Legal Secretary

Job Introduction

Currently recruiting for a Legal Secretary to support to a number of Fee Earners in the Real Estate department. 

Hours: Monday to Friday 9.00-5.00

Our non-contentious Construction Team advises house builders, property owners, consultants and contractors on all matters related to the construction of buildings and engineering projects, including negotiating and drafting build contracts and other documents. The team is particularly experienced in advising major house builders on both high-end and affordable residential developments.

The team operates across a number of sectors including: residential development, commercial and investment, retail, renewable energy and infrastructure.

Teams are drawn from our offices across the country (London, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Bristol), ensuring our clients benefit from a combination of the most appropriately experienced team and local market knowledge.

In all cases we provide high quality, commercially orientated advice to clients for whom property is a key asset.

Role Responsibility

• Typing of standard letters and emails i.e. acceptance of events, acknowledging receipt of documents, sending out invoices and completed documents.
• Preparation of correspondence and documents from digital dictation and copy typing together with amending and formatting of documents.
• Uploading documents to PDF docs and editing documents using the same.
• Prepare and print document engrossments for fee earners.
• Effective prioritisation of tasks whilst managing a full workload.
• Answer and make telephone calls.
• Manage the team’s case management system.
• File opening and closure, following compliance rules and undertaking conflict searches.
• Electronic filing, archiving, photocopy and scanning as and when required.
• Ensure client contact information is kept up to date.
• Use of Land Registry and Searchflow websites.
• Assist with the teams billing, cash collection, accounts queries and other financial reporting, production of paperless proformas and general use of Elite Enterprise accounts package.
• Assist with booking of travel arrangements.
• Managing various inboxes.
• Submission of expenses for fee earners.
• Proactively manage diaries.
• Book client and internal meetings.
• Assist with ad-hoc business development and communications activities e.g. client contact reports, delegate packs, seminar organisation etc.
• Liaise and build relationships as appropriate with clients and their support staff.
• Effectively work with fee earners, secretarial team members and legal representatives.
• Maintain a level of individual knowledge required for the role.
• Help maintain a clean office and clear desk.
• Handle confidential information in line with the firms data security protocols.

The Ideal Candidate

Technical Skills / Experience

• Good knowledge of Microsoft and other commonly used software to include Excel and Powerpoint.
• Effective and professional telephone manner.
• A team player and willing to assist and work using own initiative.
• Able to anticipate problems and develop solutions.
• Client focused.
• Experience in a demanding, high performing professional services environment.
• Excellent organisational skills and time-management skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Ability to work well under pressure remaining calm and focussed.
• Ability to develop self and others and be learning oriented, wanting to learn and seek improvement.
• Accountable and professional.
• Interested in construction/development desirable but not essential.

Personal Attributes

• Constant enthusiastic, can-do and positive approach to tasks and situations as well as requests for action outside normal scope of duties.
• Ability to take personal responsibility, ownership and behave responsibly.
• Friendly, co-operative and approachable at all times.
• Extremely organised.
• A good communicator with individuals of all levels.
• Listens carefully and questions to make sure you have all the information you need to take action.
• A resilient character with a positive attitude.
• Ability to be flexible and self-motivated.
• Displays discretion when dealing with sensitive information.
• A strong team player.
• Professionally presented.

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, Paris, 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