Part Time Legal Secretary - 21 hours per week

Job Introduction

Healthcare and Clinical Risk is a core part of our business and we are the leading law firm in this field in the UK. Our teams are based in Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Winchester allowing us to offer truly national coverage to both public and private healthcare clients. The Bristol Clinical and Healthcare Risk team acts for the NHSLA, MDU, a large number of medical malpractice insurers and private sector hospitals, and serves both local NHS clients and national healthcare providers covering all aspects of healthcare related advice and representation.    

We are seeking to recruit a secretary on permanent basis into this team to provide support to around 4 fee earners. The team currently comprises around 22 fee earners, 4 paralegals, 2 administrators and 6 secretaries. Working as part of a team, you will be required to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to the Clinical Risk team. You will also be required to provide support across other practice groups as and when required.

Role Responsibility

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

Key Responsibilities

Able to working independently: 

• Proactively manage diaries
• Effective prioritisation of tasks whilst managing a full workload
• 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 (Solcase )
• 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
• Proactively assist with ad-hoc business development and communications activities e.g. client contact reports, delegate packs etc.
• Maintain a level of individual knowledge required for the role
• Effectively work with fee earners and secretarial team members 
• Help maintain a clean office and clear desk
• Handle confidential information in line with the firm’s data security protocols
• Encrypt PDFs  and create encrypted CDs and/or DVDs
• Upload documents to Client's Case Management System
• Prepare bundles – working alongside Office Services
• Prepare/update supervision lists for Partners

The Ideal Candidate

• Previous secretarial experience within a legal/professional services environment, ideally within a Clinical Negligence 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, 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