Legal Secretary

Legal Secretary - Sevenoaks, Kent PQE: Term Type: PermanentWorking Hours: Reports to: Department: Family 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: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client. 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 team currently comprises over 28 specialist lawyers, including eight partners. We have the strength and depth of expertise to ensure we deliver the service you would expect in respect of technical quality, practical approach and timeliness of advice. We act as trusted advisers to individuals, families, family or owner-run businesses both in the UK and internationally.  The team won the Lexis Nexis award for the best family team to work for in 2024. We are a collaborative and supportive team and pride ourselves on our sense of community and belonging.  You will work in the Family Team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to all aspects of the family law services we offer. You will work primarily with the Sevenoaks and London teams. You will also assist the wider Family team across the 7 offices and work with the other Family Team assistants to provide support to all fee earners. The team covers: Divorce Separation Relationship difficulties Modern Families – includes surrogacy, adoption, fertility law International family issues Pre and post marriage agreements Children arrangements Mediation One Couple One lawyer Arbitration Financial arrangements 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 to all work Reliable Strong attention to detail and high level organisational skills Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative and a desire to learn A desire to share new processes to support the wider team Technical ability: To produce and amend documents including PDF court bundles with speed and accuracy. To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar To be a user of key software packages and take responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business To proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines To help cover holidays, period of sickness in other teams when required Administrative skills: Manage diaries of fee earners in Microsoft Outlook To scan and save incoming and outgoing post Familiarity with the creation and management of datarooms and file management processes To add and amend data on Intapp, including contact details intermediaries, and referrals into and out of the team To open new clients and to open and close matters and carry out conflict checks where appropriate To complete the client engagement process, including preparing letters of engagement and sending Thirdfort invitations Making appointments Arranging meetings/conferences Sending and responding to invites To arrange payments To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals To keep team spreadsheets up to date To carry out photocopying and scanning as required Be the coordinator for mediation enquiries and matters Professional Skills: To immediately clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit To respond to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally and take accurate telephone messages (name /number /company), passing them on to the relevant fee earners etc. To support other members of the Family Team assistants when required and to provide cover as and when necessary to ensure that work is completed to a high standard and meets the required deadlines To provide full support to the London and Sevenoaks fee earner(s) in the full range of activities that are performed and to carry out any other duties as reasonably requested General Approach: To show a positive approach and interest in the work that your fee earners are undertaking Show initiative when responding to queries and actively try to seek solutions to problems To support your fee earners when clients are demanding the work product to be delivered To support and build working relationships with the secretaries and fee earners in the team and to actively work for the interests of the whole team and firm Strong 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 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.