Legal PA

Mishcon de Reya; Hull and East Yorkshire; Hybrid; GBP 27,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading law firm based in the UK is seeking a skilled legal administrative professional to support fee earners. The role involves managing international calendars, assisting with documentation and compliance, and coordinating travel. The ideal candidate should possess excellent time management and IT skills, with a strong attention to detail. Offering a hybrid work model with a competitive salary up to £32,000 plus benefits.

Benefits

Hybrid working

Competitive salary

Benefits package

Qualifications

• Previous experience in a senior legal admin role supporting a team.
• Strong time management skills for juggling multiple tasks.
• Experience managing calendars for multiple individuals.
• Attention to detail with high precision in work delivery.
• Organized and methodical within compliance frameworks.
• Excellent IT skills across MS Office applications.
• Strong team player open to assisting other fee earners.
• Experience using in-house systems and databases.

Responsibilities

• Act as a first point of contact for fee earners.
• Manage international calendars and schedule meetings.
• Support fee earners with expense claims.
• Create draft contracts and lodge property searches.
• Ensure compliance with fee earners' requirements.
• Manage travel arrangements for fee earners.
• Support business development activities.

Skills

Time management

Attention to detail

Organizational skills

IT skills

Team player

Job description

Responsibilities

• Acting as a first point of contact on behalf of the fee earners; fielding calls, emails, correspondence, and meeting requests (internal and external), and responding on behalf of the fee earner, if appropriate.
• Full proactive and advanced international calendar management in multiple time zones for assigned fee earners, including scheduling calls/meetings. Collating necessary information to ensure the fee earners are fully prepared for all client meetings; preparing background information and notes as needed, supporting the follow through of action points.
• Supporting fee earners with expense claims.
• Supporting fee earned in their ancillary supervisory roles and with other business related requirements.
• Residential/Rural Support
  • Creating initial drafts of sale contracts and property information forms.
  • Lodging property searches.
  • Diarising key dates for the file (priority searches, notices etc).
  • Obtaining official copies and deeds from HM Land Registry, carrying out Land Registry searches.
  • Setting up files for completion including creating first drafts of: Transfer Deeds, Completion Information and Requisitions on Title, Completion and financial statements; and SDLT returns.
  • Ensuring files CQS and SRA requirements are up‑to‑date or diarised for fee earners.
  • Sending documents to client(s) for signature / setting up electronic signatures of documents and liaising with clients/guiding clients to complete execution.
  • Dealing with post completion matters including: Registrations, Submitting and paying SDLT, Dealing with notices, Dealing with share certificates; and Reconciling accounts.
• Matter Management
  • Supporting fee earners in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, and working closely with internal client on‑boarding and compliance specialists to ensure all required information/documentation is obtained, issued and correctly stored on the Firm's systems.
  • Supporting the fee earners and supervising Legal PAs to ensure compliance with the Firm's documented compliance policy and guidelines, particularly around new matters, retainer letters, conflict checks, searches, CDD and KYC.
  • Ensuring all documents are maintained and filed in line with the Firm's electronic and hard copy filing protocols.
  • Ensuring all inactive matters are closed, client funds are returned, and matters are archived in a timely fashion.
• Financial Management and Billing Support
  • Developing a strong working knowledge of the Firm's billing systems, including processes and systems, to support the fee earners and supervising the Legal PAs and Business Administrators in producing accurate bills and financial information for their clients.
  • Ensuring files are set up with correct rates, discounts and billing information, and that Money on Account is collected, or files are on the exempt list.
  • Co‑ordinating WIP lists and billing on behalf of Partners, including liaison with the billing team. Supporting fee earners with proactive monitoring of time and bills against the estimate.
  • Supporting fee earners with monitoring and addressing unpaid bills, liaising with Credit Control as required.
  • Supporting fee earners with ensuring disbursements, invoices and payments are issued correctly and promptly.
• Travel
  • Full management of travel for assigned fee earners, ensuring business travel is booked via the Firm's in‑house provider. This will include both routine and more complex travel arrangements.
  • Ensuring that fee earners are provided with full itineraries, supporting materials and that business expenses are captured, approved and processed for payment in line with policy.
  • Assisting fee earners with building a business case for travel.
• Business Development
  • Supporting fee earners in preparing content and presentations for clients and prospective clients.
  • Organising business breakfasts, lunches, dinners or smaller events and assisting fee earners with expenses.
  • Logging referrals and contacts to the CRM system (InterAction) and management of CRM lists.
• Delegation
  • Collaborating with the Legal PAs to ensure the smooth running of the matter lifecycle and appropriate delegation to ensure that all matters are compliant.
  • Collaborating with the Business Administrators to ensure that they provide support with filing and archiving, scanning, photocopying, updating contacts on InterAction and arranging couriers etc.
  • Working closely with Document Production Unit to delegate all formatting, production, typing, amends, manipulation and house styling work to the unit and, where required, documents that require proofreading.

Qualifications

• Previous experience gained in a senior legal administrative role supporting a team in a legal environment, having an understanding of industry standards for compliance and matter management.
• Strong time management skills: can juggle several tasks at any given time, plan ahead, and respond positively and willingly to re‑prioritise and adapt to changes in requirements.
• Previous experience managing calendars for multiple individuals, with the ability to apply judgement and common sense to ensure the best use of people's time, and that any potential diary clashes are proactively identified and addressed.
• Excellent attention to detail, with the ability to deliver work to a consistently high standard of precision (even under pressure) in an environment where accuracy is prized.
• Organised and methodical, and able to operate effectively and efficiently within structured work processes, in particular with the compliance/quality control frameworks.
• Excellent IT skills across a broad range of MS Office and other business management applications, with a willingness to learn new software and adapt to change.
• A strong team player, willing to take on work for additional fee earners and/or help with other tasks as needed to meet the needs of the business.
• Previous experience using bespoke in‑house systems (e.g. client contact databases, matter management systems, billing systems etc.).

Benefits

The role will offer hybrid working, salary up to £32000 + benefits.

For further information please contact Ella Britton at AJ Chambers.