Legal Practice Assistant – Corporate Real Estate and Funds (2 Days per Week) in London

At BCLP, we’ve built our firm on the foundations of thinking differently. Curious, inquisitive and unbound by tradition, we’re building change within our sector and beyond.

It starts with our people, which is why we need a Legal Practice Assistant to join our team and to provide fee earners with effective, pro-active, professional and high quality LPA support that enables them to focus on providing legal services to clients. It is a key requirement that the LPA is able to demonstrate exceptional organizational skills and an ability to use their initiative at all times. They will be an integral part of a busy team and will need to interact daily with partners, fee earners and clients to understand ever-changing needs, and have the ability to prioritize workloads and liaise with Legal Admin Assistants, DPS and other support functions to ensure timely delivery. An LPA may also have work delegated to them from an LPA with coordinating responsibilities.

Organisation, diary and contact management:

• Pro-actively manage and maintain partner and fee earners' diaries, making appointments and co-ordinating internal and external client meetings, and ensure all work activities are scheduled effectively, including the identification and resolution of potential challenges and clashes.
• Arrange (or delegate to Legal Admin Assistants) the booking of meeting rooms, video conference facilities, cars, refreshments, restaurants etc, and liaise with internal and external meeting attendees.
• Management of fee earners’ inboxes when they are out of the office (holidays/long meetings) and monitoring and responding to post and/or emails, prioritising correspondence to enable fee earners to focus on urgent matters and using initiative to route emails to the appropriate individuals for swift response and action; wherever possible, responding to and filing emails in to iManage on behalf of partners and fee earners to reduce volume.
• Responding and dealing with external or internal telephone calls and queries in a professional manner, taking clear and concise messages for other members of the practice group as required.
• Organising travel arrangements through the travel company, booking and confirmation of reservations, flights, hotels, car transfers, ordering currency and expense claims and producing detailed itineraries.
• Organise individual client entertainment – e.g. deal closing dinners/drinks, table plans, travel booking, arranging small-scale hospitality for Partners or teams.
• Arrange events (invitations and bookings for in-house and small external gatherings, individual client entertainment deal closing dinners/drinks, table plans, travel booking etc), occasional support at event e.g. registration desks.

Preparation of key correspondence, reports and business development (BD):

• Manage the flow to DPS of complex, lengthy legal documents, visualisations, house style client/training/seminar/conference presentations, reports, dictation, ensuring requirements and timescales are clearly set out.
• Typing and drafting where appropriate simple client correspondence; proof reading all work to ensure consistent accuracy and high standard, and finding documents on iManage.
• Preparation of agendas, presentations and meeting papers, including print production and timely distribution and chasing papers for meetings and ensuring that fee earners have papers and adequate planning time.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the end-to-end billing process and Elite financial reporting; assisting fee earners by liaising with the billing team, producing the relevant documentation and reports, and prompting fee earners to complete all necessary paperwork etc.
• Maintain fee earner CVs; pro-actively asking about adding new deals and cases to their CV upon completion of a matter, uploading onto Connexus and informing BD about any need for web CV changes.
• Amend and occasionally creating capability statements for inputting edits to client facing documents, typing riders, sourcing updated fee earner CVs then submitting to the BD team by required deadline.
• Production of engrossed documents, particularly those with multiple appendices.

Undertaking, or if appropriate delegating to a Legal Admin Assistant and thereafter managing, day-to-day administrative tasks such as:

• Undertake, or where appropriate delegate and manage, day-to-day administrative tasks including printing, scanning, photocopying, document production, courier requests and expense processing.
• Manage file opening processes, including conflict checks, anti-money laundering requirements and liaison with the Business Acceptance Team.
• Maintain effective document and file management systems, including archiving and electronic filing.
• Support fee earners with CRM management, contact updates, business development activity and meeting preparation.
• Assist with pitches, events and marketing activities, including mailing lists, speaker materials, RSVP management and delegate enquiries.
• Support the maintenance of Connexus pages, client sites and extranets.
• Assist with diversity and inclusion initiatives, meetings, events and related administration.
• Support knowledge-sharing programmes, training sessions and learning events, including logistics, communications and materials management.
• Undertake research using online resources and databases.
• Assist with legal documentation management, deeds scheduling and deeds administration.
• Maintain deal databases and ensure relevant post-completion information is recorded and updated
• Process administrative requirements such as travel invoices, expense claims, individual memberships and payment requests.

Skills and experience required:

• Enthusiastic, proactive and positive approach, including tasks outside normal duties.
• Takes ownership, accountability and personal responsibility.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, using clear, concise and professional language.
• Friendly, approachable and collaborative.
• Remains calm under pressure and knows when to seek support.
• Builds strong relationships with Partners, Fee Earners, colleagues and clients.
• Listen effectively and asks questions to gather the information needed to act.
• Maintains tact, diplomacy, confidentiality and trust.

Organisational skills:

• Proven ability to manage workloads, prioritise effectively and adapt to changing demands and deadlines.
• Highly organised, with a focus on continuous improvement and efficiency.
• Motivated to become fully engaged in the role.

Knowledge/Technical/General Skills:

• Previous PA experience is essential, ideally within a corporate professional services environment.
• Complex billing, diary and inbox management experience preferred.
• Strong Microsoft Office and legal systems knowledge.
• Professional and effective telephone manner.
• Client-focused, with the ability to anticipate needs and respond proactively.
• Able to work independently and collaboratively.
• Demonstrates sound judgement, problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Strong attention to detail, with the ability to quality-check work and identify issues before review.
• Accountable, professional and commercially aware.
• Committed to continuous learning and development.
• Handles sensitive and confidential information with discretion.
• Willing to learn about different cultures and build effective working relationships.

Other requirements:

• Flexibility with responsibilities and working hours as required and willingness to go the ‘extra mile’ as required.

At Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner we understand the value of a diverse workforce and we believe people perform at their best when they can truly be themselves at work. We aim to create an inclusive environment where all our employees are valued, motivated and able to be themselves. In order to provide the best possible service to our diverse client base, we are committed to recruiting, retaining, rewarding and developing our people with regard to their abilities and contributions and without reference to their background, gender, gender identity or expression, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, political belief, disability or any other protected characteristic

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