Assistant Paralegal

The team Shoosmiths **Private Client Conveyancing Team** offers a highly professional conveyancing service designed to make the process of buying or selling property as efficient and stress-free for their clients.

Shoosmiths remains the largest firm of conveyancing solicitors accredited under the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme. The conveyancing service provided by our Private Client Practice maintains the same high standards corporate clients have cometo expect of Shoosmiths and is consistently commended in national consumer service awards.

The role We are looking for an Assistant Paralegal who will assist in providing a quality and comprehensive conveyancing service with a customer service focus.

Main responsibilities
- Acquire basic knowledge of the entire Conveyancing process to include post completion work and be familiar with the roles of support teams such as New Business and Accounts in the process.
- Attend to any office administration requested such as dealing with post, filing, file closures and distributing faxes.
- Prepare draft contract packages, all searches, exchange and completion letters.
- To support Paralegals to progress the administration of transactions proactively with all key stakeholders in the process.
- Assisting Paralegals in keeping task reports up to date daily.
- To ensure that the case management system is kept in an orderly manner and up to date.
- Deal with client queries wherever possible assisting the team with taking and making telephone calls.
- Competently draft non-standard non-technical correspondence.

Full training will be given by our inhouse conveyancing trainer. A mentor will be assigned to you who will provide further training on the day to day running of conveyancing transactions.

You will be required to attend the office during your probation period for training and supervision purposes. There may be an opportunity for agile working once successful completion of probation.

You will be passionate about helping people and like to be thoroughly organised to prioritise work independently. A legal qualification (LLB, CILEX, CLC, etc.) **is not an essential requirement**, but you must be able to demonstrate a keen interest in conveyancing and property law.

Skills and qualifications _Essential knowledge & skills:_
- Excellent customer service expertise
- Good written, numeracy and oral communication skills.
- Accuracy and attention to detail.
- IT literate including sound knowledge of Word, Excel and the internet.
- Ability to prioritise, be organised and efficient.
- Flexibility with the capability to adapt to change, new practices and cope under pressure but with the ability to recognise when to seek assistance.
- Able to integrate within a team and able to work on your own initiative.
- Friendly and helpful approach.
- Desirable knowledge and skills:_
- Prior experience within a law firm, financial services/mortgage provider, estate agency or other property-related organisation.
- Basic knowledge of the conveyancing life-cycle (including post-completion).
- Legal qualification such as LLB, CILEX or CLC.

**You may also have experience in one of the following roles**: Conveyancing Assistant, Property Assistant, Estate Agent, Sales Progressor, Mortgage Advisor, Customer Service Assistant, Sales Negotiator, or Residential Property Paralegal.

**Benefits package**

Shoosmiths has an outstanding benefits package; we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm. These can include:

- A pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5.5%
- Generous life assurance cover for peace of mind, up to 8 times salary
- Up to 25 paid working days holiday per annum with the option to buy up to 8 additional days. You can choose to 'flex' twice a year - January and July
- 'Happy Birthday' - have a free day off to celebrate and a £50 voucher to spend (We won't take it from your annual entitlement)
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Staff introduction bonus scheme
- Corporate discounts on a wide variety of products and services
- Discounted conveyancing and legal advice, for instance for wills and family trusts
Equal opportunities Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability,sexual orientation or religious beliefs.