Personal Assistant

This website is operated, hosted and managed by Williams Lea Limited, 3 Savannah Way, Leeds LS10 1AB, United Kingdom.

Salary: £22,400 per annum (FTE £28,000), plus company benefits

Contract: Part Time, Permanent

Shifts: 30 hours per week, Monday – Friday, either 9am - 3.30pm or 10am - 4.30pm with 30 minute unpaid break

Williams Lea seeks a Personal Assistant to join our team! Williams Lea is the leading global provider of skilled, technology-enabled, business-critical support services, with long-term trusted relationships with blue-chip clients across investment banks, law firms and professional services firms.

Purpose of role

The role of the Personal Assistant is to provide enhanced, proactive support to fee earners to enable them to operate efficiently. The support provided needs to be a seamless legal service to clients. The Personal Assistant role is expected to use a high degree of self-management and initiative and to maintain a high level of confidentiality.

The Personal Assistant will act as workflow manager for other support services. This includes delegating and supervising the completion of document production, file management and copying/scanning work which are primarily undertaken by other relevant business support services.

Key responsibilities

• Proactively managing complex diaries
• Answering telephone calls in a timely fashion, taking clear and detailed messages
• Organising internal and external meetings
• Liaising with clients via email or telephone and acting as a point of contact in keeping with the firm’s standards for client care
• Assisting fee earners in the billing and credit control process. Generating accurate billing reports, draft bills, and accompanying letters in a timely manner
• Assisting fee earners with finance tasks, namely requesting cheques, CHAPS/BACS payments, bank transfers and paying in money received, as appropriate
• Ensuring accurate and timely use of client relationship management tool to facilitate matter opening, maintenance, closure and archiving
• Maintaining up to date client records on the firm’s client relationship management tool, including client contact details, client specific requests in relation to billing and bill formats, details of other parties etc in line with the firm’s policy and processes
• Co-ordinating fee earner movements and making travel arrangements
• Managing the client and matter inception process ensuring files are opened in a timely manner in accordance with the firm’s policies
• Managing the process of submitting partner/fee earners expenses in a timely manner
• Co-ordinating the completion of document production (including digital dictations/manuscript amendments), e-filing and file management, photocopying and scanning services, organising couriers, sending out of letters/faxes etc
• Managing the production of official papers including bundles and relevant documents
• Drafting documents from precedents
• Liaising with fee earners and support staff based in other offices
• Actively participating in all relevant training
• Demonstrating flexibility with working practices/processes in line with the business need, especially in times of pressure/ high workload
• Assisting other members of the department, both proactively and at the request of the team leader and work effectively with other legal and support departments as required

Personal attributes

• Previous PA experience is essential
• Previous experience within a legal or professional services setting preferable
• Exceptional standard of written and verbal communication
• Competent with the Microsoft Office suite
• Team player

Rewards and Benefits

We believe in supporting our employees in both their professional and personal lives. As part of our commitment to your well-being, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including but not limited to:

• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part time roles)
• Salary sacrifice schemes, retail vouchers – including our TechScheme which can be used on a range of gadgets such as Smart TVs, laptops and computers or household appliances.
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance
• Health Assessments
• Discounted gym memberships
• Referral Scheme

You will also have the opportunity to work for a global employer who is dedicated to offering each and every employee an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding career with future career development prospects!

Equality and Diversity

The Company values the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the organisation and will not discriminate because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation (each of these being a “protected characteristic” in discrimination law). It will not discriminate because of any other irrelevant factor and will build a culture that values openness, fairness and transparency.

If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like to make a reasonable adjustment to enable you to make an interview please contact us at careersatWL@williamslea.com (we do not accept applications to this email address).

In a rapidly changing world, the ability to innovate and break new ground drives progress. Williams Lea has harnessed this ability for more than 200 years. Our 5,200+ talented employees worldwide are experts in delivering efficient business processes in complex and highly regulated environments. We’re always progressing. Connecting technology with expertise and strong processes to transform support services. As we enter our third century, we continue helping businesses thrive in a future driven by digitization and virtualization.