Executive Assistant

Stephenson Harwood LLP; Dubai; Hybrid; AED 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life insurance

Private health

Dental care

Flexible benefits

Volunteer day

Hybrid work

Job summary

Stephenson Harwood LLP in Dubai seeks an Executive Assistant to provide proactive, client-focused support in a fast-paced environment. You will collaborate with fee earners and clients, manage complex diaries across time zones, coordinate travel, and handle a broad range of administrative tasks with discretion.

The role offers hybrid working arrangements and a competitive rewards package including life assurance, private health and dental care, flexible benefits, and wellbeing initiatives

Responsibilities

• Proactively manage, control and fully understand fee earner diary across time zones and offices, prioritising commitments.
• Develop and maintain a robust file management system for all electronic and hard copy correspondence and documents.
• Liaise with fee earners to identify work commitments and prioritise workloads.
• Prepare for meetings with pre-reading materials and coordinate actions and follow-ups.
• Coordinate travel arrangements including visas, bookings and travel itineraries.
• Coordinate and assist with global visitors.
• Draft emails and letters, manage post and couriers, and ensure documents are filed.
• Ensure partner PDPRs are up to date.
• Build strong relationships with internal and external clients and support marketing activities.
• Support business development by assisting with pitches, presentations and events.
• Maintain the client relationship management system and action follow-ups.
• Attend team meetings and progress action points.
• Manage WIP and billing related activities and assist with prebills and invoicing.
• Prepare documentation and reports for financial and compliance purposes.
• Draft high-quality correspondence and communications on behalf of fee earners.
• Delegate document production and transcription as required.

Job description

What We Will Offer

We will offer you a place where you can be yourself and where there are no limits on what you can achieve. With us, you can take ownership of your career and have honest conversations throughout. You would join an ambitious firm with a clear strategy for profitable growth where you can gain early responsibility and early involvement in growing the business. Here you can expect a competitive and fair reward as well as recognition based on all round performance. This forms part of our internal promise to you, The Deal, between the firm and its employees.

What We Will Offer

We will offer you a place where you can be yourself and where there are no limits on what you can achieve. With us, you can take ownership of your career and have honest conversations throughout. You would join an ambitious firm with a clear strategy for profitable growth where you can gain early responsibility and early involvement in growing the business. Here you can expect a competitive and fair reward as well as recognition based on all round performance. This forms part of our internal promise to you, The Deal, between the firm and its employees.

YOU CAN EXPECT

• A competitive salary and a host of family friendly policies
• Life assurance, private health and dental care for you and your immediate family
• A range of flexible benefits including retail vouchers
• We support the causes you care about, by giving you one day per year off to volunteer with any charity that you are involved with outside of work.
• A wellbeing strategy that focuses on preventative measures to maintain overall health, and tools and support for when our people experience physical or mental difficulties. The strategy focuses on four pillars: physical, emotional, financial and social aspects.
• Most of our roles are hybrid, meaning that colleagues benefit from working in our office and remotely. We are happy to discuss this and other flexible working arrangements with you as part of the application and interview process.

Team Structure

This role is for a proactive and highly competent Executive Assistant (EA) who will operate successfully in a pressurised and fast-paced environment. The ability to collaborate with fee earners and clients, provide professional and client-focused support, and build effective relationships, are key to the success of this role. Responsibilities will include undertaking complex tasks and projects, providing transactional support, and playing a critical role in managing all routine and daily administrative tasks. A flexible and adaptable attitude is essential - as is the ability to take ownership, drive processes and support change within the business.

Main Responsibilities

Administrative

• Proactively manage, control and fully understand fee earner diary using discretion and business knowledge to prioritise commitments. This will include extensive arrangements of appointments, conferences and meetings across different time zones and offices, using different processes and IT infrastructure (videoconferencing, tele-conferencing, client office software etc.).
• Develop and maintain a robust file management system for all electronic and hard copy correspondence, and documents, ensuring adherence to naming conventions policy.
• Liaising regularly with fee earners to identify work commitments, prioritising workloads accordingly.
• Prepare for all meetings, including preparation of all pre-reading documentation (if appropriate), follow up and coordinate all meeting actions, ensure they are properly recorded and dealt with, including any necessary follow-up communications.
• Travel arrangements including liaison with travel company, arranging visas, booking travel and accommodation, arranging currency, preparing itineraries, ensuring compliance with the firm's Travel Policy at all times
• Coordinate and assist with global visitors.
• Arrange photocopying, printing, scanning, organising post and couriers, etc.
• Ensuring partner PDPRs are up to date

Client relationship management

• Build strong and effective relationships with, and develop and maintain a comprehensive knowledge of, internal and external clients and their teams
• Support lawyers in marketing activities including research and obtaining client information and data, as well as involvement in preparation of pitches and presentations
• Support the internal business development team by undertaking an event secretary role, managing the e-alert process, assisting with legal directory administration and delegating tasks appropriately
• Proactively maintain and update the client relationship management system, ensuring any follow-ups are actioned
• Attend and contribute to team meetings as required, detail and progress action points as appropriate

Financial

• Ensure all new client/matter onboarding processes are completed accurately, following up as appropriate and adhering to risk and compliance requirements at all times
• Coordinate and action the production of accurate compliance documents (including drafting engagement letters, critical information and collection proforma, etc.)
• Attend and actively participate in WIP and credit control meetings, undertaking and driving actions as agreed
• Produce and review WIP reports, identifying matters for billing, write-offs, debtors and client credits
• Manage partners' billing processes: agreeing billing dates, gathering disbursements, initiating prebills, complete billing checklist (to include: time transfers, write-offs, applying discounts, returns to WIP, producing drafts and updating Expert as appropriate). Submitting prebills for approval
• Preparing covering emails/letters, and ensure completed invoices are despatched in a timely manner and uploaded into delivered bills
• Using Aderant to assist fee earners with financial queries, producing reports if required
• Ensuring disbursements and all client payments are processed accurately, having completed all relevant pre-checks
• Undertake client audits and prepare draft documentation
• Ensure expenses, receipts and contact reports are completed, uploaded and filed appropriately

Communication

• Act as gatekeeper for fee earners, taking appropriate messages and ensuring they are passed on/followed up appropriately
• Using own initiative to manage post and email accounts: screening, prioritising and dealing with incoming emails and post in fee earners absence; develop and maintain systems to promote efficiency
• Draft high-quality correspondence, engagement letters, documents, agendas, presentations and spreadsheets or other (non-legal) correspondence on behalf of fee earners, actioning responses if appropriate

Document and File Management

• Proactively delegating document production and dictation transcription to appropriate resource, providing appropriate timeframes for work and checking returned work if required