit (e.g., consent, capacity, safeguarding interface, court orders, police requests).
- Experience of thematic reporting / learning from claims
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
