Legal Secretary (Commercial Dispute Resolution) - Bristol (hybrid)

Job Introduction

DACBeachcroft has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Legal Secretary to join our Commercial Dispute Resolution team on a full-time, permanent, basis.

This is a hybrid role, with an expectation to come into our Bristol office 1-2 days per week.

Our Commercial Dispute Resolution team within the Professional and Commercial Risk Department advises in-house legal teams and corporations on the full range of commercial disputes. They also act for insurers and professional organisations when they are faced with the threat of a professional negligence claim. They act on numerous high value and sensitive claims for clients. The team is involved in litigation, pre-action negotiations and is experienced in the deployment of alternative dispute resolution techniques, including mediation and arbitration.

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

• Proactively manage diaries
• Open new files
• Liaise and build relationships as appropriate with clients and their support staff
• Book client and internal meetings
• Prepare correspondence and documents from digital dictation
• Answer and make telephone calls
• Manage the case management system
• Prepare document bundles for fee earners
• File, archive, photocopy, scan and fax documents as and when required
• Ensure that client contact information is kept up to date
• Assist with the booking of travel arrangements
• Liaise with counsel and other legal representatives
• Proactively assist with ad-hoc business development and communications activities e.g. client contact reports, delegate packs etc.
• Effective prioritisation of tasks whilst managing a full workload
• Proactively assisting with billing, cash collection and accounts queries and liaising with internal support teams to resolve issues quickly and effectively, including dealing with expenses claims
• Sharing documentation electronically and handling bundles using PDF docs
• Effectively work with fee earners and secretarial team members  
• Handle confidential information in line with the firm’s data security protocols

The Ideal Candidate

• Previous secretarial experience within a legal/professional services environment, ideally within a Professional and Commercial Risk team is preferred (however not essential).
• Previous experience with Visual Files/Imanage and 3E is preferred
• A secretarial NVQ / Diploma or equivalent would be beneficial but is not essential
• Must have good IT skills, particularly in Microsoft packages
• An excellent eye for detail with a concern for quality and accuracy
• A focused client service approach is essential
• Team oriented and collaborative with a flexible, can do attitude
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely orally and in writing

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, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, 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