Practice Assistant, Intellectual Property

The Montreal office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG), a leading, innovative and client-focused law firm in Canada, is seeking a Practice Assistant, Intellectual Property.
Purpose of the Role

The Practice Assistant, Intellectual Property will be expected to coordinate the workflow for other support services including delegating and reviewing the completion of document production, file management, copying/scanning work and other administrative work. The Practice Assistant will take an active interest in, and obtain a thorough understanding of, all aspects of client requirements to provide exceptional service levels to the lawyers and our clients.
Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities of this role are:
Administrative
- Manage calendars, ensuring they are up to date and reminding lawyers of meetings etc. on a daily basis
- Arrange meetings, book conference rooms, refreshments, check rooms prior to meetings etc. and liaise with other attendees, both internal and external
- Arrange for travel bookings and related details to be made through the support teams
- Arrange photocopying, printing, organizing couriers, sending out of letters, faxes etc.
- Arrange for files to be opened and closed, supervise general filing requirements and record keeping
- Use effective systems to ensure that both short and long term tasks are completed within required timescales
- Support lawyers in marketing activities including involvement in preparation of pitches and presentations

Communication
- Take internal and external telephone queries, responding as appropriate and/or ensuring that all messages are passed on in a timely manner
- Liaise with administrative support departments on behalf of lawyers as required
- Liaise with the department’s Team Leader over any planned absences, arranging cover as necessary and communicating this to the relevant lawyers.

Client relationship management
- Become an active part in the care of clients and be wholly familiar with contacts/clients
- Enter, maintain and update client details and relevant information in the Firm’s CRM contacts system
- Deal with basic client queries and general administration
- Arrange client meetings

Document production
- Check correspondence, attachments, documents, reports, presentations, faxes etc. produced by the Document Production team before they are passed to the relevant lawyer and undertake basic/minor amendments where appropriate
- Produce and maintain Excel spreadsheets as required
- Administer PrimaFact filing when required

Financial - Billing
- Assist lawyers in ensuring their time is recorded properly and entered onto the system on a daily basis
- Assist lawyers in the billing and credit control process by liaising with the lawyer and accounts and to produce standard prebill financial/time reports through the system
- Request cheques, bank transfers and paying in money received, as appropriate

Other duties and responsibilities
- In addition to providing support to the lawyer(s) to whom they report, a Practice Assistant will also provide assistance to their immediate colleagues in the department and, where practical, other departments.
- Team duties will therefore include:

- Assisting other members of the firm, both proactively and at the request of the Team Leader
- Any other duties as requested by the Lawyers or Team Leader

Key Competencies

A Practice Assistant has responsibility to ensure that their skill set is up to date and they are familiar with the firm’s departments, key personnel, clients, internal systems and procedures. This will ensure that the Practice Assistant is able to carry out his or her role effectively and, where appropriate, discuss any training requirements with the Team Leader.

In addition to this, they should have/be:

- Legal Assistant Diploma or equivalent experience
- Minimum 2-3 years legal administrative assistant experience supporting multiple lawyers
- Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, research tools and other systems implemented by the firm
- Excellent telephone manner and experience liaising with clients directly
- Excellent communication skills, organizational skills and is detail oriented
- Flexible, dependable and proactive with the ability to anticipate next steps
- Able to remain calm under pressure and work with tight deadlines
- Conscientious, approachable and enthusiastic
- Team player and able to quickly build confidence, respect and trust with others
- Have a positive approach to daily tasks and have a solutions focused working method

How to Apply

We thank all applicants for their interest in this position, however, only applicants selected for an interview will be contacted.

Everyone at BLG is required to carry out the duties of their role while upholding the important principles of our respectful workplace policies, and treating everyone with respect, regardless of position. At BLG, valuing diversity and inclusion is key to a respectful workplace.
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