Practice Assistant, Commercial Litigation

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Purpose of the Role

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. The Practice Assistant will act as workflow coordinator for other support services including delegating and reviewing the completion of document production, file management, copying/scanning work and other administrative work.

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

Financial - Billing
- Assist lawyers and Practice Group Billing Coordinator 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. Specifically, this role will provide back-up support to our Family Law group.
- 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
- Legal Assistant or Law Clerk Diploma or equivalent experience;
- Minimum 3 years experience as a Litigation Legal Assistant preferably in commercial litigation and/or construction.
- Proficiency in MS Office (excellent knowledge of advanced functions in Word);
- Ability to communicate in a professional manner with clients and lawyers;
- Ability to interact professionally with clients and all members of the firm;
- Strong organizational skills and time management skills;
- Self-starter who can work with mínimal instruction/supervision;
- Detail-oriented individual with good proofreading skills;
- Excellent multi-tasking skills;
- Ability to follow instructions with mínimal supervision and take initiative;
- Able to set priorities while maintaining flexibility;
- A team player with excellent interpersonal skills.