Legal Secretary (Employment, Pensions and Immigration) - Newcastle

Job Introduction

DACBeachcroft is looking for a Legal Secretary to join the Employment, Pensions and Immigration team in our Newcastle office.

Forming an integral part of an established team, the main purpose of this role is to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to a team of fee earners (including those with senior management responsibilities) across the practice area in Newcastle. 

The Employment and Pensions Group at DAC Beachcroft LLP is over 110 strong with 18 partners and offices in London, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol and Dublin. 

This role is within the Newcastle Employment, Pensions & Immigration Group which comprises 1 Partners, 1 Consultant, 2 Senior Associates, 4 Associates, 2 paralegals and 1 other Legal Secretary. The main focus of the team's work is complex employment work.  This includes a mix of high-volume and high-profile Employment Tribunal and Appellate Court litigation, organisational change management programmes, TUPE and industrial action to day-to-day employee relations issues including disciplinary and grievance cases, staff performance and absence management, contract, policies and procedures. 

Our clients are discerning and expect a gold standard of service.  The team services a high profile public sector client base, including major hospitals, regulators and commissioning bodies in the health sector as well as local and central government organisations. We also represent a number of in-house legal teams at house-hold name PLCs in the telecommunications, food and retail sectors, and insurers.

Role Responsibility

Able to work independently, pro-actively and with accuracy, key responsibilities include: 

Secretarial support

• Effective prioritisation and ownership of tasks whilst managing a full workload
• Providing a first class client-facing service, liaising positively with clients and their support staff over the phone/Teams, email and in person, and building relationships as appropriate
• Booking client and internal meetings, video and audio conferences
• Helping to set up new clients by getting Client identification documents, Company reports, Creditsafe reports etc and completing New Client Administration Forms
• Accurate and timely preparation of correspondence, agreements and other documents, including from digital dictation
• Creating and editing spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, making the most of available technology and showing appropriate creativity to maximise professional impact of documentation
• Amending documents, proof reading and creating comparisons to highlight changes
• Inputting relevant information into the team's case management system
• Preparing document bundles for fee earners
• Preparing draft engagement letters
• Opening and closing files
• Ensuring that client contact information is kept up to date on relevant systems
• Arrange client events, meetings and training sessions and booking attendance at external seminars
• Liaising with Counsel, other legal representatives and outside agencies (Office Services etc)

Financials

• Prepare expense claims;
• Complete all accounts forms;
• Providing  billing, cash collection and accounts support to fee earners, including monthly invoice generation, monitoring work-in-progress and tracking paid/outstanding invoices;
• Assist fee earners in all matter financial management and disciplines.  Working with Finance to ensure client balances are dealt with, bills are sent out promptly and that debt is proactively kept on top off.  Where necessary, attend monthly meetings with your fee earners and Finance and take forward actions agreed from those meetings.  

Diary management

• Proactive diary management: scheduling and re-scheduling appointments (both internally and externally) as appropriate, using the electronic diary;
• Book meeting rooms, arrange lunches, travel arrangements and all other appointments as required by the fee-earners; liaising with Travel Champions re complex travel.

General

• Helping maintain a clean office and clear desk;
• Supporting on cost-saving initiatives such as cheaper travel options;
• Regularly liaising with fee earners within your group and your STL to keep them updated as to workflows; ensure you keep your fee earners updated re deadlines for work;
• Advising accounts/IT of any change of address/telephone numbers/change of name of any external client so that databases are updated;
• Any other duties as may be reasonably required for the performance of your role.

The Ideal Candidate

• Previous secretarial experience within a legal/professional services environment, ideally within an Employment team, is preferred (however not essential) with a minimum typing speed of 65wpm.
• A secretarial NVQ / Diploma or equivalent would be beneficial but is not essential
• Must have good IT skills, particularly in Microsoft packages (including each of Outlook, Word, Powerpoint, Excel) and prior experience of working with a case management system is preferable.
• Good working knowledge of 3E accounts software or equivalent
• 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 2,500 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