ABOUT US
Somek & Associates is a brand leader in providing Expert Witnesses for clinical negligence and personal injury litigation.
We take the business of being an Expert Witness seriously, aiming to provide first class Expert Witnesses who are specialists in their field of clinical practice and a quality service for our clients.
Our Vision
To be the organisation of choice for Expert Witness services in the UK
The Role - overview
No clinical expertise is required although it may be beneficial.
The purpose of this role is to convert incoming requests from our clients (mainly solicitors) to business instructions. To be successful, you will need to successfully analyse what service the client wants (from our portfolio) and carefully match their request to the expertise and availability of an appropriate Expert Witness. You will be responsible for calculating the cost of each client request and communicating closely and professionally with our clients.
Job description - in more detail
We pride ourselves on the professional service that we deliver. As a member of the Clinical Business Management team, you will be providing clients and Experts with a positive and quality experience. This will involve interpreting client enquiries accurately and efficiently to propose the most appropriate Expert for the case, with the aim of securing case instructions, whilst liaising with Experts to manage their availability and heavy workload.
Being part of a small team, whilst also being able to work independently, you will be able to work under pressure, organise your time, prioritise your workload and aim to efficiently and effectively convert case enquiries to case instructions. You will be articulate and have proven excellent communication skills, and experience liaising with individuals at varying levels of seniority.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Communication with clients, Experts and internal staff regarding new enquiries, Expert diary and workload management and general assistance.
The role will have a focus on progressing case enquiries autonomously from the enquiry stage through to instruction. You will need to identify key information from each enquiry, consider reporting timeframes, and Expert availability, to ensure the client's needs are met and the appropriate Expert(s) are proposed. It is expected that the post holder will develop skills in estimating fees for initial reports and further work requested.
You will be supported with guidance documentation and fee ranges, along with the appropriate decision-making steps in the preparation of fee estimates.
The role will also include a need to be proactive and follow up clients and Experts for their responses to communications, along with relaying Experts' availability to clients and reserving cases in Experts' diaries.
All aspects of the role carry a high level of information analysis, multitasking, and responsibility in relation to securing instructions and ensuring experts have a manageable workload. The ability to think in a holistic way and apply key principles to different cases is imperative.
The post holder will routinely read case information which contains confidential information, and which may sometimes be highly sensitive. There is a requirement to remain objective when reading this material, being able to develop an ability to confidently identify the salient points. There is also the requirement to generally deal with this kind of information tactfully and in accordance with GDPR and data protection principles.
Whilst being able to use initiative is important, the ability to recognise situational complexity and identify any need for further assistance from senior colleagues will be vital.
Responsibilities include:
- Reporting directly to the Clinical Business Management team leader
- Participating in regular team meetings
- Communicating with clients in respect of new enquiries, the identification of appropriate Experts and matching their clinical areas of work to the enquiry, relaying Expert availability and the preparation of fee estimates in order to secure instructions.
- Communicating with Experts to ensure we obtain their timeframes for reporting on new cases in a timely way.
- Creating and maintaining effective working relationships with clients. On occasion this may involve the use of assertive negotiation skills, in order to ensure that S&A can balance meeting the clients' need for a report to achieve a specified deadline (where it is reasonable to do so) without the Expert's workload becoming unmanageable.
- Creating and maintaining effective working relationships with Experts, which may involve following up responses and negotiation as to Experts' time allocation and preferred travel methods/reasonable travel costs.
- Documenting all case communications in accordance with company policy.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
The CBM Team Assistant will need to:
- be articulate.
- have excellent written and verbal communication and negotiation skills.
- have good critical thinking and problem solving skills.
- possess strong organisational skills.
- be reliable and trustworthy.
- be able to use own initiative, whilst also working as part of a small team
- be able to work flexibly.
- have demonstrable assertiveness skills.
- be able to work under pressure and prioritise their own workload