Senior Legal Secretary

**The vacancy**

**What are we looking for?**

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Senior Legal Secretary to join our Employment team based in Southampton. You will be working within a supportive environment with a team of excellent Lawyers and will experience a wide ranging and diverse workload.

Your role will be to provide comprehensive legal secretarial and administrative support to assigned solicitors and lawyers within the team. Our team works with some great long-term clients handling the full spectrum of employment matters including HR advisory work, high value exit terminations, boardroom disputes, employment tribunal, High Court and County Court litigation as well as working on transactional matters in conjunction with Corporate group.

We are committed to providing excellent service to our clients and we are looking for someone who shares this passion and enthusiasm..

**Why should you apply?**

Are you a Senior Legal Secretary with experience and a keen interest in Employment looking to work for a newly merged firm carving out a new way of working within the Legal sector? If you are a proactive and team orientated individual who is looking to get stuck in with the prospects of progressing within a supportive, modern and dynamic team then this may be the role for you This role will give you the opportunity and freedom to grow, so if you’re open to coming with new ideas that would be great.

**Key Responsibilities**:

- File/diary management- To administer files to include liaising with client to obtain details to open electronic files on the firms case management system, completing relevant forms to write off WIP / close files and liaising with archivist for storage and retrieval in accordance with the firm’s management procedures
- To ensure physical (where applicable) and electronic files are maintained accurately and any paper filing is scanned onto the file in line with the firms paperless policy
- To draft key client documents such as client care letters, adviser’s certificates and other correspondence requested by Lawyer/s. Depending on DPC capacity and where appropriate, this may include digital dictation of correspondence and documents.
- To request ID documentation from clients in order to run ID checks via Smart Search and to demonstrate compliance with all other Anti-Money Laundering requirements.
- To run compares on documentation as requested by Lawyer
- To liaise with clients, Lawyer/s, third parties daily to fix telephone/Teams appointments, arrange office meetings, book rooms for clients and colleagues as requested, organising refreshments, arranging parking bays, as necessary. Daily diary management for themselves and inputting important key dates and diarising when to chase for things
- To answer telephone calls for the team and covering telephones to include calling third parties and clients as required by the team. Able to deal with and respond to some correspondence in the absence of Lawyer on annual leave and arrange for another Lawyer to assist where urgent.
- Accurately record and update information and data in the case management system provided by Lawyer/s
- Accounts- Assist Fee Earners in the billing and credit control process by liaising with the Fee Earner and accounts and to produce standard financial/time reports and invoices through the system
- Produce and mail out client invoices and to liaise with credit control to send reminders where necessary
- Produce and mail out Lawyer/s hourly rate increase in line with firm policy
- To liaise with Lawyer/s to request WIP transfers, liaise with clients to request funds on account of costs, to follow up with our accounts team to confirm funds received and to complete the relevant forms to return money held in client account when file ready for closure and as appropriate
- Marketing/Networking- Plan, book and expense travel for Lawyer/s when required
- To book Lawyer/s onto firm/external training webinars as requested and liaise with purchase ledger to ensure payment of external invoice. To undertake any specific learning and tasks to enhance own learning and skill base
- To proactively assist as requested with Departmental marketing and networking events
- To formulate spreadsheets based on client data as requested by Lawyer’s for general and research purposes.

A Senior Legal Secretary has responsibility to ensure that their skill set is up to date, and they are familiar with the firm’s departments, key personnel, clients, internal systems and procedures. This will ensure that the Senior Legal Secretary is able to carry out his or her role effectively and, where appropriate, should discuss any training requirements with the Team Leader for their office.
- Accurate typing speed of at least 60 words per minute.
- Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Word (including track changes), Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, research tools and other system implemented by the firm such as case management.
- Knowledge of