Bilingual Associate - Private Client

Hours: 9.30am - 5.30pm

Department: Private Client

We are looking for an ambitious, professional dual English / Spanish qualified Associate to join our large and expanding Private Client team based in Putney. The candidate should ideally be around 2 years + PQE (although we will consider all levels) with excellent academics (ideally 2:1 or equivalent). Speaking fluent Spanish is a must. The candidate should be highly motivated and demonstrate experience of a wide range of private client work, with a keen desire to develop their knowledge and practice.

The caseload would include all the variety of private client work, and expertise and experience in one or more of the following areas would be a bonus: trusts, tax, mental capacity, cross border work. STEP qualification or tax focused qualifications, such as ATT, will be strongly supported.

The Private Client team at Russell Cooke has a well-established reputation and broad experience over the entire sector. The team is well known for its Cross-Border expertise in international matters and includes a Spanish qualified desk where this role sits, which assists clients with Spanish property and private client matters as well as also working on broader general private client work.

Main Duties

• Proactive conduct of own caseload - under line management of supervising partner and with support of other more junior fee-earners including trainee solicitors and legal assistants (paralegals)
• Strong focus on business development to bring your own work, to include networking, article writing, cross-departmental relationship building, developing referrer relationships such as Accountants, Wealth managers etc
• Excellent financial management including time recording and billing to reach annual targets (measured on fees received).
• Participation in firm wide events

Client Relations

• To provide a high-quality service to all Russell Cooke clients
• To independently develop and maintain good client relationship skills, gaining clients’ confidence and that of other professionals
• Receive requests for advice from current and potential clients and deciding on the most appropriate responses to make to these requests
• Establishing a plan to solve a client’s problems

Personal Development

• Qualify into and maintain professional development in a professional body such as STEP, ATT or similar
• Maintain Spanish qualification and relevant annual training
• Support internal procedures and systems of Russell Cooke including file and financial management
• Participate in team meetings
• Develop management skills eg by supervising junior fee earners, especially trainees
• Attend internal training and external training as and when required
• Read journals and attend courses as part of continuing professional development and to share knowledge
• Maintain high standards of professional conduct while generating adequate practice income, ensuring that the fees earned sufficiently exceed total costs and expenses incurred

Qualifications & Experience

• Qualified as a lawyer in England and Spain
• Degree level 2:1 and ideally commendation at LPC level
• Working towards qualification of a relevant professional body such as STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) or ATT/CTA
• Highly numerate, IT literate, with excellent working knowledge of Excel.

Your career development

Russell Cooke's lawyers are rounded professional advisers with strong commercial awareness and a commitment to exceeding client expectations. All our lawyers benefit from our cohort based career development programme. We understand the importance of building an internal network and have developed this excellent cohort programme to allow our lawyers to work together across practice areas and share their knowledge, experiences and networks. At each stage of your career, a bespoke training programme will be provided to support you with your development and progression.

Salary and benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We have a diverse workforce and aim to attract high calibre applicants who reflect the demography of our geographical location and client base. Individuals will be employed solely on merit and the requirement of the position. No applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, race, marital status, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion. Reasonable adjustments will be made to eliminate or reduce disadvantage.