PA to the UK BD Leadership Team (12 months Fixed Term Contract) in London

The role has two primary objectives: to provide PA support to assist the daily operations of the UK BD Leadership Team and ongoing responsibilities that are critical to the running of the London BD function.

Business Development
Clients are at the heart of our business. Our business development team is dedicated to delivering an exceptional client experience and working alongside lawyers and partners to grow and deepen client relationships. The team also assists our people in building their public profiles and promoting thought leadership. Our marketing professionals work to strengthen the firm's brand across a range of media.

The Role
If you are a commercially minded individual with a passion for business development and service delivery in a professional services environment, you could be just what we are looking for. This successful candidate will provide administrative support to the Client Director, UK & EMEA, Client Director, Strategic Projects and other members of the UK BD Management Team, and to Chele Dore, the Chief Client Officer when she is in London.

Key responsibilities

• The provision of full administrative and secretarial support includes:
• Proactive diary and inbox management, using discretion and business knowledge to prioritise commitments and respond to requests.
• Extensive meeting management ensuring Directors have accurate and timely information prior to meetings and are assisted with the preparation of meeting agendas, presentations or print outs.
• Using AI to help rationalise, evolve and augment existing processes and tasks. Challenge ways of working and ensuring AI-led outputs are fit for purpose and accurate.
• Preparation for meetings including organising meeting rooms, IT arrangements, refreshments, lunches and liaising with visitors.
• Taking minutes as and when required, including editing output from CoPilot and other AI/Tech tools and following up proactively on action points.
• Assisting with a range of reporting which could be financial, D&I, CSR etc.
• Managing telephone calls, dealing with enquiries, relaying accurate messages, and advising on actions taken as appropriate.
• All administration such as keeping the contacts database up to date, invoicing, expense claims etc.
• Record keeping and filing ensuring all documents (electronic and hard copy) are kept up to date and organised.
• Arranging events, lunches, dinners, and other events including viewing venues and menu planning.
• Maintaining organisational charts.
• Organising and arranging office space and seating arrangements for teams and senior levels when required.
• Processing invoices, expenses for foreign currency and credit card expenses.
• Providing PA assistance to international staff visiting the London Office, arranging their meeting schedules, IT requirements, office/desk space, passes, meeting room bookings.
• Administering holiday and absences for the UK BD Directors and their direct reports in London as and when required.
• Arranging for signatures and authorisation of expense claims/other required signatures.
• Extensive management and coordination of workshops, conferences, team bonding and away days including venue arrangements, liaising with facilitator of events, working to budgets etc.
• Arranging training courses as and when required.
• Other ad hoc tasks as necessary.
• Arranging Complex Travel including internal/connecting flights, trains, accommodation, car bookings.
• Organising PA support during stay in other offices, IT requirements, office/desk space, passes, meeting room bookings.
• All necessary travel information prepared and presented to the traveller prior to their departure.
• Organising visas where applicable.
• Ordering/returning foreign currency advances for expenses claimed whilst travelling.

Additional responsibilities

• Managing the Firm's PSMG and TheCityUK memberships.
• Assisting HR and UK BD Management Teams with performance reviews.
• BD budget management (working with UK BD Directors), including processing invoices and expenses.
• Administering the London BD training programme and Regional Town Halls, including arranging global Teams.
• Maintaining and working to improve the BD intranet pages.
• Maintaining the BD areas in Worksite.
• Managing facts & figures documents, contact documents, disaster recovery contact documents and procedures, collating London holiday charts.
• Supporting secondments including dates, suggesting schedules and meetings, creating itineraries, point of contact for secondees in London.
• Supporting key BD/Marketing initiatives such as client surveys and filming.

Qualifications, Skills & Experience
Should have a minimum of 4+ years' experience in a similar PA or Secretarial role, ideally within professional services. Intermediate to advanced skill level with the Microsoft suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). An innovative mindset, curious about AI and emerging technologies. Excellent written and verbal communication skills and telephone manner with a demonstrated ability to build effective and trusting relationships with people internally and externally to the firm. Proven high level organisational and time management skills with the ability to think ahead, prioritise workload, respond to and manage changing circumstances and work under pressure to meet deadlines. Attention to detail with high level of accuracy. Good judgement and problem-solving ability. Excellent people skills with the ability to influence, persuade and negotiate both internally and externally at all levels. A positive, proactive approach to injecting enthusiasm and energy into the working environment. An innovative mindset, curious about AI and emerging technologies.