Legal Assistant

**Are you experienced in administration and wanting to progress your career within the world of law? Then this may be the opportunity you're looking for...**

Our award winning Plot Sales team are dynamic, hardworking and highly supportive of one another in providing a great service to our clients. It really is all about the team spirit.
- The team regularly act on behalf of some of the UK’s biggest house builders dealing with the legal aspects of plot sales for our clients, including planning, development, investment, construction, litigation and dealing with both landlord and tenant matters.
- The Plot Sales team is part of our Residential Development super-team, part of our wider Living business unit.

As a Legal Assistant you will be responsible for providing high-level organisational and administrative support to our Plots Sales team to help deliver a great service to our clients. Your role encompasses assisting with all aspects of the plot conveyancing process from the processing of legal documentation, producing accurate documents and dealing with clients. In particular, you will support house builder clients with their reservations, exchanges and completions.

What you will be doing:

- Providing an effective organisational and administrative support service to a busy team of fee earners who act for large PLC developer clients
- Taking jobs in order of priority on BigHand and takes responsibility for the Axxia action list (training will be provided on these systems)
- Producing accurate documents and overseeing the case management system to process and progress cases
- Preparing the sale pack relating to a part-exchange resale
- Carrying out post completion administration and assisting the Conveyancing Executives fee earners with any overflow of exchange or completion paperwork
- Assisting with SDLT and Registration Process for the part-exchange transactions.
- Obtaining providing Data Room login details from IT and send to buyers solicitors
- Assisting with the processing of land registry forms and other legal documentation
- Opening and closing electronic and paper files and conducting searches
- Assisting with the issue of contract packs to solicitors
- Attending to clients and other solicitors on the telephone, taking messages and assisting generally with the conveyancing process
- Assisting with monthly billing and other related financial administration
- Processing incoming and outgoing post and arranging couriers
- Photocopying, scanning, faxing, printing, filing and collating documentation in relation to contracts, leases and transfers; archiving, storage and retrieval of documentation (electronic and paper versions)
- This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of duties. The need for flexibility, shared accountability and team working is required. The Legal Assistant is expected to carry out other related duties that are within their skills and abilities whenever reasonably instructed.

What you will need:

- Ideally 6 month’s legal secretarial or office administrative experience gained with a real estate team or from within a legal or professional services environment
- Confidence with IT systems, including Microsoft Word, Excel and ideally PowerPoint

**Key competencies you will need**:

- Fast and accurate keyboard skills with good attention to detail and accuracy
- The ability to work well in a team and develop good working relationships with colleagues and clients
- Confident interpersonal skills with the ability to liaise openly and clearly
- The ability to produce a high standard of work, often to tight deadlines, whilst maintaining accuracy and good attention to detail
- The ability to prioritise well and be able to cope with changing demands
- The ability to demonstrate professionalism, flexibility, initiative and self confidence

**About you, you will be**:

- Highly enthusiastic, willing to go the extra mile and be happy to go beyond the job description
- Respectful towards others and have a positive, willing and ‘can do’ attitude
- Keen to learn, interested in driving your own career progression and be proactive in taking ownership of this

Benefits, Agile Working and Additional information
- This position will be a hybrid position based from our **Solihull **office so you'll get a mixture of spending time with a hugely experienced time, whilst embracing the agile working that we offer.
- We have hubs in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Southampton, Stratford-upon-Avon, Lincoln and Sheffield.

Want to find out more about our amazing benefits?

**Additional information**:

**Equal opportunities**
Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experie