Administrative Assistant (Professional and Commercial Risk) - Leeds

Job Introduction

DACBeachcroft has an exciting opportunity for an experienced and knowledgeable administrator to join our Professional and Commercial Risk team as an Administrative Assistant on a full-time, permanent basis in our Leeds office.

Reporting into the Secretarial Team Leader (STL), the role will provide administrative support across the team. Work will come directly from the Team Leader or Secretaries. The role is accountable for establishing and maintaining an ongoing service-based relationship with the team they support recognising and translating the needs and expectations into a responsive service.

We are a Disability Confident employer and guarantee to interview anyone with a disability, long term health condition or neurodiversity whose application meets the essential criteria for the role.  If this applies to you and you feel you meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy as set out in this advert then please contact recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com in confidence, quoting the reference number for this vacancy in the subject box of your email, and a member of the Recruitment team will be in touch.

Role Responsibility

• Ensuring current protocols and practices within the Department are followed, sharing knowledge with the Team Leader and wider team so these can be built into current practices where necessary
• Assisting the Team Leader and Secretaries as directed in the organisation of internal and external events, seminars, conferences and training sessions as well as arranging DACB merchandise where required, IT assistance, travel booking, printing/circulating materials
• File opening - matters are set up on the relevant case management system, along with any supporting documents to be saved and communicating any financial requirements at set up stage to the Accounts Department/updating the matter clearly as to those instructions
• Closing and archiving –  undertaking all file closing/archiving procedures ensuring compliant at all times
• Arranging meetings both externally and internally, arranging any travel and catering required
• Arranging travel bookings (train/taxi/hotel and flight bookings) as requested
• Arranging hand deliveries and courier requests, and other adhoc requests
• Printing/copying/scanning of documents flowing to Office Services for support with high volume jobs, as appropriate
• Dealing with incoming post – managing distribution of electronic post to the fee earners, saving to the matter file using protocol and naming conventions in line with DACB guidelines`
• Collating and indexing legal documentation/bundles, using PDF documents
• Typing of standard letters i.e. correspondence/documents/notes (Bighand dictation)
• Arranging TTs/BACs/Faster Payments – as well as verifying bank details and carrying out sanction checks
• Providing live financial stat figures for individual matters when requested
• Creating or amending presentations

Communication

• Liaising with fellow team members on workloads and ensure deadlines are consistently met
• Answering internal calls to other members of the team
• Liaising with and taking direction from your Team Leader and Team Secretaries as well as lawyers where necessary

Financial

• Assisting with billing queries as and when required
• Dealing with matter related finance administration including matter set up billing criteria and figure stats from 3E
• Assisting with expenses as required
• Assist with drafting emails to send out invoices for fee earners

Processing

• Responsible for managing priorities and workloads to ensure deadlines are met.  Liaising with Team Leader where challenges arise
• Responsible for creating and uploading information to client data rooms, in line with instructions from Team Leader or Team Secretaries
• Production of court bundles, both paper and electronic copies, ensuring bundles are sent out on time or uploaded to electronic platforms in line with lawyer instructions and court rules; suitable delivery methods pre-booked as needed
• Ensuring compliance with firm wide/department policies and procedures
• Responsible for checking post and/or emails and dealing with as appropriate ensuring all client related correspondence is appropriately filed in firm’s document management systems

Customer Service

• Liaising with lawyers and Team Leader to take instruction and liaise on work requirements

The Ideal Candidate

• Relevant office-based administration experience where possible 
• An aptitude for administration management and processes, ideally with previous experience of working with document management/case management systems
• Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Office
• An effective communicator with the ability to liaise with internal and external clients in a professional manner; striving to provide exceptional service at all times
• Good organisational skills and ability to manage own time effectively within a fast-paced environment
• Conscientious, taking personal responsibility for own work and accountability for its delivery and quality
• Positive can-do attitude with the ability to adapt to change
• Excellent attention to detail
• Customer/client service focused
• Proactive, professional and flexible approach to work 
• Keen to develop over a period of time with a willingness and ability to learn
• Excellent team player, sharing in team goals to provide excellent quality and efficiency of service, with a willingness to take on new responsibilities and challenges

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,900 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Rome, Singapore, Argentina Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in insurance, health and real estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

Application Details

At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences we celebrate them.  From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you like an individual.  Our strength comes from your diverse ideas and bringing the whole you to work. So if you’re good at what you do, come as you are.  We welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.

We also want you to be at your very best.  Please feel free to let us know of any changes we can make at any point in the recruitment process that will help support your application.  If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV.  Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft recruitment team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible.  We do work with recruitment agencies and where we require external support we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us.  Speculative CVs sent by any agency to any DAC Beachcroft employee without a specific request by the recruitment team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our recruitment team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft