The leading criminal defence solicitors in the UK. Our criminal defence lawyers are astute, supportive and highly sophisticated, particularly known for their skills in providing strategic, sensible and practical criminal law advice and for our ability to keep potentially high profile cases out of the public eye. |
To provide the first and main point of contact for fee earners to help them do their work efficiently and well. PAs will use their experience, interpersonal skills and judgement to ensure the successful completion of work, including organising and co-ordinating the relevant tasks between the Document Production Specialist (DPS) and Admin Assistant (AA) teams and working closely with the Office Services and Front of House teams as required |
Responsibilities:
You will be responsible for providing comprehensive PA support to fee earners in order to assist them in their day to day work and maximise the amount of time they spend on fee earning activities. Your duties will include diary management, liaising with clients, file and matter management and billing, adhering to the relevant service level agreements and standard operating procedures for your role. You will work closely with the DPS and AA teams for the completion of tasks.
The firm has eleven different practices areas and duties may therefore vary according to specific needs. Below is a list of what duties will typically be expected:
Day to day duties:
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Co-ordination of all tasks, delegating to the DPS and AA teams as required, ensuring the completed task is checked (as far as reasonably practicable) and to return to the fee earner
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Typing short or urgent correspondence as and when required
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Producing documents which are too confidential and sensitive to be produced by DPS team
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Proactive diary management looking ahead at fee earner diaries to remind them of diary commitments and taking responsibility for ensuring that they have all supporting paperwork and information for each meeting or appointment
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Arranging internal and external meetings and conference calls ensuring the smooth running of such meetings making the appropriate arrangements for any internal meetings (e.g. room set up, ordering refreshments), liaising with other departments as required
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Attending meetings to take minutes as required
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Booking training and courses
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Organising and arranging travel bookings in conjunction with the Marketing team, including hotels/taxis/flights/insurances/IT equipment and producing/amending itineraries for all external appointments or trips
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Providing pro-active client liaison including taking messages, passing on the information and dealing with queries as appropriate in a professional andtimely manner
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Dealing with new client enquiries made by phone and email and passing on the information obtained for consideration by relevant fee earner
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Checking voicemails and emails when fee earners are away from the office, ensuring urgent messages are redirected as appropriate
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Helping fee earners to manage their email inbox by responding to clients to acknowledge receipt of emails (as requested) and filing emails (as directed)
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Escalating any issues or concerns to Team Leader or the SSM so that a resolution can be found in a timely manner
File/Matter Management duties:
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Assisting with file opening by carrying out conflict checks under supervision and as directed by the fee earner, passing all results to the fee earner for consideration, obtaining approval to open file and dealing with queries from the AA team concerning opening the physical file and the matter on MatterSphere
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Producing draft engagement letters, terms of business, funding agreements, cancellation notices as required for fee earners to review and approve
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Monitoring new matters to ensure all of the necessary information and documents have been received (e.g. engagement letters/instruction forms/monies on account/money laundering documentation and other compliance documents) informing fee earners when documents are not received and assisting as required
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Managing matters in MatterSphere, including naming, saving and filing documents and correspondence, management of contacts, associates, estimates and capturing other practice area specific data
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Obtaining up-to-date counsel/expert/other third party fee note(s)
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Obtaining transcripts and documents from the Court
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Co-ordinating outgoing post
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Undertaking file closure, including ensuring the file is properly prepared for archive and later destruction
Finance and Billing duties:
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Assisting fee earners with billing procedures including: a review of pre-bills and making amendments as required; preparing final bills and covering letters; processing write-offs and reversals/credit notes as instructed by fee earners
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Assisting fee earners to manage client accounts as directed by the fee earner (including organising and returning client monies and ensuring zero balances at matter closing)
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Completing of disbursement forms and confirming that they are on the system
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Supporting fee earners in the chasing of debts as requested
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Chasing fee earners for unposted time
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Time recording for fee earners when on leave (if previously directed by the fee earner to do so)
Marketing/BD duties:
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Organising, supporting and preparing for all marketing activities, such as events, seminars and Chambers submissions
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Updating the CRM database
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Working with fee earners to prepare tender documents (whilst delegating the majority of document production to the DPS team)
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