Legal Secretary

Legal Secretary

Department: Professional and Commercial Risk

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Newcastle

Reporting To: Alison Stott

Description

The main purpose of this role is to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to fee earners across the specified practice.

The hours for this vacancy are 9:00-17:00.

DACB operate Flexforward which supports a Life that Works across the whole firm. The secretarial team in P&CR have a hybrid work pattern which means the week is split between office and home based work. We are looking for an enthusiastic and driven individual who wants to embrace all that the role has to offer and seize the opportunity to work in a stimulating and welcoming environment.

Key Responsibilities

Financial

• Assist with departmental billing processes and look to develop ways of improving invoice delivery
• Take ownership of billing and account queries and work with fee earners and support teams to resolve these
• Maintain spreadsheets and assist with monthly MI report completion
• Log with accounts expert/counsel disbursements onto Chrome River

Administrative

• Prepare and create client reports and documents for fee earners
• Use of Onedrive, Sharefile and Dropbox for the safe exchange of client information is essential
• Use of pdf docs application to assist with delivery of client documents/letters
• Use of Visual Files/iManage
• Create new case files as appropriate and support the paperlight DACB message
• Electronic filing correspondence and relevant documentation retained in client files/case management systems
• Photocopying and scanning as and when required by the team
• Prepare paper and electronic bundles as required
• Manage fee earner diaries, booking day to day appointments and making travel arrangements
• Assist in organising client events as and when required
• Prepare correspondence and documents from digital dictation as and when required
• Dealing with submission of fee earner expenses

Communication

• Respond to client queries on a day to day basis, drafting responses for fee earner review

Firm Wide

• Maintain a level of individual knowledge required for the role using external and DACB learning platforms
• Handle confidential information in line with the firms data security protocols

The Team
The Professional & Commercial Risk team is located across 6 locations in England and Scotland. The Newcastle P&CR team consists of 4 Partners, 1 Legal Director, 14 fee earners and 3 paralegals supported by 3 secretaries.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Responsible Qualified to a minimum of 5 GCSEs (including a grade C in English and Maths) or equivalent
• A secretarial NVQ / Diploma or equivalent would be beneficial but is not essential
• Previous experience within a legal environment is preferred, insurance background welcomed
• An ability to use accounts packages and get involved in queries for the team and work with accounts
• Must have good IT skills, particularly in Microsoft packages
• An excellent eye for detail with a concern for quality and accuracy
• A focused client service approach
• Team orientated and collaborative with a flexible, can do attitude
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely orally and in writing
• Demonstrable ability to multitask and prioritise a full workload under pressure with the ability to work independently.