Legal Secretary (1240)

Birketts LLP; England; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 40,000

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.

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

Our vibrant, energetic Corporate team boasts some of the best lawyers in the region specialising in all aspects of corporate law covering a wide variety of corporate transactions including M&A, private equity, reorganisations, company restructures and general corporate governance matters.

The team currently comprises over 60 specialist qualified corporate law solicitors, including 15 partners, making us one of the largest Corporate teams in the East of England.

The department in Sevenoaks is going through an exciting period of growth and the new Secretary will be part of this journey.

Purpose of job

• Proactively working with fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines;
• To amend documentation and paperwork in relation to transactions and work undertaken by the fee earners;
• To produce, format and present documents in Birketts LLP house style;
• Proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar;
• Understands a variety of software packages such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel, to produce correspondence, documents and ensure relevant documentation is produced to a high standard to meet clients’ and fee earners’ expectations and deadlines;
• Manage diaries of allocated fee earners in Microsoft Outlook;
• Dealing with client and file inception through our firms client matter management database and software;
• Accurately maintain and update client and other relevant contact details on our client database including AML requirements and other client on-boarding information;
• Manage and maintain on behalf of allocated fee earners our client relationship management database;
• Ensure that all electronic filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals;
• Respond to internal and external telephone enquiries professionally;
• Provide financial administrative support ensuring compliance with legal, firm wide and practice group specific policies and procedures;
• Keeping accurate and up to date records of all debt, ensuring that items are followed up and escalated to the central credit control officer at the appropriate point in time and keeping the team leader up to date with any potential issues with clients’ ability to settle bills;
• Carry out photocopying and scanning in accordance with the firm’s paper-lite and clear desk policies;
• Ability to communicate with a wide variety of different people from privately owned businesses to private equity and venture capital organisations;
• Show initiative when responding to queries and actively try to seek solutions to problems;
• Assist in maintaining compliant and accurate file management and office systems;
• 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;
• Clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit.

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;
• Ability to work independently and prioritise work streams;
• Methodical approach to work and management of fee earners and team projects;
• Strong attention to detail, high level organisational skills and reliable;
• Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative with a desire to learn;
• 50+ wpm typing speed;
• Solid understanding of key IT packages to include Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel;
• A team player with a desire to succeed and grow;
• Excellent spelling and punctuation.

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:

• 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 and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme;
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share);
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance;
• Paid CSR Day;
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave;
• Subsidised gym membership;
• Electric car scheme;
• Agile/Hybrid Working Policy;
• Dress for your Day Policy.

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.