Legal Secretary

Birketts LLP; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 35,000

Job description

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We 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.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

The department

Birketts prides itself in having a fantastic company culture, where people are truly valued, whatever your seniority or place you are in your career. The Banking and Finance team is extremely friendly and inclusive and we are looking for someone who wants to enjoy being part of our team and learn and grow with us as our Legal Secretary.

The team's expertise covers a variety of different types of banking and finance areas including:

• Syndicated and bilateral conventional lending
• Property finance, including advising on funding acquisitions of land, investment property and development/construction
• Education loans and housing association finance
• Acquisition Finance
• Re-financings, restructurings/work-outs
• Private finance and loan arrangements

Purpose of job

The Banking and Finance team is now recruiting for an articulate and forward thinking Legal Secretary to come and join us on a full time permanent basis, working in our Cambridge office.

You will provide professional, pro-active, and high level administration support to a group of fee earners and to the wider fee earning team.

Key accountabilities include:

• Proactively working with fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines;
• Format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style;
• Proof read all work;
• Manage diaries of allocated fee earners in Microsoft Outlook;
• To prepare narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date;
• Process expense claims, payment requisition forms, returned advances;
• Accurately maintain and update client and other relevant contact details on our client database;
• Ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals;
• Respond to internal and external telephone enquiries professionally;
• 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.

The candidate

You will have the ability to contribute at an operational level, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

• Strong administration experience;
• Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach;
• Strong attention to detail, high level organisational skills and reliable;
• Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative with a desire to learn.

Equal opportunities

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:

• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance

Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.