Legal Secretary (Professional & Commercial Risk) - Bristol

Job Introduction

DACBeachcroft has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Legal Secretary to join our Professional & Commercial Risk (P&CR) team on a full-time, permanent, hybrid basis in our Bristol office.

The main purpose of this role is to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to fee earners across the specified practice.

Our Professional and Commercial Risk Team advises 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 throughout the UK and the rest of Europe, including accountants, architects, brokers, engineers, lawyers and their insurers. The team is particularly 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

• Team Player and good initiative
• 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).
• Qualified to a minimum of 5 GCSEs (including a grade C in English and Maths) or equivalent
• A secretarial NVQ / Diploma or equivalent would be beneficial but is not essential
• Must have good IT skills, particularly in Microsoft applications
• 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're a leading international legal business with over 3,000 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We're market leaders in insurance, health and real estate but with a full-service offering, including growing Financial Services and Tech capabilities. We represent a wide range of clients – from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for nearly all of the top-20 UK and global insurers, we're 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-five housebuilders.
We are a fast-growing international business with offices around the globe.  In addition to our 11 UK offices, we also have offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Rome, Singapore, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Miami, plus a broad network of affiliations across the globe. 

Working with us
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. Combine this with our supportive culture and hybrid working model, and you have: a Life that Works.
Our flexible approach means that we help our colleagues to be their best at work, while recognising that they have all sorts of different interests and commitments outside work.
We pride ourselves on our supportive, approachable culture. We are trusted, appreciated as individuals and embraced as part of a team. At DACB, we don’t just accept your differences, we celebrate and advocate for them. From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you as 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!

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft LLP resourcing 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 resourcing team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our resourcing team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft