Team Personal Assistant (General Counsel, Compliance & Risk)

Reporting to the General Counsel, the Team Personal Assistant (PA) to General Counsel and Compliance & Risk team is responsible for supporting the General Counsel and the wider Compliance & Risk (C&R) team to provide full, comprehensive administrative support in all aspects of their work.

The C&R team’s mandate is wide ranging and includes:

• Ensuring that the firm complies with its legal and regulatory obligations
• Liaising with the SRA
• Advising the firm on risk issues affecting the firm’s business generally
• Leading on delivering relevant guidance and training
• Developing and implementing appropriate policies and procedures to ensure compliance and mitigate risk
• Managing the onboarding of clients and new matter opening
• Advising on client engagement terms and vendor contracts
• Advising Partners and employees on professional compliance and ethics issues that may arise such as conflicts
• Advising on data privacy compliance
• Dealing with client complaints
• Dealing with disputes with (former) clients and suppliers
• Managing the firm’s insurance policies

The Team Personal Assistant to General Counsel, Compliance & Risk must be highly organised and driven, whilst having a strong track record in providing senior level support in an emotionally intelligent way. The successful candidate will support the C&R team’s effectiveness by ensuring a responsive and efficient level of administrative support to team members and the internal clients that C&R serves. The role will be a focal point of contact both within the C&R team and for colleagues seeking the assistance of C&R, judging priorities and ensuring the delivery of a high level client-focused service. It is crucial that the successful candidate understands and protects the highly confidential nature of information handled by the C&R team.

We are looking for an exceptional colleague who is an outstanding professional in their field, someone who is happy to challenge the status quo and has a ‘firm first’ mentality. This is a fast-paced and demanding role; it requires flexibility and resilience whilst offering the opportunity to work on a wide variety of different tasks and play a key role in ensuring the firm operates in accordance with its legal and regulatory obligations.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Providing an effective administrative service to the General Counsel, the Director of Compliance and other Heads of sub-teams, as well as to the wider team as capacity allows
• Assisting with regulatory liaison and updating the firm’s SRA account as required
• Liaison with the firm’s senior management and their support staff
• Meeting scheduling and extensive diary management
• Providing necessary documentation in a timely, efficient way for internal and external meetings
• Acting as Secretary to the firm’s Risk Committee, including organising meetings, agenda management and full minute taking
• Taking minutes of other internal meetings where necessary
• Liaising with internal and external person/s for all meeting logistics including venue, attendance, refreshments and the distribution of materials
• Managing team travel to the firm’s offices globally including visas and itineraries, where applicable
• Processing invoices, purchase orders and expense claims in a timely manner
• Helping prepare and administer relevant budgets
• Assisting with insurance renewals process
• Helping organise training sessions, including C&R’s delivery of training within the firm
• Liaising with external training providers and managing attendance at conferences
• Responding to correspondence via post and email on behalf of your stakeholders
• Assisting with creation of C&R alerts, updates and newsletters to be circulated within the C&R team and firmwide
• Answering and transferring telephone calls to the relevant person/team
• Using 3E to identify relevant information about clients and matters (matter numbers, billing status, CDD status etc)
• Taking ownership and maintaining the relevant intranet pages, ensuring content is kept up to date and accurate
• General administration tasks including preparing documents, proof reading and the creation of PDF bundles
• Helping to set up and manage client information barriers within iManage
• Assisting with ad hoc administration and project tasks
• Attending team meetings to share information and have clarity on future actions. Following up on actions as necessary to assist with moving things forward
• Liaising with other operational teams as required, especially Finance, FinSys, IT, HR and Business Development
• Managing team social events
• Complying with all relevant legal and regulatory obligations including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Standards and Regulations, and Principles.

Skills and Experience

• Previous experience as a Team PA and working with senior management is essential, ideally in a legal environment
• Previous operational experience is desirable
• A good working knowledge of Microsoft Suite, including Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Previous experience using iManage is helpful

Person Specification

• A proactive can-do approach and able to use initiative when required and demonstrates good judgement
• A professional manner with excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Builds rapport quickly
• Ability to balance competing priorities and multitask in a fast-paced environment, adapting to challenging deadlines
• Ability to classify the relative urgency of different tasks through understanding the broader role and objectives of the C&R team
• Accustomed to dealing with people at all levels with tact and diplomacy
• Flexible and dependable, will do extra hours where needed
• Maintaining confidentiality and discretion at all times
• Excellent attention to detail, highly organised and efficient