Legal PA - 12 month FTC

AJ Chambers are currently representing an International Law Firm who are actively seeking a Legal PA to join the Project Finance team.

The firm has achieved rapid expansion and year-on-year growth owed almost entirely to a focused strategy, strong leadership, and the quality of its people. The next stage in the firm’s growth plan is to achieve full-service strength within core sectors across the global platform.

Key Activities/Responsibilities:

Client Service:

• Proactively manage and maintain diary planning and coordination for allocated fee earners, making appointments and co-ordinating internal and external client meetings, identifying, and resolving potential challenges and clashes. Ensure arrangements are made for equipment, venue and resources and that fee earners have all necessary paperwork.
• Travel management, booking transport, hotels, client meetings and producing detailed itineraries.
• Coordinating business development and client liaison initiatives for fee earners, including updating database information, and assisting with marketing initiatives and events (including occasional support at event e.g., registration desk).
• Proactively dealing with all aspects of claiming expenses, including InterAction entries.
• Liaising with the Firm's clients in a confident and professional manner, building strong working relationships with clients and contacts.
• Dealing professionally and promptly with client (internal and external) telephone calls and communications, including calls diverted to the team.
• Creation, uploading and general maintenance of client sites and extranets.

Technical and Organisational Skills:

• Monitoring fee earners' mailboxes when they are out of the office or attending a long meeting, responding to emails as necessary and prioritising correspondence to enable fee earners to focus on urgent matters.
• Using initiative to route emails to the appropriate individuals for swift response and action; wherever possible, responding to and filing emails in Filesite on behalf of partners and fee earners to reduce volume.
• Preparing bills, including resolving queries and dealing with outstanding fees, maintaining accurate billing/contact details, preparation of narratives and drafting first bills with covering correspondence for partner approval. Assisting fee earners by liaising with the billing team and following up with debt recovery as requested.
• Proactively ensuring Carpe Diem is updated for all allocated fee earners, particularly for holiday or sickness absence. Informing the Legal PA Co-ordinator if a fee earner is working from home or absent due to holiday or sickness.
• Providing secretarial assistance to assigned fee-earners, which includes audio typing, copy typing, formatting documents, creating correspondence, pitches, and presentations. Delegating complex and lengthy documents to the Document Production Team, ensuring requirements and timescales are clearly set out.
• Coordinating the opening of new client matters and assisting with Anti-Money Laundering processes. Undertaking as much research as possible before passing over to the Partner for approval.
• Organising client documents (delegating scanning, formatting, photocopying, and collating of information where necessary) for client meetings or hearings and carrying out research as required.
• Management and delegation of client filing and regular updating of client relationship management systems (Interaction), archiving historic files or closed matters.

Personal Effectiveness and Teamworking:

• Working with a LPA Buddy or within the LPA team to aid lawyers in the group, prioritising own workload as required.
• Working closely within the team to provide general support to the Group across rotas or core hours, including assisting during periods of high demand or helping other practice areas when required.
• Enthusiastic, can-do, positive approach to tasks and situations, as well as requests for action outside normal scope of duties.
• Remaining calm and focussed under pressure, delegating, and requesting assistance when necessary.
• The ability to take personal responsibility, ownership and behave responsibly.
• Friendly, co-operative, and approachable and all times.
• Listening carefully to instructions and questioning intelligently to ensure you have all the information required to undertake a task.
• Attending and participating in Legal PA team meetings.
• Proactively mentors, coaches, and assists Junior Legal PAs and Team Admin Assistants to reach their full potential.

Professional Conduct:

• Liaising with team, stakeholders, and clients in a professional and courteous manner, building and maintaining effective working relationships.
• Pro-active and flexible attitude for any other ad-hoc tasks.
• Ability to maintain tact and diplomacy, trust, and confidentiality.

Skills and Experience - essential:

At least five years’ previous experience in a secretarial role within a professional environment is required.

• Excellent knowledge of Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Clear and professional in both written and verbal communication.
• Highly organised and able to assist others with the management of their practices.
• Skilled in prioritising multiple tasks and able to remain calm under pressure.
• Accurate, with high level of attention to detail.
• Professional and articulate: able to build positive relationships with stakeholders.

Personal Skills/Attributes:

• Being a team player and working in a flexible manner to assist the group.
• Collaborates with others in sharing work and knowledge.
• Excellent client service.
• Proactive, using initiative to continually assess where role can be developed.
• Willingness to broaden skills to meet evolving requirements.

Benefits:

• We offer a competitive benefits and wellbeing package for all employees.