Legal Secretary - Real Estate
Job Introduction
Our Real Estate team covers every aspect of commercial real estate work including planning and environmental, development, investment, asset management, funding, construction, landlord and tenant and dispute resolution. Clients include property management and development companies, health trusts and government bodies (local and central), owner occupiers and institutions, both in the UK and overseas.
We are seeking to recruit a secretary into this team to provide support to around 5 fee earners. There are 12 other secretaries in the team. Working as part of the team, you will be required to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to the Real Estate team.
Role Responsibility
The main purpose of this role is to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to fee earners across the specified practice.
- Prepare correspondence and documents from digital dictation
- Amending and formatting documents e.g. leases and agreements
- Effective prioritisation of tasks whilst managing a full workload
- Produce accounting information from the accounts system, prepare billing guides and draft invoices, and follow the department’s processes for production of final invoices (paperless proformas)
- File, archive, photocopy, scan and fax documents as and when required
- Sharefiling documents
- Ensure that client contact information is kept up to date
- Maintain a level of individual knowledge required for the role
- Help maintain a clean office and clear desk
- Assist with cash collection and account queries e.g. following-up on outstanding bills;
- Opening new matters and files on system, completing client due diligence with information provided by fee earners
- Book client and internal meetings
- Answer and make telephone calls
- Assist with the booking of travel arrangements
- Undertake Land Registry and Searchflow searches
- Handle confidential information in line with the firm’s data security protocols
- Creating project bibles
- Liaise and build relationships as appropriate with clients and their support staff
The Ideal Candidate
- Previous secretarial experience within a legal/professional services environment, ideally within a Real Estate team is preferred (however not essential) with a minimum typing speed of 65wpm
- 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 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
- Demonstrable ability to multitask and prioritise a full workload under pressure and the ability to work independently
About the Company
We are a leading international legal business with over 2,400 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Peru, Central America, Argentina, the USA, Australia and Germany.
We are known for our market-leading presence in sectors such as 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 the majority of the top 30 insurance and financial services companies operating in the UK. We are the asset management lawyers for the UK’s largest shopping centres and act for 9 of the UK’s top 10 housebuilders.
We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 155 Chambers UK 2019 practice area and individual lawyer rankings, including 30 rankings at 'Band 1' level. In Legal 500 UK, 2018, the firm received top tier ranking for 32 of its practice areas and 59 practice areas in the top two tiers. In March 2018, we were named as one of Legal Week's Best Legal Advisors for the third year running, achieving category-leading satisfaction scores for our commercial approach, service delivery, quality of legal advice, communication & responsiveness and overall relationships.
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.
DAC Beachcroft is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from every sector of the community. We also welcome direct applications. 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.
DAC Beachcroft