Personal Assistant

Lewis Silkin; Manchester, Leeds; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

Lewis Silkin is seeking a proactive Personal Assistant to provide high-quality secretarial and organisational support to fee earners, helping manage diary, inbox, matter administration and client coordination. You will collaborate with Executive Assistants, Team Assistants and central teams to ensure tasks are completed accurately and on time.

The role is open to Manchester or Leeds, with support for diary management, meetings, travel, billing and document preparation.

Qualifications

• Experience working in an office environment.
• Strong organisational and diary-management capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Ability to handle queries professionally and escalate when required.
• Attention to detail and high accuracy in document prep and records.
• Numeracy skills for billing and expenses.
• Collaborative team player with a proactive approach.

Responsibilities

• Provide diary management, inbox support, call handling, meetings and travel coordination.
• Develop understanding of fee earners, clients, matters and priorities.
• Serve as professional contact for clients and internal stakeholders; escalate when needed.
• Support matter administration, records, documents and compliance tasks.
• Assist with document prep, formatting and meeting materials.
• Support billing administration and time recording with Finance.
• Coordinate client meetings and events and arrange venues and catering.
• Keep fee earners and stakeholders updated; escalate issues promptly.
• Collaborate with EAs, TAs and central teams for joined-up support.
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve service quality.

Skills

Diary management

Client liaison

Billing administration

Communication

Attention to detail

Numeracy

Team player

Proactive approach

Tools

Office 365

Word

Elite

Excel

Outlook

PowerPoint

Teams

DocsCorp PDF Docs

Word Compare

Netdocs

Chrome River

Job description

The Personal Assistant provides high-quality secretarial and organisational support to fee earners, helping them to manage day-to-day activity efficiently and deliver a responsive service to clients. The role supports effective diary, inbox, matter and client administration, while working collaboratively with Executive Assistants, Team Assistants and central teams to ensure tasks are completed accurately and on time.

Please note, we are open to considering applications in either Manchester or Leeds.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide reliable day-to-day PA support to fee earners, including diary management, inbox support, call handling, meeting arrangements and travel coordination.
• Develop a good understanding of the fee earners supported, including their clients, matters, priorities and preferred ways of working.
• Act as a professional point of contact for clients and internal stakeholders, handling queries appropriately and escalating where required.
• Support matter administration, including opening and closing matters, maintaining records, coordinating documents and assisting with compliance-related tasks.
• Assist with the preparation, formatting and coordination of documents, correspondence, presentations and meeting materials.
• Work closely with EAs, TAs, fee earners and Finance to support billing administration, time recording, expenses and client chasing as directed.
• Coordinate client meetings and events, including room bookings, refreshments, visitor arrangements and follow-up actions.
• Follow tasks through to completion, keeping fee earners and stakeholders updated and escalating issues in a timely way.
• Work collaboratively with EAs, Team Assistants and central teams to ensure support is joined up, efficient and consistent.
• Contribute to continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to simplify processes, improve service quality and reduce unnecessary fee-earner involvement.

About you

You will have a professional manner, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and have previous experience working within an office. You’ll have a flexible nature and will enjoy working within a fast-paced team and will be highly organised. You’ll also possess strong numeracy and attention to detail skills, which will be key within this role. We are looking for someone who is passionate about being a team player, who is keen to support others.

Our ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• Proactive approach with strong organisational skills and attention to priorities.
• Excellent attention to detail - a high level of accuracy is essential for document preparation and record-keeping.
• Ability to support multiple fee earners with competing priorities, keeping stakeholders updated throughout.
• Ability to follow tasks through to completion and work to tight deadlines in a busy environment.
• Professional communicator able to handle queries appropriately and elevate where required.
• Commitment to delivering responsive, high-quality support to fee earners and clients.
• Team player who works collaboratively with EAs, Team Assistants and central teams to ensure joined-up support.
• Experience in billing administration and financial management.
• Strong IT skills - Office 365, Word, Elite, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams, DocsCorp PDF Docs, Word Compare (DocsCorp CompareDocs), Document Management System (Netdocs), Interaction, Chrome River, although full in-house training will be provided.

At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to supporting candidates throughout the recruitment process by supporting anyone who requires adjustments, in order to ensure they have the opportunity to perform at their best. All applicants will be considered equally and fairly. If you’d like to request any adjustments throughout the recruitment process, or would like to discuss flexible working patterns, please email the recruitment team in confidence ([e-mail]).