Meet the Team: Holly Taylor

Holly Taylor joined First4Lawyers as a claims advisor in 2017 and was promoted to senior legal services advisor in 2020. Here, the mum-of-one, who handles as many as 100 incoming enquiries each day, explains the job satisfaction she gets from helping people once they have taken that vital first step.  

Often, when people send us a message or pick up the phone to speak to us, it has taken them weeks, months or even years to get to that point. Many are vulnerable and don’t know where to turn or whether it’s the right thing to do. We saw a lot of that during the pandemic, for example – victims of medical negligence who badly needed help but felt guilty criticising the NHS.

As a legal services advisor, I’m often the first point of contact for those people and one of the things I enjoy most about my job is being able to put them at ease so they feel comfortable talking – sometimes for the first time – about what has gone wrong.

There is a real mix of skills and experience in the legal services team. Some people have law degrees and others, like me, have trained on the job. I did start university but left shortly afterwards as I decided I wanted to be earning rather than owing money. I was also studying sport as I originally wanted to be a school PE teacher, but now I’ve a child of my own I’m convinced that wouldn’t have been the right career for me. One is enough!

I think the most important skill for anyone doing a job like mine is communication. The technical aspects can be learned, but you need to be able to speak to people on their level so they feel able to trust and talk to you. We deal with all sorts of enquiries – from personal injury and medical negligence through to employment and family matters. Every day you hear stories you haven’t heard before and some people have been through truly life-changing experiences. It takes a lot for them to open up.

We assess claims over the phone as well as via a ‘live chat’ function where we actually assess them through messenger if they don’t feel comfortable on the phone. We also each speak to up to 100 people on any given day so, while we will always give them the time they need, you also need to know the right questions to ask so you can gather all the right information in order to start helping them.

Since being promoted to senior legal services advisor, I spend some of my time supervising colleagues, helping them to assess claims, and making sure we are responding to all enquiries. As well as the website, we get people messaging us through social media all the time.

I do enjoy the work, but the people are also a big draw for me. It’s a family business and you feel part of that which makes you want to stay. They have always been really understanding if I’ve ever needed time off to look after my little boy and, as a working parent, you can’t put a price on that.