Float PA

Career Legal
Wimbledon
Up to £36,000
18 Jul 2017
14 Aug 2017
PA
Legal
Permanent
Full Time

The Legal PA’s principal role is to provide lawyers with the support they need to perform the task of providing legal services to clients and help them maximise the amount of time they are able to spend on fee-earning and other essential non fee-earning tasks by assisting in the management and execution of their day to day workload.  

The main duties of a Legal PA will include, but are not limited to:

Document Production

•    Checking correspondence, attachments, documents, reports, presentations, faxes etc produced by either the PA and/or Document Production Centre before being passed to the relevant Lawyer and undertaking basic/minor amendments if/where appropriate;
•    Typing of urgent correspondence;
•    Producing and maintaining Excel spreadsheets as required; and
•    Drafting general and basic correspondence.

Administrative

In conjunction with relevant business support departments, as appropriate:

•    Managing diaries, ensuring they are up to date and reminding lawyers of meetings etc on a daily basis;
•    Arranging meetings, booking conference rooms, refreshments, checking rooms prior to   meetings etc and liaising with other attendees, both internal and external;
•    Organising travel arrangements, booking and confirmation of reservations and dealing with related invoices; 
•    Opening and closing of general files, general filing, record keeping and archiving of files;
•    Photocopying, printing, organising couriers, sending out of letters, faxes etc;
•    Liaising with floor support units over filing, scanning, copying etc.

Communication

•    Taking internal and external telephone queries, responding as appropriate and/or ensuring that all messages are passed on in a timely manner ;
•    Monitoring post and/or e-mails and dealing with as appropriate; and
•    Liaising with business support departments on behalf of lawyers as required.
Client relationship management
•    Be part of client care team and be familiar with the full range of the lawyer’s contacts/clients
•    Entering, maintaining and updating client details and relevant information of the firm’s CRM system;
•    Deal with basic queries and general administration, including in relation to hub clients; and 
•    Arrange all client meetings, including client care meetings.
Financial
•    Assisting lawyers in ensuring their time is recorded properly and entered onto Elite on a daily basis;
•    Assisting lawyers in the billing and credit control process by liaising with the lawyer and Accounts department, to include the production of standard financial/time reports through Elite; and
•    Requesting cheques, bank transfers and paying in money received, as appropriate.
Other duties and responsibilities
In addition to providing support to the fee-earner(s) to whom they report, a Legal PA should also provide assistance to their immediate colleagues in their department and, where practical, other departments.  Team duties will therefore include:

•    Assisting others in the office whenever there is spare capacity;
•    Picking up telephone calls for other members of the office  when they are away from their desk;
•    Participating in a lunch time telephone rota within the Legal PA team; 
•    Working effectively with other legal departments and support departments as required; and
•    Any other duties as reasonably requested by a person of an appropriate seniority.
 
Skills set
A Legal PA also has a responsibility to ensure that his or her skills set is up to date and he or she is familiar with the firm’s internal systems and procedures.  This will ensure that he or she is able to carry out his or her role effectively and, where appropriate, discuss any training requirements with the relevant person(s).

•    Accurate typing speed of at least 70 words per minute.
•    Advanced knowledge of CRM, Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Visual Files, Elite, Winscribe and the Internet.
•    Excellent telephone manner and, after training, competent knowledge of telephone system.
•    Excellent communication, organisational and team skills.
•    Excellent attention to detail.
•    Flexible and dependable, able to take the initiative.
•    Able to remain calm under pressure.
•    The ability to work to tight deadlines on a daily basis.
•    Conscientious, approachable and enthusiastic.
•    Quickly builds respect and trust.