Legal Secretary in Chelmsford

The firm Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client.

The department currently comprises over 28 specialist lawyers, including eight partners. We have the strength and depth of expertise to ensure we deliver the service you would expect in respect of technical quality, practical approach and timeliness of advice. We act as trusted advisers to individuals, families, family or owner-run businesses both in the UK and internationally. The team won the Lexis Nexis award for the best family team to work for in 2024. We are a collaborative and supportive team and pride ourselves on our sense of community and belonging.

Purpose of job: You will work in the Family Team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to all aspects of the family law services we offer. You will work from our Chelmsford office and provide support to our fee earners in the London office.

• Divorce
• Separation
• Relationship difficulties
• Modern Families - includes surrogacy, adoption, fertility law
• International family issues
• Pre and post marriage agreements
• Children arrangements
• Mediation
• One Couple One lawyer
• Arbitration
• Financial arrangements

Accountabilities:

• Technical ability: To produce and amend documents including PDF court bundles with speed and accuracy. To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style. To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar. To be a user of key software packages and take responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business. To proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients' expectations and deadlines.
• Administrative skills: Manage diaries of fee earners in Microsoft Outlook. To scan and save incoming and outgoing post. Familiarity with the creation and management of datarooms and file management processes. To add and amend data on Intapp, including contact details intermediaries, and referrals into and out of the team. To open new clients and to open and close matters and carry out conflict checks where appropriate. To complete the client engagement process, including preparing letters of engagement and sending Thirdfort invitations. Making appointments. Arranging meetings/conferences. Sending and responding to invites. To arrange payments. To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals. To keep team spreadsheets up to date. To carry out photocopying and scanning as required. Be the coordinator for mediation enquiries and matters.

The candidate will have the ability to contribute at an operational level, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

• Strong administration experience
• Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach to all work
• Reliable
• Strong attention to detail and high level organisational skills
• Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative and a desire to learn
• A desire to share new processes to support the wider team

Skills:

• Strong typing speed of at least 50 wpm
• Excellent spelling and punctuation
• Excellent written and verbal communications
• Ability to use discretion
• Excellent IT skills, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Positive and enthusiastic approach to team work
• Good telephone manner
• Adaptable and flexible
• Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to fee-earners
• Ability to pay attention to detail and check own work
• Reliable and well organised
• Ability to remain calm and work under pressure to meet strict deadlines

Benefits: At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award - 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid CSR Day
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Agile/Hybrid Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy