Litigation Solicitor – Property & Commercial Disputes

Litigation Department Background

Our litigation teams are ranked and recommended by The Legal 500 UK Directory for their excellence in Commercial Litigation, Professional Negligence, Contentious Probate and General Litigation work across the South East. Viewed as a stand out team, they have extensive experience acting for both claimants and defendants, representing individuals, companies, charities or those involved in group litigation, in complex and high value civil / commercial litigation matters, including:

• Bankruptcy and Insolvency
• Building Disputes
• Civil Fraud
• Consumer/ Commercial Disputes
• Contract Disputes
• Debt
• Interim Applications
• International Cross Border Disputes
• Contentious Probate Disputes
• Professional Negligence
• Residential Property Disputes

Main Responsibilities of the Role

• Report directly to Department Director
• Professional proactive approach, strong client care skills and a sensitive and sympathetic understanding of clients’ needs
• Responsible for all aspects of Litigation work and on occasions, where appropriate providing technical expertise and guidance to other team members
• Ability to manage appropriate caseload types and complexities
• Attending clients, taking instructions and preparing cases
• Dealing with correspondence
• Maintaining accurate time costing procedures
• Implementing any recommendations made by your supervisor following monthly file reviews ensuring that these are dealt with promptly
• Ensuring compliance with file management.

Key Tasks

• Boundary disputes- resolving disagreements between neighbours about property lines.
• Landlord and tenant issues- dealing with rent arrears, lease breaches, eviction proceedings, and lease renewals.
• Rights of way and easements- advising on access rights and usage of land.
• Nuisance and trespass claims- acting where someone’s use of their property interferes with another’s.
• Disputes over property ownership- handling cases like co-ownership disagreements or claims under trusts.
• Development issues- disputes related to property development, including restrictive covenants and planning.
• Disrepair- acting for landlord and tenant
• Mortgage Repossessions
• Commercial property matters- lease related matters – dilapidations, arrears of rents , lease forfeiture

Key Skills Required

• Must have a clean, valid Practising Certificate at the time of applying
• Committed team player and adapt well to new challenges
• Professional with a pro-active approach; excellent client care skills and ability to deal with client matters in a sensitive manner and resolve complicated practicalities
• Excellent networking and communication skills with the ability to successfully market the Company and generate new business
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills
• Ability to use own initiative and sound judgment
• Working knowledge of the publicly funded Litigation work and have the ability to service privately funded cases
• Have extensive experience in dealing with Probate Litigation related work
• Experience in own advocacy is an advantage
• Excellent IT Skills -familiar with Microsoft Office applications and document management skills

Equal Opportunities

Duncan Lewis is committed to Equal Opportunities and embraces diversity of its staff. The Company strives to ensure that our staff reflects the diversity of the communities we serve, which is reflective at all levels within our workforce.

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