Patent Secretary

Carpmaels & Ransford; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 32,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Pension contributions

Private medical insurance

Cycle to work

Hybrid working

Job summary

Carpmaels & Ransford in London seeks a Patent Secretary to provide full PA and admin support for approximately 6 fee earners of mixed seniority. The role reports to the Team Leader and involves diary management, inbox handling, travel coordination, invoicing in Aderant, and file management across SharePoint and the DMS.

We value collaboration, diversity and wellbeing, offering a comprehensive benefits package and hybrid working options.

Qualifications

• Recognised secretarial qualification or prior patent secretary experience.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office; comfortable drafting/formatting legal documents.

Responsibilities

• Provide full PA and administrative support for ~6 Fee Earners of mixed seniority.
• Manage inbox and diary; coordinate meetings and logistics.
• Organise extensive international travel itineraries and accommodations.
• Prepare invoices in Aderant and liaise with accounts.
• File management via DMS (SharePoint) and Records.
• Prepare papers/bundles for proceedings and publish intranet materials.
• Prepare official patent-related forms and translations when required.
• Liaise with clients and foreign attorneys as needed.

Skills

Secretarial skills

Patent secretary experience

Education

Secretarial qualification

Job description

Job Type: Permanent, Full Time

Location: On-site (London)/Hybrid Working

We are a leading European intellectual property firm, advising some of the world’s most innovative and successful companies. Together, we help to improve lives by supporting innovation.

We hire talented and passionate people who think creatively and enjoy a challenge. Working collaboratively, we share our knowledge and experience across teams, actively learning from each other in a friendly and sociable environment.

We are passionate about creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Diversity of thought is vital to our business; it’s how we approach challenges differently and offer our clients creative and original solutions. Through our work with organisations such as IP Inclusive, Stonewall and Business in the Community via the Race at Work Charter, we are putting the right steps in place to make sure that all our people feel supported and empowered to be themselves Further information on our commitment to diversity and inclusion is available on our website.

A healthy work/life balance is very important to us, and we run regular wellbeing events in addition to the large number of clubs and social activities that are available to everyone at the firm. We are also enthusiastic supporters of our local community through partnerships with the Social Mobility Foundation and Holborn Community Association.

The role

Our patent support function is instrumental to our business. We support our attorneys and clients with their daily responsibilities to sustain a streamlined workflow. Our responsibilities include drafting and formatting of relevant legal documents, managing daily prompt lists and database and inbox and diary management. We are equipped with the knowledge and expertise to handle queries from our clients to an exceptional, professional standard and are committed to providing prompt support.

What You’ll Be Doing

As a Patent Secretary, you will be responsible for providing full PA and administrative support for approximately 6 Fee Earners of mixed seniority.

Reporting to the Team Leader, you are responsible for a range of activities including:

• Work closely with allocated fee-earners by meeting regularly to review progress, discuss upcoming work, and provide updates on outstanding matters.
• Inbox management as required.
• Diary management including scheduling and coordinating in-person and virtual meetings, preparing relevant papers and presentations, and managing all associated logistics including room bookings, refreshments, and liaising with internal teams.
• Manage extensive international travel itineraries, coordinating flights, accommodations and schedules.
• Prepare invoices by reviewing and editing narratives in Aderant, verifying client details, receiving unbilled WIP lists, and liaising with the accounts team as required.
• Monitor e-workspace/inbox when fee earners are away, dealing with files independently, where possible.
• Attend team meetings and practice group meetings.
• Prepare standard reporting letters proactively with minimal supervision.
• Amend letters, emails, specifications (including using tracked changes), ensuring completed documents are delivered accurately and to a consistently high standard.
• Prepare papers/bundles for oral proceedings.
• File management: including liaising with Records to open new cases, update special instructions, scanning and managing case files via the DMS (SharePoint).
• Create and maintain pages and publish material on intranet.
• Proactively prepare official forms for UK, European and international patent and design applications and some foreign patent applications.
• Monitor daily prompt schedules, dealing with cases independently where possible, and liaising with the records team to remove old prompts.
• Liaise with clients and the EPO directly where necessary.
• Using Inprotech to obtain case or client information, using links to relevant Patent Office websites.
• Request translations when required.
• Sending out assignment documents and forwarding on communications from foreign attorneys where applicable.

Skills And Experience We’re Looking For

• Recognised secretarial qualification; or
• Previous relevant office experience as a Patent Secretary or Patent Administrator.

Person Specification

• Proactive with the ability to work on own initiative as well as being a strong team player
• Has the ability to anticipate problems and devise solutions to meet them
• Is flexible when required
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• Organised and able to prioritise turnaround time of work
• Able to meet tight deadlines and work under pressure
• Ability to compose simple letters with little to no assistance
• Professional, collaborative and able to establish rapport with people at all levels

Systems Used

• IT literate with knowledge of Microsoft Office tools (Outlook/PowerPoint/Excel/Word/CoPilot etc.)
• Online Filing 2.0
• Inprotech
• Aderant
• SharePoint
• iManage

What We Offer

We offer a competitive benefits package that currently includes the following:

• 25 days’ holiday, increasing by 1 day per year up to our maximum of 28 days.
• Employer pension contribution of 5% in your first year, with a minimum 3% employee contribution, increasing to 10% employer contribution after one year’s service.
• Holiday buy scheme, with the option to purchase up to 5 additional days.
• Holiday bonus, starting at £400 per year, increasing each year up to a maximum of £2,000.
• Private medical insurance via Bupa, where you’ll be eligible to join the month following your start date. You will also have the option to add dependants, subject to a monthly cost.
• Free confidential access to 24/7 medical, mental, legal and financial wellbeing support via Health Assured and WeCare from your first day of employment.
• Access to internal Mental Health First Aiders, all of whom have completed the Mental Health First Aid England accredited training programme and champion wellbeing across the firm.
• Life assurance of 4x your base salary.
• Income protection, with cover for up to 5 years and compensating for up to 75% of your base salary.
• Cycle2Work scheme.
• Season ticket loan.
• Access to Payroll Giving or Give As You Earn (GAYE) which allows you to donate to charity through your monthly pay.
• We’re passionate about the benefits of corporate volunteering and offer all employees 1 paid volunteer day per year.

We’re very proud of our collegiate culture and the value that working together brings. Through our commitment to enabling everyone to do their best work, we offer a range of family and life-friendly policies.

This includes competitive enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption, surrogacy and shared parental leave schemes, if you’ve been with us for at least 26 weeks. Furthermore, our fertility policy aims to assist employees with both the logistical and emotional aspects of undergoing fertility treatment. This includes paid leave of up to five days for fertility treatment.

We also recognise the needs of balancing home life around the requirements of your role. Depending on the work you do and your team, we offer informal arrangements such as hybrid and agile working, as well as more formal arrangements such as flexible hours and part-time working. We’re very happy to discuss flexible and life-friendly working options during the recruitment process and upon joining us.

We are proud of our inclusive culture where individual differences are celebrated, and we are committed to providing equal opportunities to all employees and job applicants. We do not tolerate discrimination either directly or indirectly on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, pregnancy and maternity, or any other characteristic protected by law. Our approach is embodied in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy, as well as our diversity and inclusion programmes.

Please note that we do not accept unsolicited CVs or speculative approaches from recruitment agencies unless they have been explicitly instructed on this vacancy by a member of our recruitment team.