Legal Secretary - Agriculture (ref 1299)

Birketts LLP; Chelmsford; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a proactive and detail-oriented administrative professional to join their award-winning Agriculture and Estates Team. This role offers the opportunity to work closely with experienced fee earners, providing essential support in managing client interactions and maintaining compliance. The firm values ambition and inclusivity, ensuring a supportive environment for career growth. With a commitment to community impact and a diverse workplace, this position is ideal for someone looking to advance their administrative career in a dynamic legal setting.

Benefits

Private Healthcare

Long Service Holiday Award

Staff Profit Share

Individual Performance Bonus

Life Assurance

Permanent Health Insurance

Qualifications

• Strong administration experience with excellent communication skills.
• Ability to maintain compliance and manage office systems effectively.
• Expert in Microsoft Office Suite and case management systems.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-level administrative support to fee earners.
• Maintain client databases and manage file compliance.
• Prepare documents and manage schedules for legal processes.

Skills

Administrative Skills

Communication Skills

Attention to Detail

Organizational Skills

Self-Motivation

Education

High School Diploma

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Excel

Case Management System

HMRC Portal

HMLR Portal

Job description

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: property, corporate services, litigation and private client advisory.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

The department

Birketts’ Agriculture and Estates Team is an award-winning team which is one of the best qualified and largest agricultural teams in the UK market. Our team brings together lawyers with a wide range of professional and life experience, including solicitors from farming backgrounds, those with experience in commercial development, residential transactions, equine trading, mines and minerals and agricultural tenancy disputes.

Purpose of job

You will work as part of an administration team to provide professional, proactive, high level administrative support to an allocated group of fee earners and to the wider fee earning team.

Accountabilities

• Able to communicate with a wide variety of different people
• Support and build working relationships with the team leader and wider team members
• Effectively liaise with staff from other departments and external contacts as required
• Accurately maintain and update client and other relevant contact details on the firm’s database
• Process all forms including client questionnaires, money laundering form
• Assist in maintaining compliant and accurate file management and office systems
• Develop and maintain a good level of understanding of firm policy and process
• To carry out photocopying and scanning in accordance with the firm’s paper-lite and clear desk policies.
• To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar
• File opening including checking and adhering to compliance requirements
• Prepare report bundles both electronically and manually
• Prepare completion statements and accounts forms
• Schedule and manage deeds to ensure records are kept up to date
• Immediately clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit
• Provide support to other secretaries within the team and provide cover as and when necessary
• Ensure that work is completed to a high standard and meets the required deadlines
• Expert in a variety of software packages such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel, to produce correspondence, documents and ensure relevant documentation is produced to a high standard to meet clients’ and fee earners’ expectations and deadlines;
• To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style
• Using a case management system
• Use the HMRC and HMLR portals for submitting Stamp Duty Land Tax returns and HM Land Registry applications
• Positive and professional approach
• Able to communicate with a wide variety of different people from first time buyers to multi-million pound investor clients, buying and selling agents and mortgage brokers

The candidate

You will have the ability to contribute at an operational level, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

• Strong administration experience;
• Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach;
• Strong attention to detail, high level organisational skills and reliable;
• Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative with a desire to learn

Equal opportunities

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:

• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.