Job vacancy: Director of Legal Services, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry

Job summary

Main area: Legal Services
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 9
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 218-AC-B9-8231762

Employer: University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: UHCW NHS Trust
Town: Coventry
Salary: £112,782 - £129,783 pro rata per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 04/09/2026 23:59

Director of Legal Services

NHS AfC: Band 9

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Strategic

To work with, and advise the Executive Director of Governance and Assurance in respect to the long term strategic planning of Legal Services at the Trust, using specialist knowledge of the law and best practice.
To deputise for the Executive Director of Governance and Assurance as required, including attendance and the provision of advice at Chief Officer Group, Trust Board and Board Committees.

Operational

To have final professional and managerial responsibility for all advice given within the Legal Services Department.
To act as the legal expert for the Trust, managing all aspects of the Legal Services Department, providing legal advice across a broad range of areas including clinical negligence, Coroner’s Inquests, Insurance, employer’s and public liability, consent, Powers of Attorney, Wills and other healthcare law issues.
To ensure that the Legal Service provided is effective and provides value for money for the Trust.
To monitor and scrutinise all legal activity and spend across the Trust to develop a clear understanding of the needs of the Trust and costs involved, making recommendations where necessary to rationalise services.
To be responsible for the management of all claims and inquest within the Trust, receiving, monitoring and ensuring compliance with the reporting and handling of such matters; analysing complex and conflicting information and seeking clinical input into clinical negligence claims.
To liaise with external stakeholders on legal matters, including formal negotiations to secure the most advantageous outcome for the Trust.
To represent the Trust at court and Coroner’s Inquests, providing support and guidance to Trust staff that may be called to give evidence and analysing/interpreting evidence in order to make decisions on the management of the inquest.
To act as a confident advocate, including the ability to examine and cross-examine witnesses, present evidence and make submissions/representations to the Coroner on relevant law, as necessary, in the Coroner’s Court and before a jury. To understand the medical complexities of each case in conjunction with senior clinicians and recognise potentially problematic areas, both clinically and legally, which may require further investigation and reporting for the purposes of the inquest.
To be accountable for ensuring that the Trust makes an application to the High Court and Court of Protection in cases where legal protection is required for the Trust and its staff to avoid civil and criminal liability.
To ensure that the Legal Services Department acts with the appropriate level of urgency, sensitivity and responsibility, in preparation of High Court/Court of Protection applications. This will involve analysis and interpretation of highly complex legal principles and application of these to complex factual matrices and negotiating and advising (involving comparison of a range of outcome options) on the resolution of these highly contentious matters, bearing in mind the desired outcome for the Trust.

For further details please see the attached job description.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Educated to Masters level in legal practice • A qualified and practising solicitor. • Significant post-qualification experience successfully managing a substantial case load, advance specialist knowledge, expertise and experience in this field or similar. • Evidence of SRA-required ongoing continued professional development • Awareness of national and local policy, legislation and regulations and the latest developments in healthcare law

Desirable criteria

• Leadership qualification / training • Project management training / qualification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of managing, leading and building teams • Significant experience advising at a senior level on the full range of health and/or regulatory law issues • Demonstrate extensive experience of delivering across an organisation • Experience of undertaking advocacy in court and/or at inquests. (NB The post holder must have rights of audience to allow them to appear before Coroners and Judges.) • Extensive experience of analysing highly complex information and producing reports to tight deadlines. Experience presenting this information within a large, complex organisation. • Experience developing and delivering training on a variety of legal topics to a wide range of recipients. • Extensive experience of managing sensitive issues within sometimes hostile or emotional situations. • Wide range of experience of working under pressure to agreed time-scales. • Experience of working with and effectively communicating highly complex information with a range of external stakeholders including (but not limited to) NHSR, panel and external solicitors, the Coroner and his office, members of the public, patients/Claimants and the police.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Specialist legal knowledge across a wide range of legal disciplines • Appreciation of the context of in house NHS legal services regulation and legislation and the context of how they apply within organisations.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to demonstrate strategic vision as well as a track record of leading a team through a change process. • Evidence of resilience and diplomacy to lead and support change within the service • Demonstrable skills in planning over the short, medium and long term, with the ability to constantly assess, adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly. • Ability to provide clear and informative reporting information in relation to the Trust’s legal position, cases and risks. • Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales. • Excellent analytical and organisational skills. • Ability to make difficult decisions autonomously, when required, on challenging, sensitive and complex matters.

Commitment to Trust Values and Behaviours

Essential criteria

• Must be able to demonstrate behaviours consistent with Trust values and behaviours • Applicants applying for job roles with managerial responsibility will be required to demonstrate evidence of promoting equal opportunities through work experience

To ensure that we provide world-class patient care, UHCW recruits people that can demonstrate the Trust’s Values and Behaviours in their everyday life. Therefore, if you are invited to interview, you will be undertaking a Values Based Interview/Assessment, which explores not only what you do but how and why you do it.
Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust’s Values and Behaviours which can be accessed on the right side of this page under the job description.
The Supporting Information Section in your application should therefore reflect your understanding of the Trust’s Values and associated Behaviours. You will be expected to provide us with examples from work experience and/or personal life which demonstrate these values through your behaviour.

The Trust is committed to Equal Opportunities within the workplace. All vacancies will be considered for Job Share unless otherwise stated. All applicants who have a disability and who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be interviewed. Where a post has an overwhelming response, this Trust may use random selection in order to reduce numbers to interview, any disabled applicants will automatically be guaranteed an interview and will be exempt from this process.

In submitting an application form, you authorise University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust to confirm from your previous or current NHS employer and other prior employers; previous NHS service details and personal data held about you, including Occupational Health data (inoculations and screening tests). This data will be transferred using NHS Electronic Staff Record and third-party systems via an automated process and only used for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining accurate employment records, should you be appointed to the post.

UHCW NHS Trust, by virtue of its Green Plan, is committed to ensuring that the way we provide services minimises the impact on the environment and the future health of the public e.g. zero waste to landfill, reducing our carbon footprint and increasing our recycling and reuse percentages.

If you are successful at interview you will receive a conditional offer of employment and we’ll ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete all pre-employment checks to progress to a final unconditional offer.

We must confirm the identity of our staff and their right to work in the United Kingdom. We will ask you to submit proof of your identity and right to work documents via a secure digital platform approved by the Home Office, named TrustID. Alternatively, you may be asked to attend our office with original documents.

Depending on you level of exposure with patients you may be required to undertake a Standard or Enhanced DBS. The cost of this check will be charged to you and will be deducted from your salary over the first 3 months of employment at the current rate.

All correspondence will be sent by email; please check your account regularly including your Junk/SPAM folders