Legal Secretary / Administrator

Job Description

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 500 lawyers and legal professionals based in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and publicsector 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.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 femalepartners comprising 40% of our partnership.The departmentLed by 8 Partners and supported by a diverse group of over 20 lawyers, we have the strength and depth of expertise to ensure we deliver top tier service in respect of technical quality, practical approach and timeliness of advice.Purpose of jobThe successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with our lawyers in delivering excellent client service on the full range of Commercial Property deals, both locally and nationally, including strategic land promotion, residential and commercialdevelopment, investment sales and purchases, leasing and asset management (acting for both landlords and tenants), real estate finance, clean energy and general advisory work.AccountabilitiesTechnical ability:

• Producing and amending documents with speed and accuracy
• Formatting, paginating, numbering and presenting documents in Birketts’ house style
• Proof reading all work, checking for spelling and grammar
• A user of key software packages and applications, including the Land Registry portal, DocuSign and third party search providers, and taking responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet business requirements
• Working proactively with colleagues to ensure documentation meets client expectations and deadlines
• Processing property searches, responding to search provider queries and collating/tracking results for lawyers to review.
• An understanding of ledgers and the ability to deal with any enquiries relating to credit/debits and client account balances

Administrative skills:

• Managing the diaries of lawyers in Microsoft Outlook to include:
• making appointments
• arranging meetings/conferences
• sending and responding to appointments
• booking restaurants
• Processing expenses claims, payment requisition forms and returned advances
• Maintaining and updating accurate client and other contact details on our database
• Processing forms including new client forms, new matter forms, money laundering forms, training course booking forms and similar
• Ensuring that all electronic and paper filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals
• Preparing narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date
• Carrying out photocopying and scanning as required
• Scheduling deeds and documents and making arrangements for their storage
• Assisting lawyers with their file management, including monitoring inactive files and dealing with file closing formalities.

Professional Skills:

• Promptly clarifying instructions should they or deadlines be unclear
• Responding to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally, taking accurate telephone messages, and passing them to the appropriate person
• Supporting other secretarial team members proactively and providing cover when necessary to ensure that work is completed on time and to a high standard
• Providing full support to lawyers in the full range of their activities and carrying out any other duties as reasonably requested.

The candidate

• Secretarial qualification or educated to GCSE
• Typing speed of at least 50 wpm
• 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

Equal opportunitiesWe are committed to recruiting individuals on merits of suitability for each role, on the basis of qualifications and experience. All applications are treated fairly and equally regardless of sexual orientation, race, disability, religious beliefs andany other protected characteristic, ensuring that there are equal opportunities at all stages of the recruitment process.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 / 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

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 preferredworking patterns as part of your application.