Legal PA - Private (Art Law)

The Role

The Legal PA will work as part of the Legal Operations team to provide timely and high quality administrative/co-ordination support to a group of lawyers. This is a varied role, involving client contact, working as part of a friendly and high-performing team providing great service to our lawyers, and ultimately, the Firm's clients.

The Legal PA will need to be a self-motivated and reliable individual who is able to manage their own workload to deliver a range of tasks, planning ahead and re-prioritising where needed, to deliver consistently high-quality work to deadlines.

Duties and Responsibilities

Matter Management

• Supporting fee earners and Senior Legal PAs in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, and collaborating closely with internal client on-boarding and compliance specialists to ensure all required information/documentation is obtained, issued and correctly stored on the Firm's systems.
• Supporting the fee earners to ensure compliance with the Firm's documented compliance policy and guidelines, particularly around new matters, retainer letters, conflict checks, searches, CDD & KYC.
• Ensuring all documents are maintained and filed in line with the Firm's electronic and hard copy filing protocols.
• Ensuring all inactive matters are closed, client funds are returned, and matters are archived in a timely fashion.

Financial Management and Billing Support

• Developing a strong working knowledge of the Firm's billing systems, including processes and IT systems to support the fee earners and Senior Legal PAs in producing accurate bills/financial information for their clients
• Supporting fee earners to ensure files are set up with correct rates and discounts and billing information and that Money on Account is collected, or files are on the exempt list.
• Supporting fee earners with monitoring and addressing unpaid bills, liaising with Credit Control as required.
• Supporting fee earners with ensuring disbursements invoices and payments are issued correctly and promptly.

Fee Earner Support

• Acting as a first point of contact on behalf of the fee earners, fielding calls, emails, correspondence and meeting requests (both internal and external, responding on behalf of the fee earners, if appropriate.
• Full calendar management in multiple time zones for assigned fee earners, including scheduling calls/meetings, and following up as needed.
• Supporting Fee Earners with expense claims.
• Supporting Fee Earners with other business-related requirements.

Travel

• Full management of travel for assigned fee earners, ensuring business travel is booked via the Firm's in-house provider.
• Ensuring that fee earners are provided with itineraries and that business expenses are captured, approved and processed for payment in line with policy.

Business Development

• Organising business breakfasts, lunches or dinners and assisting fee earners with expenses.
• Logging referrals and contacts to the CRM system (InterAction) and management of CRM lists.

Delegation

• Collaborating with the Business Administrators to ensure that they provide support with filing and archiving, scanning, photocopying, updating contacts on InterAction and arranging couriers etc.
• Working closely with the Document Production Unit to delegate all formatting, production, typing, amends manipulation and house styling work to the unit and, where required, documents that require proofreading.
• Liaising with Legal Support Services teams, the Global Capability Centre and other internal departments to delegate work where appropriate or to obtain specialist input as needed, taking ownership of issues and following up where appropriate.

Team Support and Collaboration

• Supporting a cohesive working environment within the team.
• Stepping up when required to cover Senior Legal PAs or other members of the Legal Operations teams.
• Working flexibly across other Legal Operations Teams where needed.
• Take full responsibility for their workload.
• Be clear and transparent around their working arrangements, and follow through on their commitments to the team (e.g. attending the office when they say they will)
• Demonstrate a commitment to the Firm's core values.
• Recognise the importance of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the workplace, and take responsibility for learning about the EDI strategy.
• Selecting a Focus Area or Specialism to learn new skills and support the firm's business operations strategy to drive service, innovation and engagement across Legal Support Services

Skills/Experience

• Previous experience gained in an administrative role supporting a team in a similar professional services environment (ideally legal).
• Strong time management skills: can juggle several tasks at any given time, plan ahead, and respond positively and willingly to re-prioritise and adapt to changes in requirements.
• Excellent IT skills across a broad range of MS Office with a willingness to learn new software and adapt to change. Excellent attention to detail, with the ability to deliver work to a consistently high standard of precision (even under pressure) in an environment where accuracy is prized.
• Organised and methodical, and able to operate effectively within structured work processes, in particular, with compliance/quality control frameworks.
• Well-developed interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with a range of people and working styles.
• A strong team player, willing to take on work for additional fee earners and/or help with other tasks as needed in order to meet the needs of the business.
• Able to communicate effectively, with warmth and professionalism, with clients and colleagues both orally and in writing, including drafting business emails/correspondence.
• High levels of discretion, with the ability to deal effectively with sensitive or confidential information.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

About Mishcon de Reya LLP

Mishcon de Reya is an independent law firm, which now employs over 1400 people withmore than 650 lawyers offering a wide range of legal services to companies and individuals. The firm has grown rapidly in recent years, showing more than 40% revenue growth in the past five years alone.

With presence in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE, the firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply.

The work the firm undertakes is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, centred around three increasingly entwined and connected sectors: the Innovation Economy, Private Wealth and Capital, and Real Estate. The firm is known as a disputes powerhouse with a formidable capacity firmwide for dispute resolution.

We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk flexible working.

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