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Secretary, Real Estate - 9 Month FTC

Employer
DLA Piper
Location
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
9 Dec 2019

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Job Details

THE OPPORTUNITY

DLA Piper has a unique approach to our legal secretarial function - 'the hub' (a model encouraging true teamwork). This approach allows us to stretch and develop your skills ensuring you are given interesting work at an appropriate level whilst making sure you are not over-burdened. You still have contact with clients and partners but you will collaborate and work with a wider range of people in the department than in a traditional secretarial model.

The feedback on 'the hub' from our existing team has been really positive - we see it as the natural evolution of secretarial services.

We have 4 levels of role in the team:

  • Team Coordinator - monitors incoming work and team capacity and distributes jobs and projects to members of the team, whilst also operating as a senior level secretary. They are also responsible for communicating with fee earners to keep them appraised of a task or projects status
  • Senior Secretary - takes ownership for the efficient running of the team by role-modeling as an effective and responsible team member and act as workflow supervisor where required
  • Secretary - provides general secretarial and administration services as part of the secretarial team
  • Team Administrator - a junior role for those still developing their skills, undertakes routine secretarial tasks at the direction of the Team Coordinator

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Working collaboratively with the rest of the team, to deliver and provide a comprehensive secretarial/admin support service by:

  • Taking ownership and responsibility to ensure the work is undertaken in the most appropriate way to maximise efficiency
  • Actively engaging with the workflow through the team inbox, directing work through it and Taking appropriate work from it in priority order
  • Coordinating internal and external client meetings and ensure all work activities are scheduled effectively, including the identification and resolution of potential challenges and clashes
  • Organising meetings, ensuring rooms and conference facilities, video conference facilities are booked, liaising with attendees if necessary both internal and external and making sure that any required catering and technical equipment is in place
  • Manage expectations in terms of deadlines and outcome of tasks assigned
  • Responding and dealing with external or internal telephone calls and queries in a professional manner and taking clear and concise messages for other members of the practice group as required
  • Organising travel arrangements through the travel desk, booking and confirmation of reservations, flights, hotels, car transfers, ordering currency and expense claims and producing detailed itineraries. Preparation of key documents including visas, correspondence (including invitation letters), travel invoices, expense claims and maintenance/filing of copies
  • Understanding DLA Piper document management processes. Amending and re-formatting documents when appropriate to do so, ensuring that completed documents are delivered accurately and to a consistently high standard
  • Learning to organise agendas, presentations and meeting papers, including print production and timely distribution; ensuring that fee earners have all documents and adequate preparation time
  • Supporting the secretarial team by ensuring the timely completion of the support team's shared work, ensuring work of an appropriate level is dealt with according to priority
  • Demonstrating flexibility with working practices in line with the business need, especially in times of pressure/ high workload
  • Organisation of file management, including closing of files, archiving and ensures that all relevant documents are filed electronically and paper-based, if required
  • Working towards full capability for managing and understanding of the end-to-end billing process, of standard bills, using Elite (internal financial system). Following the relevant procedures and prompting fee earners to complete all necessary time recording, or to enter such time recording on their behalf
  • Creating standard bills, disbursements, amending narratives as well as requesting credit notes
  • Understanding the client matter opening, client reporting and client balances processes
  • Completing financial reports where required, from internal systems highlighting outstanding monies to be billed and updating particular client financial schedules where necessary
  • Managing group and fee earner contacts to ensure they are up to date through Interaction (CRM tool)
  • Providing administrative support to fee earners with conflict searches and audit requests
  • Assisting on ad-hoc projects as and when required, for example managing bundles, assisting during team events, indexing documents, etc.

ABOUT YOU

Technical:

  • Previous relevant experience as a legal secretary or Team Administrator
  • IT literate with proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook), Lync - Skype for Business
  • Excellent diary management
  • Document management and filing efficiently
  • Excellent telephone manner
  • Basic understanding of billing
  • Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills
  • Applies knowledge and judgement to solve problems and make decisions

Personal:

  • Friendly, personable and approachable
  • Excellent communicator- both written and verbally
  • Adaptable and flexible
  • Confident and professional
  • Conscientious and diligent
  • Remains calm under pressure

ABOUT US

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Our global reach ensures that we can help businesses with their legal needs anywhere in the world.  We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality, service excellence and value to our clients and offering  practical and innovative legal solutions to help them succeed. Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies, as well as government and public sector bodies.

 

OUR VALUES

In everything we do connected with our People, our Clients and our Communities, we live by these values:

  • Be Supportive - we care about others, value diversity and act thoughtfully
  • Be Collaborative - we give, we share and we join in
  • Be Bold - we stand tall and challenge ourselves to think big
  • Be Exceptional - we exceed standards and expectations

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

At DLA Piper we are working hard to ensure that our talent pool is diverse. For us, diversity isn't just about visible differences, it's the unique blend of talents, skills, experiences and perspectives that makes each of us an individual.

We know it's crucial to have a culture and environment where those differences are genuinely valued and that's why we strive to be a business where everyone can thrive, develop and succeed based on their talent.  Our aim is to build an inclusive and supportive culture where all our people feel they belong and can achieve their best.

AGILE WORKING

We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly.  That's why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for agile working arrangements.

PRE-ENGAGEMENT SCREENING

In the event that we make an offer to you, and where local legislation permits, we may conduct pre-engagement screening checks that may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the relevant jurisdiction, any criminal records, your financial stability and references from previous employers.

Company

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world.

We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality and value to our clients, and we achieve this through practical and innovative legal solutions that help our clients succeed.

We’re proud to serve an international client base that includes more than half of the Fortune 250 and nearly half of the FTSE 350 companies. We help the world's top companies with their business-critical issues. Many of the deals we work on are complex and challenging – transcending not just practice areas, but borders, languages and legal systems. With offices throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, we represent more clients in a broader range of geographies and practice disciplines than virtually any other law firm in the world. Our lawyers have wide experience in arbitration, banking, competition and trade, as well as corporate crime and corporate finance. We have strong practices in employment, energy, hospitality and leisure, insurance, intellectual property, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and have developed key teams in pensions, private equity, real estate, tax, and technology

As a firm we are committed to diversity and to building an inclusive culture for all of our people, where differences are genuinely valued. For us, diversity isn't just about visible differences, it's the unique blend of talents, skills, experiences and perspectives that makes each of us an individual and we know it's crucial to have a culture and environment where those differences are genuinely valued.

Company info
Website
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7349 0296
Location
160 Aldersgate Street
London
EC1A 4HT
GB

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