Legal Secretary - UK Top 50 Law Firm

Salary: £30k - £35k

Department: Private Client Advisory

Our client is a UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, they have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks.

They advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: property, corporate services, litigation and private client advisory.

Their collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked them as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024. Diversity plays an integral part in all that they do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

Purpose of job

You will work in the Private Client team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to estates and private property, tax and planning. You will work with an allocated fee earner or group of fee earners as well as supporting the wider fee earning team.

Main responsibilities:

• To produce and amend documents with speed and accuracy
• To format, paginate, number and present documents
• To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar
• To be a user of key software packages and take responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business
• To proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines
• Use of Isokon for the administration of estates would be a benefit
• Manage diaries of allocated fee earners in Microsoft Outlook
• Familiarity with the creation and management of datarooms and file management processes
• Making appointments
• Arranging meetings/conferences
• Sending and responding to invites
• Process expense claims, payment requisition forms, returned advances
• To process all forms including new client form, new matter form, money laundering form, training course booking forms etc.
• To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals
• To prepare narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date
• To carry out photocopying and scanning as required
• To immediately clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit
• To respond to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally and take accurate telephone messages (name /number /company), passing them on to the relevant fee earners etc.
• To proactively support other members of the secretarial team and to provide cover as and when necessary to ensure that work is completed to a high standard and meets the required deadlines
• To provide full support to fee earners in the full range of activities that are performed and to carry out any other duties as reasonably requested

Key Skills/Experience Needed:

• Strong typing speed of at least 50 wpm
• Private client advisory experience
• Excellent spelling and punctuation
• Excellent written and verbal communications
• Ability to use discretion
• Excellent IT skills, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Positive and enthusiastic approach to team work
• Good telephone manner
• Adaptable and flexible
• Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to fee-earners
• Ability to pay attention to detail and check own work
• Reliable and well organised
• Ability to remain calm and work under pressure to meet strict deadlines
• Commitment to ongoing learning and development

Benefits

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award - 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share / Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid ESG day (Environmental, Social and Governance)
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Eye Care Voucher
• Agile Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy