Legal Secretary in Sevenoaks

Location: Sevenoaks

Salary: Hidden

Recruiter: Birketts

Job Hours: Full-time

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Purpose of job

You will work in the Private Client team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to estates and private property, tax and planning. You will work with an allocated fee earner or group of fee earners as well as supporting the wider fee earning team.

The team covers:

Will drafting

Succession planning

Tax efficient lifetime giving

Disputed Wills

Creation administration and termination of trusts

Advice to Trustees and Beneficiaries

Trust Taxation

Offshore trusts

Lasting Powers of Attorney

Administration of Estates

Accountabilities

Technical ability

To produce and amend documents with speed and accuracy

To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style

To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar

To be a user of key software packages and take responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business

To proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines

Use of Isokon for the administration of estates would be a benefit

Administrative skills:

Manage diaries of allocated fee earners in Microsoft Outlook to include:

Familiarity with the creation and management of datarooms and file management processes

Making appointments

Arranging meetings/conferences

Sending and responding to invites

Process expense claims, payment requisition forms, returned advances

To process all forms including new client form, new matter form, money laundering form, training course booking forms etc.

To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals

To prepare narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date

To carry out photocopying and scanning as required

Professional Skills:

To immediately clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit

To respond to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally and take accurate telephone messages (name /number /company), passing them on to the relevant fee earners etc.

To proactively support other members of the secretarial team and to provide cover as and when necessary to ensure that work is completed to a high standard and meets the required deadlines

To provide full support to fee earners in the full range of activities that are performed and to carry out any other duties as reasonably requested

General Approach:

To show a positive approach and interest in the work that your fee earners are undertaking

Show initiative when responding to queries and actively try to seek solutions to problems

To support your fee earners when clients are demanding the work product to be delivered

To support and build working relationships with your own fee earners as well as other members of the team and to actively work for the interests of the whole team

To support and build working relationships with your colleagues in the secretarial team and to actively get involved in working activities within the team

The candidate

You will have the ability to contribute at an operational level, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

Strong administration experience

Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach

Strong attention to detail, high level organisational skills and reliable

Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative with a desire to learn

A desire to share new processes to support the wider team

Skills

Strong typing speed of at least 50 wpm

Excellent spelling and punctuation

Excellent written and verbal communications

Ability to use discretion

Excellent IT skills, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel

Positive and enthusiastic approach to team work

Good telephone manner

Adaptable and flexible

Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to fee-earners

Ability to pay attention to detail and check own work

Reliable and well organised

Ability to remain calm and work under pressure to meet strict deadlines

Commitment to ongoing learning and development

Equal opportunities

We are committed to recruiting individuals on merits of suitability for each role, on the basis of qualifications and experience. All applications are treated fairly and equally regardless of sexual orientation, race, disability, religious beliefs and any other protected characteristic, ensuring that there are equal opportunities at all stages of the recruitment process.

Benefits

25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays

Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service

Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)

Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)

Staff Profit Share / Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)

Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance

Paid ESG day (Environmental, Social and Governance)

Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave

Subsidised gym membership

Electric car scheme

Eye Care Voucher

Agile Working Policy

Dress for your Day Policy

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About Birketts

birketts.co.uk

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 500 lawyers and legal professionals based in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: property, corporate services, litigation and private client advisory.

We are defined by our next level law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face. Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.