Irwin Mitchell
Costs Team Leader (6369)
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We’re a national law firm with a local reach. Our legal experts are here for you. Whether it’s personal or business, we understand that everyone’s situation is different. 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.
Role Overview
We are looking for an experienced and motivated Costs Team Leader to join our national Costs Team, aligned to our Medical Negligence work. This is an exciting opportunity to lead, support and develop a team of Trainees, Law Costs Draftsmen and Costs Lawyers, driving high-quality delivery, strong performance and consistent technical standards in a complex and high-value practice area.
In this role, you will be the key point of contact for senior stakeholders across the Medical Negligence teams and your aligned locations, ensuring the service we provide meets agreed standards, supports client teams effectively and contributes to strong recovery outcomes. You’ll oversee the full spectrum of costs work, including supervising the preparation of Bills of Costs and court pleadings, providing technical guidance on complex costs issues, and driving best practice across your team.
You will also play a vital role in motivating and engaging colleagues, championing continuous improvement, and supporting operational delivery across the wider Costs function. You will work closely with stakeholders to understand demand, manage priorities, support quality and timeliness, and help ensure that costs input is aligned to the needs of our litigation teams.
This is an excellent opportunity for a confident leader with strong technical grounding in legal costs and an understanding of high-value, complex personal injury or clinical negligence work to make a real impact in a nationally recognised team.
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Key Responsibilities
- Be the key point of contact for senior stakeholders across the Medical Negligence teams and your aligned locations.
- Oversee the full spectrum of costs work, including supervising the preparation of Bills of Costs and court pleadings.
- Provide technical guidance on complex costs issues.
- Drive best practice across your team.
- Motivate and engage colleagues, championing continuous improvement.
- Work closely with stakeholders to understand demand, manage priorities, support quality and timeliness.
- Help ensure that costs input is aligned to the needs of our litigation teams.
Requirements
- A costs or legal qualification, admitted by CLSB, CILEX, SRA or BSB.
- Proven experience in a people leadership or team leader role, ideally within a legal, costs or professional services environment.
- Strong operational leadership skills with the ability to manage, engage and motivate a hybrid working team.
- Good understanding of medical negligence or high-value personal injury costs work, including the need for accuracy, evidence-based recovery and clear technical judgement.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, expectations and stakeholder demands with resilience, particularly where matters involve complex issues, high value claims or urgent litigation deadlines.
- Highly organised with excellent attention to detail and a strong focus on quality, consistency and compliance with agreed standards.
- Confident in attending and contributing to key stakeholder meetings.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to provide clear direction, feedback and technical guidance to colleagues working on complex costs matters.
- Ability to analyse information, problem-solve and identify practical solutions that support recovery, service delivery and stakeholder confidence.
- Working knowledge of the Civil Procedure Rules, costs budgeting, detailed assessment processes, legal aid regulations where relevant, and costs recovery principles.
- Knowledge of time-recording procedures, costs systems and the importance of accurate data to support forecasting, reporting and operational planning.
Desirable
- Experience reviewing and improving existing processes, quality standards and ways of working across a costs or litigation support team.
- Experience using data, MI or performance measures to support workload planning, recovery outcomes and service improvement.
- Interest in supporting networking and business development activity, contributing to opportunities that strengthen the profile and impact of the Costs Team.
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Benefits
- 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.
- 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 Commitment
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.
Onboarding Process
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.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Irwin Mitchell LLP is an equal opportunity employer.
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