Legal Secretary - Commercial Litigation - London

Department: Global London Insurance - Commercial Litigation

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: London

Description

Working as part of a team, you will be required to provide an excellent standard of secretarial support to the commercial disputes team. You will also be required to provide support across the other practice groups as and when required. Working individually and as a team to act as a point of contact for lawyers and to ensure the effective completion of their work, as well as undertaking a variety of secretarial tasks.

Provide a high quality, comprehensive workflow management and organisational service to lawyers in the group and exceptional client service. The hours for this vacancy are Monday to Friday. This role is hybrid working with the requirement of three days in the office and two working from home.

Key Responsibilities

• Client Relationship Management
• Responsible for keeping up to date with client specific protocols and processes, implementing, providing guidance and training to others where necessary and ongoing monitoring
• Administrative
• Assisting with use of secure systems and passwords
• Email management – filing, saving, locating, deleting, responding where applicable and referring incoming mail to others as necessary and managing Inbox on behalf of colleagues as and when required
• Print, file, photocopy, scan, fax and archive documents as and when required
• Ensure that client contact information is kept up to date
• Update document bundles for fee earners
• Keep case files organised and logical
• Assist with incoming billing and accounts queries
• Answer and make telephone calls
• Book client meetings together with internal local and national meetings
• Assist with the planning and booking of travel arrangements
• 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
• Handle outgoing correspondence including electronic communications and encryption of documents using secure data transmission methods in line with client requirements
• Manage/General knowledge of external Client's case management system including adding outgoing correspondence and associated documentation on behalf of fee earners
• Collate enclosures for outgoing correspondence, instructions to Counsel, experts etc using electronic bundling
• General knowledge of case management system including running ad‑hoc documents
• Knowledge of new client set up to include money laundering regulations, documentation required and managing conflict checks
• Occasional preparation of correspondence and documents from digital dictation
• Help maintain a clean office and clear desk
• Handle confidential information in line with the firms data security protocols
• Communication
• Key point of contact for lawyers to maintain relationships and ensure a high level of support is always provided by the team
• Monitor post and/or emails and dealing with as appropriate ensuring all client related correspondence is passed on to an appropriate lawyer and actioned as necessary; proactively responding to and drafting responses on behalf of others, prioritising emails, collating necessary paperwork and e‑filing
• Liaising with and providing support to their immediate colleagues in the department, and where practical, other legal and support departments as requested by STL. Assisting others where there is spare capacity or it is evident that a colleague needs assistance with their workload
• Answering phone calls for other members of the team when they are away from their desk
• Liaison with and taking direction from your STL
• Liaise with the STL over any planned absences, arranging cover as necessary and communicating this to the relevant lawyers
• Financial
• Full engagement in billing process including inputting time, knowledge of rates and client preferences, managing the billing process from narrative generation onwards with input from the fee earning team
• Reviewing and updating time allocation and disbursements ensuring appropriate matter allocation
• Requesting cheques