Recruitment Avenue

Sevenoaks, Kent
Recruitment Avenue

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

Legal Secretary – UK Top 50 Law Firm

Recruitment Avenue

Job Overview