Legal Secretary

Birketts is an ambitious full service, top 50 UK law firm, operating in East Anglia, Essex, London and the surrounding areas. With a rich heritage spanning over 150 years we’ve built an enviable track record advising businesses, institutions and individualsin the UK and internationally.

Throughout our history, our ethos has remained simple: we provide clear legal advice and value and insight to our clients. We believe that through this approach and a combination of technical excellence and high quality service we can develop long-lastingpartnerships and become our clients' solicitor of choice.

Birketts is opening a new office in Sevenoaks at the start of April.

**Purpose of job** You will work in the Private Client team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to estates and private property, tax and planning. You will work with an allocated fee earner or group of feeearners as well as supporting the wider fee earning team.

**The team covers**:

- Will drafting
- Succession planning
- Tax efficient lifetime giving
- Disputed Wills
- Creation administration and termination of trusts
- Advice to Trustees and Beneficiaries
- Trust Taxation
- Offshore trusts
- Lasting Powers of Attorney
- Administration of Estates

**Accountabilities** **Technical ability**
- To produce and amend documents 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
- Use of Isokon for the administration of estates would be a benefit

**Administrative skills**:
Manage diaries of allocated fee earners in Microsoft Outlook to include:

- Familiarity with the creation and management of datarooms and file management processes
- Making appointments
- Arranging meetings/conferences
- Sending and responding to invites
- Process expense claims, payment requisition forms, returned advances
- To process all forms including new client form, new matter form, money laundering form, training course booking forms etc.
- To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals
- To prepare narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date
- To carry out photocopying and scanning as required

**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 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
- To provide full support to fee earners 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 your own fee earners as well as other members of the team and to actively work for the interests of the whole team
- To support and build working relationships with your colleagues in the secretarial team and to actively get involved in working activities within the team
- Strong administration experience
- Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach
- Strong attention to detail, high level organisational skills and reliable
- Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative with a desire to learn
- A desire to share new processes to support the wider team

**Skills**:

- 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

**Benefits**

One of the best things about joining Birketts is our rewards package. At Birketts we’re appreciative of the people who work for us and our rewards package is reviewed regularly to reflect that. You can expect to receive:

- 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
- Long Service holiday award - 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
- Private Healthcare - 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 (Environmental, Social and Governance) day
- Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
- Season Ticket Loan
- Gym Flex membership
- Electric car scheme
- Dress for your Day Policy
- Agile Working Policy