Senior Legal Advisor - Expert Witness Services

A successful career in law doesn’t have to mean spending the rest of it recording billable hours.The Role

This role could particularly suit someone looking for an alternative to private practice, returning to their legal career after a break, or wanting to use years of accumulated knowledge to develop others and influence how a growing specialist practice evolves.

This is not a traditional in-house solicitor position. You’ll sit at the heart of our Expert Witness team, bringing a legal perspective to complex construction disputes and helping our experts produce evidence that stands up to scrutiny.

• Critically review expert reports and opinions, testing reasoning, evidence and causation.
• Ask the difficult questions: identifying unsupported conclusions, gaps in evidence or arguments that need further examination.
• Work closely with experts to improve the structure, clarity and robustness of their reports.
• Bring your understanding of how expert evidence is challenged in adjudication, arbitration, litigation and other proceedings.
• Coach and develop emerging experts and researchers, sharing the judgement you have built through your career.
• Contribute to the management, governance and continued development of our Expert Witness practice.
• Help us continually improve how we work and the service we provide to instructing solicitors and clients.

Ridge Expert Witness Advisory Services is a specialist construction and engineering disputes practice. Our experts advise on UK and international matters across sectors including infrastructure, commercial property, healthcare, residential, education, energy and major public-sector projects.

You’ll work with architects, building surveyors, structural and building services engineers, fire specialists and other technical professionals. The team regularly works alongside solicitors and barristers, with matters progressing through mediation, adjudication, arbitration and litigation.

It is intellectually demanding work where clear thinking, careful analysis and exceptionally good writing really matter.

There isn't one perfect career path for this role.

You might be a solicitor specialising in contentious construction , a Chartered Legal Executive, or an experienced paralegal who has spent a significant part of your career working with expert witnesses.

• Have substantial practical experience of working with expert witnesses, ideally five years or more.
• Understand how expert evidence is prepared, tested and challenged.
• Can critically analyse complex reports rather than simply proofread them.
• Write exceptionally well and can make complicated arguments clearer and more persuasive.
• Enjoy questioning, coaching and developing others.
• Ideally understand construction disputes, standard forms of building contract and the wider construction industry.

The attraction of this role is the opportunity to use your legal expertise without simply recreating private practice inside another organisation .

There are no billable-hour targets. Instead, your experience is valuable because of the judgement it brings to our people and our work.

You’ll join a multi-disciplinary consultancy where lawyers, surveyors, architects, engineers and other specialists can learn from one another. As our Expert Witness practice continues to grow, you'll also have genuine scope to influence how the team develops.

We recognise that the right person may want something different from the conventional five-day legal career. We are open to discussing part-time working and would particularly welcome conversations with experienced professionals returning to work or looking for a different shape to the next stage of their career.

Salary is dependent upon the experience of the applicant;
however, it will reflect the seniority of this role.

Our established EWAS practice brings together experts across architecture, structural engineering, fire, building services, façades and building surveying, supporting solicitors and clients on complex construction and property disputes.

The continued growth of the team is exactly why we're creating this role: we want experienced legal judgement embedded within the practice to help develop our next generation of experts.

Ideally, you'll be based from our Manchester office , working alongside colleagues from across Ridge's disciplines. We operate a hybrid approach, with collaboration and time together particularly valuable in a role centred on developing people and sharing expertise.