Executive Assistant to the CEO

About Withers

A law firm focused on people, performance, and collaboration. For the past 130 years, we have supported some of the world’s most remarkable people and organizations at defining moments in their lives. We are united in our commitment to integrity, quality and collaboration. We have a culture of high performance and deliver excellent service consistently across the firm. We provide tailored solutions built on trust and partner with our clients to achieve their goals.

What we are looking for?

We are recruiting a confident, client‑focused and forward‑thinking Executive Assistant to support our Global CEO, Chairperson and Global COO. The ideal candidate is a self‑starter, highly organised, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to use initiative and exercise judgement in challenging situations.

Areas Of Focus And Responsibilities

Management Role

• Act as principal gatekeeper to the CEO, managing complex and confidential matters with discretion.
• Serve as a key triage point, exercising strong judgement to filter, prioritise and manage incoming requests and communications.
• Represent the CEO appropriately with internal and external stakeholders.
• Serve as a trusted point of contact for Partners, Board members, senior leadership, clients and external advisors.
• Own and manage the CEO's calendar with full autonomy, resolving conflicts proactively and ensuring strategic priorities are reflected.
• Manage and triage the CEO's inbox, filtering, filing, drafting responses and escalating urgent matters.
• Manage end‑to‑end logistics of the CEO's travel, producing detailed itineraries, organising flights, accommodation, visas and on‑ground coordination.
• Produce accurate, high‑quality correspondence on behalf of the CEO, maintaining tone, precision and professional register.
• Produce high‑quality documentation such as slide decks, email/letter correspondence and other written materials; manage document version control and brand consistency.
• Keep up to date with and adopt new technologies, including AI, to improve working practices.
• Provide support to the Chairperson and COO on an ad‑hoc basis where needed.
• Take responsibility for administering the partner voting app and related processes.
• Maintain the Management and Partners Only sections of the firm's intranet system.
• Applications used: Outlook, MS Teams, Zoom, Copilot, Mimecast, Filesite, Bighand, InterAction, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Chrome River.

Client Practice

• Assist the CEO and their clients by email, telephone and all other forms of communication, including attending meetings when required.
• Ensure client service is maintained by delegating tasks to the matter supervisors on client matters.
• Provide practice support such as creating drafts of forms and documents, drafting and amending correspondence, researching client files, and delegating to the divisional support team where relevant.
• Arrange client conferences/video conferences via Zoom, MS Teams or other means, ensuring necessary delegation to hosts.
• Ensure e‑files are kept up to date, with assistance from the divisional support team, including filing incoming post in the digital mailroom.
• Assess physical mail and documents, giving instructions regarding destruction or archiving.
• Coordinate and support the hosting of in‑office events, activities and meetings, including overseeing venue and room set‑up and arranging catering.
• Keep the firm's client relationship management system (InterAction) effective, updating it regularly with relevant activities, appointments and changes of contact information, and working with marketing to obtain client intelligence for targeted campaigns.

Qualifications And Experience Required

• Excellent academic background, graduate level or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience supporting a Global CEO or equivalent senior leader, ideally within a law firm or professional services environment.
• Previous experience in a secretary/PA capacity, supporting senior partners with a busy client practice.
• Experience supporting senior leadership through organisational change (advantageous).
• Fast and accurate typing speed (65 words per minute).
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Teams.
• Strong business writing and numeracy skills.

Skills and attributes

• Passionate and enthusiastic about providing exceptional client service.
• Absolute discretion, integrity and professionalism.
• Ability to manage complexity, competing priorities and ambiguity.
• Exceptional organisational and planning skills.
• Ability to stay calm under pressure.
• Proactive self‑starter who anticipates needs and takes initiative.
• Highly collaborative, while able to operate independently.
• Outstanding written English, with meticulous attention to grammar and punctuation.
• Flexible, adaptable and willing to support across time zones.
• Capability to use own initiative to adapt and think laterally.
• Self‑motivated and goal‑focused, thriving under pressure and change.

The Essentials

• Hours: 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, with flexibility to attend urgent matters outside regular hours.
• Hybrid working policy: at least 3 days per week in office, with flexibility to accommodate CEO, Chairperson and partnership needs.
• 12‑week probation period.
• 12‑week notice period.
• Flexible benefits package including pension, private medical, season ticket loan, subsidised gym memberships, lifestyle discount scheme and on‑site café.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is the policy of Withers to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion. Decisions are based solely on job requirements and are not influenced by age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race including colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.