An exciting role has arisen within a Top City Law firm for a PA to join the leading international funds practice.
You will be expected to provide high quality, comprehensive personal assistant/secretarial support to lawyers in the department.
Key Responsibilities
- Extensive and proactive diary management. Gaining an understanding of the week from the perspective of the lawyers - 'horizon scanning' to pre-empt conflicts and anticipate needs.
- Work to ensure unique and individual support needs are understood for each lawyer.
- Ensure regular communication is made to convey and share any workload pressures with other PAs.
- Pre-empt needs for enhanced or specific support at times when individuals might be under additional pressure.
- Field and screen communications (email), ensuring exceptional client service is considered at all times.
- Act as a 'gatekeeper' for work whilst identifying where to delegate tasks that should be sent to the Document Production ('DP') team or the Central Admin Team Team Administrators.
- Ensure 'quality control' forms part of regular workflow patterns, whereby any work that is delegated to another team is thoroughly checked before it is returned.
- Complete appropriate/necessary DP tasks to the highest standards and ensuring house style requirements are met.
- Prepare PowerPoint presentations with minimal input, delivering slides that are clear, in line with branding.
- Take the initiative of overseeing ad-hoc administrative projects for the lawyers, for example, archiving, confidential shredding, photocopying, organising filing systems.
- Liaise with relevant parties to arrange meetings; booking internal rooms; ensuring the appropriate room setups are in place; and that refreshments are booked and confirmed.
- Liaise with and co-ordinate meeting attendees, both internal and external, ensuring all parties have the relevant information ahead of time.
- Proactively prepare and collate papers ahead of meetings.
- Co-ordinate travel arrangements ensuring efficient use of time and expenditure including booking taxis and accommodation, completing visa applications, arranging currency, creating itineraries, and compiling expense forms as appropriate.
- Support lawyers in marketing activities including involvement in the preparation of pitch documents and presentations.
- Use of effective systems to ensure that both urgent and non-urgent tasks are progressed and delivered within the required timescales.
- Assist other members of the department/Firm as required; and
- Develop a general awareness of business issues and challenges within which the lawyers operate to instill trust and confidence in the PA team.
Client Relations
- Be client focused and understand the expectations of internal and external clients.
- Where necessary, pass on full and accurate messages in a timely manner and take appropriate action to ensure the needs of both internal and external clients are met
- Act in a professional and courteous manner when dealing with clients (including internal clients), potential clients and third parties.
- Assist in arranging internal and external events.
- Capture and manage contact and client relationship data in the Firm's CRM system (InterAction), maintaining any existing information.
- Interrogate and report on data in the CRM system.
- Become an active part in the care of clients and look for opportunities to build relationships with client contacts and PAs where appropriate; and
- Deal with basic client queries and general administration.
Administration
- Proactively deal with incoming and outgoing mail.
- Action emails and manage inbox as required by the Partner and forward/action as necessary.
- Establish and maintain effective and accurate filing systems (electronic);
- Be capable of operating all the functions of the photocopiers and scanners including clearing jams, replenishing paper and replacing toner.
- Managing lawyer expenses; and
- General ad-hoc administration duties
Communication
- Demonstrate rapport, empathy, and professionalism when communicating and use these skills to build and maintain collaborative working relationships with all colleagues, clients and stakeholders of the Firm;
- Utilise your internal and external networks to help you to solve problems and devise effective solutions;
- Ensure that all client related correspondence is passed on to an appropriate lawyer and actioned as necessary;
- Liaise with the business support departments on behalf of the lawyers as required;
- Liaise with the department's Team Leader/PA Manager over any planned absences, arranging cover as necessary and communicating this to the relevant lawyers; and
- Communicate and work as a team to cover busy periods and absence.
Documents
- Oversee all document production work, either through delegation and quality control, or through completing a task that falls within the PA remit of responsibility; and
- Provide support with marketing and pitch documents.
Billing and File Opening
- Assist lawyers with time recording where possible, entering absences onto Intapp Time;
- Assist lawyers with billing and credit control by liaising with Central Finance and preparing bill narratives and draft cost details;
- Provide assistance with file opening and conflict checks; and
- Request bank transfers, pay money in/out, as appropriate.
Education/Qualifications
- Minimum 5 GCSEs/O'Levels or equivalent at grade A-C including English and Maths.
- Secretarial qualification and/or MOS certification (desirable).
Skills and Experience
- Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint.
- Prior experience of working in a fast-paced corporate environment.
- Efficient organisation skills, with a high degree of accuracy to prioritise an often conflicting workload