Paralegal Pathways
Laura Rowan, FILEX-qualified paralegal at Minster Law, is undertaking a Paralegal Pathways development programme. We caught up with her to find out more about her experience.
Tell us about yourself
I am a qualified FILEX employed as a Paralegal at Minster Law. I have worked at Minster for over 15 years.
I have worked all over the business. I was initially employed in the contact centre for a short space of time, before quickly moving through to fast track and later technical claims, and have now worked in the Serious Injury team at Minster for over six years. I have also undertaken several different training programmes over the years in order to improve and increase my knowledge in certain specialist fields.
What does your day-to-day work look like?
I currently work alongside a highly experienced associate solicitor and his assistance legal executive. Together, we are a good team and work collaboratively together to ensure our client’s get the best service and advice. We work tirelessly to ensure our clients receive all the legal advice required, that they have access to and receive high end rehabilitation, with access to a 121 case manager who can source local private rehabilitation. We offer assistance with financial issues, such as sourcing agreement to an early interim payment from the opposition, as being out of work as a result of an injury can be a very stressful and worrying time.
Tell us about Paralegal Pathways
Currently, as part of my training, I am working my way through the training programme along with the other paralegals in the serious injury community. This is a course which has been specifically designed by Minster Law and is designed to offer paralegals the key qualities, knowledge platform and skills necessary for a role in the Serious Injury team.
How useful has the programme been?
What is helpful about this programme is it is designed around the practical elements of our role and the nature of the serious cases we are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. As part of the programme, we have the pleasure of spending some time with some of the department’s senior associates or management who kindly share their wisdom and knowledge to the paralegal community on a particular subject.
We have worked through 14 sessions so far, ranging from Expert Evidence to Letters of Claim. The fundamental qualities that these training sessions provide to the paralegal community are priceless. The sessions provide us an opportunity to use practical and live examples to gain an understanding of the applicable CPR rules surrounding a variety of topics and the host of the training programme is a sounding board to us all, which helps us to maximise our knowledge gains from the individual sessions. The training sessions are each run by a specialist solicitor or fee earner from Minster Law, from within the Serious Injury team and who may have a specialism in this certain field or topic.
Many paralegals in the community wish to pursue a career as a file handler in Serious Injury and this training programme offers a super platform and springboard to those members of staff who want to progress their career within the department.
