Commercial Secretary

Dante Personnel Recruitment (Pty) Ltd; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Dante Personnel Recruitment (Pty) Ltd in Cape Town is seeking a Commercial Legal Secretary for February 2027 to support a busy law firm. The role involves diary management, meeting coordination, document drafting and formatting, bulk PDF handling, and client file administration, with strong MS Word/Office 365 skills and familiarity with legal software.

Applicants should have at least 5 years’ law firm secretarial experience, matric, and a robust administration background.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years experience as a secretary in a law firm.
• Proficient in MS Word and Office 365.
• Knowledge of Aderant Expert (CMS) accounting system is advantageous.
• Knowledge of iManage would be advantageous.
• Matric essential.
• Strong administration and organisational skills (diary management, arranging meetings, answering telephone calls and tracking messages).
• Able to amend and format complex documents with track changes, cross-referencing and footnotes.
• Ability to annotate, highlight, redact, collate large PDF sets.
• Prepare, organise and file documents; manage filing systems.
• Dictaphone and copy-typing; prepare client files; manage accounts related tasks and billing.

Responsibilities

• Manage electronic and physical filing systems and keep them updated.
• Maintain and update client contact details and timesheets.
• Capture timesheets for professionals and prepare pre-bills/billing memos.
• Monitor payments to service providers and trust balances.
• FICA administration and liaison with clients and internal teams.
• Manage team's electronic diary with commercial deadlines and court dates.
• General office and personal administration.

Skills

Administrative skills

Organisational skills

Diary management

Meeting coordination

Telephone handling

Document handling

Education

Matric

Tools

Office 365

MS Word

Aderant Expert CMS

iManage

PowerPoint

Job description

COMMERCIAL LEGAL SECRETARY - FEBRUARY 2027

CAPE TOWN

MARKET RELATED SALARY, DEPENDING ON EXPERIENCE

Minimum requirements

• Minimum 5 years experience as a secretary in a law firm
• Excellent knowledge of MS Word programmes (more specifically Office 365)
• Basic knowledge on Aderant Expert (CMS) accounting system would be advantageous
• Knowledge of iManage would be advantageous
• Matric essential
• Strong administration and organisational skills (diary management, arranging meetings, answering telephone calls and tracking messages in the absence of lawyers)
• Amendments to and formatting of complex documents (ability to work with track changes, cross-referencing, footnotes, comments, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Annotating, highlighting, redacting, collating and compressing large sets of PDF documents
• Preparing, organising and arranging physical and electronic document
• Dictaphone and copy-typing of documents
• Preparing resource and client files
• Administering and organising legal practice
• Preparing accounts for clients, posting time daily, monitoring payments to service providers, monitoring outstanding debtors and trust balances
• Developing and maintaining electronic and physical filing systems and ensuring that the filing system is kept up to date
• Maintaining/updating client contact details
• Capturing timesheets for professionals
• Preparing pre-bills and billing memos (sending same to clients)
• Managing debtors with the accounts department and clients
• FICA administration: engaging with clients and internal FICA department, tracking documents and following up to ensure the FICA requirements are met
• Managing team's electronic diary, including commercial deadlines and court dates
• General office and personal administration