Senior Legal Administrative Assistant

Owen Reed is looking to recruit a motivated Senior PA- Residential and Securing Lending to join a top law firm in London.
Working hours: Full-time (Monday - Friday; 9.30 am - 5.30 pm) Perm
Reports to: Departmental Support Manager
Location: London

The Team
The team provides clients with prompt, practical advice covering all aspects of residential property, including conveyancing and the financing (both on acquisition and refinancing) of such properties. Many of the team's transactions are complex and involve overseas jurisdictions.

Scope
We are looking for an extremely organised and proactive Practice Assistant to provide a high level of professional support to their allocated Fee Earners as well as other members of the Department. The candidate will be experienced in their specialist area but will be expected to be flexible to cover the broader remit of the Department. They will be highly motivated, display outstanding attention to detail and can multitask easily. It is essential that they are a strong team player with a positive, upbeat approach.

Organisational Support

• Effective and proactive diary management, and awareness of Fee Earners' workloads to plan ahead
• Processes relevant applications, forms or searches, with minimal supervision
• Has an excellent knowledge of all systems/processes used within the Department
• Is professional and maintains effective communications with clients and Fee Earners, using an appropriate mix of communication styles
• Maintains up-to-date knowledge and understanding of Fee Earners' matters to enable a proactive support service
• Researches new clients/contacts and collates the papers required for client meetings, and conducts basic research (online or otherwise) for Fee Earners when required
• Arranges travel and any other activities on behalf of others, where appropriate
• Monitors critical dates in the diaries of Fee Earners for their matters, including setting up online/hybrid meetings and liaising directly with clients
• Uses initiative and takes a proactive approach to work by regularly seeking ways to improve the level of PA support provided to Fee Earners and the broader Department
• Developing techniques and systems for coping with time and deadline pressures

Client Relationship and Business Development

• Provides excellent service to clients, Fee Earners and colleagues, in a timely and professional manner, presenting a positive image of the Firm at all times
• Acts as a first point of contact for Fee Earners
• Recognises, respects and honours client confidentiality at all times
• Organises business development meetings and events for Fee Earners, and where they are held online, offers technical support on the day
• Assists the BD team in the production of business development materials
• Understands and uses InterAction effectively to support Fee Earners BD efforts, including recording all business development meetings in InterAction, and sets up reminders where follow-ups are needed with prospects on InterAction or other systems/logs as required
• Demonstrates a good knowledge about the type of work that the Department carries out, to be able to assist with new client enquiries
• Enables the Firm to provide bespoke communications to key contacts by being aware of particular client requirements and ensuring that these are catered for where possible
• Proactively builds an understanding and knowledge of clients and organisations to help Fee Earners develop future relevant opportunities for both their team and other areas of the Firm

Document Production

• Creates typed work of high quality, formatting in accordance with house style, at high speed, with accuracy and following internal guidelines
• Makes effective use of the Document Management System
• Creates new documents from the Firm’s templates, using contact data from InterAction where appropriate
• Proof-reads all documents for spelling, grammar and sense, querying wording where appropriate
• Proactively uses initiative to compose correspondence on behalf of Fee Earners, requiring focused concentration and attention to detail
• Thoroughly understands and uses the full suite of tools used in the production of documents and the Firm’s templates for these
• Acts as a role model and mentor to others in document production. Assisting and advising Fee
• Earners on the house style. Works with IT to help to develop, improve and test document production templates and Department precedents

IT Skills/Systems

• Has attained super-user level of proficiency in core IT applications including the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), Aderant for billing, InterAction, Intapp and Big Hand and is sought out as a source of help from others in the Department
• Works with IT to help to develop and improve systems, acting as a focal point for testing and providing constructive and professional feedback
• Is capable of troubleshooting IT issues for Fee Earners and liaising with IT where these cannot be resolved within the team

File Management

• Ensures that files within the case management system are kept in good order so that documents can be easily accessed
• Works in accordance with the Department protocol in relation to e-filing
• Adopts a pro-active approach and works with Fee Earners effectively, to maintain regular file management, ensuring all files are closed and archived, as appropriate, and a risk assessment has been undertaken
• Keeps accurate records of all files sent to off-site storage via Records

Financial Risk Management

• Has an excellent knowledge and application of the Firm's procedures in billing, AML, Credit Control and debt management
• Liaises with clients to obtain AML documentation and obtains relevant documentation from clients in a timely manner, as required by Fee Earners
• Sets up conflict searches for review by Fee Earners, correctly identifying the appropriate classification for each entry