Practice Support Executive

My client is an international law firm based at London Bridge and they are looking for a perm Practice Support Executive to work within their litigation team.  The hours are 9.30am-5.30pm working two days per week in the office.  Salary up to E42,000 with excellent benefits.  Please see below the job spec:

Practice Support Executive

The Role

The delivery of high end legal services is becoming more complex and sophisticated. This is being driven by new ways of structuring teams, the incorporation of new disciplines like legal project management and the use of new technology. This role will be located in our London office and you will be responsible for providing high value dedicated support to fee earners across the business.

The role sits within the Practice  Support Office under our newly formed Practice Services pillar, aimed at ensuring that our fee earners and  clients receive the highest quality support and service delivery.

Key responsibilities:

Client facing / Administration

• Builds an understanding of the nature of the team and fee earners' work and plays an active role in the support that you can deliver e.g.: getting to know their clients; building relationships with the clients and their PAs; and proactively arranging regular catch ups for your fee earners and ensuring outcomes are followed up on
• Attends fee earner/client requested meetings to take minutes and follow up on any action points
• Acts as a subject matter expert for piloting of new technologies and processes
• Manages demanding and complex diaries and inboxes, using own judgement to prioritise and deliver efficient scheduling of meetings and proactively resolving potential clashes and preparing any necessary paperwork
• Organises complex travel and prepares full door-to-door travel itineraries
• Manages team SharePoint site, including updating any material documents that are already on the site
• Manages a varied workload, balancing different demands and deadlines
• Drafts internal and external communications ensuring it is delivered through the appropriate methods to capture the recipients
• Proactively builds relationships across the business both within fee earning and business services teams

Matter Management and Billing Support

• Providing full matter management support including opening new client/matters successfully; assisting with first draft of Engagement Letters; submitting further changes via matter managements forms when necessary; file/matter closure; archiving of closed matters
• Provides support to and work with the Legal Project Management team as they support partners with matter related tasks throughout the lifecycle of the matter i.e. supporting fee earners with matter management, matter openings, reporting, billing etc
• Creating reports for partners utilising SAP tiles and LPM PowerBI dashboards
• Bill reviewer, taking responsibility for quality and accuracy
• Liaise closely with WIP Controllers in respect of all billing instructions particularly in relation to high value/profile matters and/or matters with tight budgets
• Keeping accurate records of expenses/disbursements/fees for client billing, liaising with billing department to monitor payment of fees and responding to internal and external requests for back up documentation and further information. Being proactive and knowing where bills are in every stage of the process is of paramount importance
• Managing local counsel invoices
• Managing client PO numbers
• Weekly check of pending and held files

Business Development / Marketing

• Works with fee earners, marketing and business development teams to ensure regional objectives are met. This includes, but is not limited to, client development, profile raising, marketing and communications (including online and content marketing), pitching and event management
• Captures and logs pitch opportunities
• Ability to do first draft pitches utilising information available internally
• Proactively updates fee earners CV’s on a regular basis and ensures they are loaded onto the system
• Provides technical support, ensuring the layout of the documents is correct and to a high standard including adapting presentation formats and producing placemats, and liaising with the brand and design team where appropriate
• Ensures follow up is sought from client post pitch; track and act on actions which arise; assess how feedback can be used to drive behavioral change
• Provides support in relation to business development events relating to the team / department and be responsible for assisting with follow-ups

Team / Admin Support

• Post completion support
• Provides support on preparing bibles using PDF Docs Binder and Litera Transact
• Managing and/or providing support on arranging client events and training
• LMS, creating new training events for the knowledge team and updating training records
• Arranging annual team away days and team events taking into account team budget
• Providing collaboration support across all teams and being flexible to provide direct support to a specific team when needed
• Specialised document work support i.e. BIMCO SmartCon to prepare documents
• Utilises a workflow tool to undertake requests and delegates tasks to appropriate support teams when relevant
• All other tasks associated with the need of the team to ensure support is being delivered effectively

General approach

• Supports fee earners throughout the matter lifecycle
• Understands and uses legal/corporate terminology, knows how the department operates and who and what the Key Clients and Headlights are
• Immediately clarifies instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit
• ‘Go to’ contact in terms of where to source knowledge and information throughout the practice
• Demonstrates a client service delivery focus with the ability to professionally communicate and deal with people at all levels, both internally and externally
• Shows a positive approach and interest in the work of fee earners and the wider team
• Takes ownership of queries: resolves, escalates or identifies alternative contacts as appropriate and uses initiative to actively seek solutions to problems
• Supports and builds collaborative working relationships with fee earners, other Business Services teams as well as other members of the team and actively works for the interests of the whole team and business
• Consult with colleagues and specialists to ensure you and your colleagues contribute to knowledge sharing and facilitates the constant development of skills and expertise
• Demonstrates a continuous improvement and service excellence mindset
• Acts as change agents on the ground to lead on change and support fee earners through change and new ways of working
• Exercises confidentiality, discretion and personal sensitivity in all aspects of role

Person specification

• Embraces, promotes the use and becomes a super-user of technology and proactively identifies opportunities to improve ways of working
• Excellent communication, organisational and administrative skills
• Strong time management and prioritisation skills will be required to support a demanding group of Fee Earners at different levels of seniority
• Attention to detail: proof reads all work, checking for spelling, grammar and consistency
• Proactive approach and enthusiasm to work independently and as part of a team
• Shows a willingness to learn and develop skills
• Drives forward initiatives to create a continued sense of “team” within your virtual peer group
• Must be flexible to work outside contractual hours when required

Skills & Experience

• Intermediate-Advanced user of key software packages, (i.e. Word/PowerPoint/Excel/Office 365 suite of tools including SharePoint) and takes responsibility for any training (e.g. MOS) to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business
• Demonstrates excellent written communication skills, sufficiently developed to draft non-routine correspondence and emails, as instructed by fee earners
• Leadership ability - this candidate must be able to build a strong reputation within the business and deliver excellent service
• 3-5+ years’ experience in a legal support or professional services environment is desirable
• Experience of working with clients and ability to be client facing
• Previous billing and marketing experience desirable
• Good level of numeracy
• Good English language and grammar skills