Secretary

Farrer & Co is synonymous with the highest quality legal advice and service.

We advise businesses, financial services, educational and not-for-profit organisations, individuals and families on every aspect of the law, wherever the need arises. From our offices in London we work with trusted professionals around the world to deliver a seamless international service.

Our clients present us with complex and varied challenges. Whether that's a complicated family trust issue, a multinational corporate transaction, or an emerging threat to their reputation, they need clear thinkers who can advise on the best solutions, fast thinkers when speed is of the essence and agile thinkers who can produce a fresh approach to get the job done. That's why they choose us.

Our clients value our in-depth knowledge, technical excellence and diversity of disciplines. But what really binds our long-standing relationships with them is our approach: pragmatic, plain speaking and always steadfast in our values, which we hold dear. Values which mean we gain our clients' trust, always strive to do the right thing, and aim for the best results for them.

Superb client service sits at the heart of everything we do. We are modern lawyers with timeless values.

The firm fosters a welcoming and inclusive environment. From the minute you walk through the door, you are greeted by warm and friendly people. We recruit the best, and we work with inspirational people who are keen to share their knowledge. Our employees embody our values of integrity, excellence and partnership, and this means that our people develop lasting relationships around the firm.

The role will be based in our Private Client Team. The firm is a leader in providing advice to International Private Clients.  It is able to provide these clients with very comprehensive advice ranging from tax and trust planning to high end residential property, employment, disputes, reputation management, family law, corporate etc. We are looking to recruit a Secretary into our growing Private Client team.

We are looking for an extremely organised and proactive secretary to provide a high level of professional support to their allocated Fee Earners as well as other members of the Department. The candidate will be experienced in their specialist area but will be expected to be flexible to cover the broader remit of the Department. They will be highly motivated, display outstanding attention to detail and have the ability to multitask with ease.  It is essential that they are a strong team player with a positive, up-beat approach.

Organisational Support

• Effective and proactive diary management, and awareness of Fee Earners' workloads to plan ahead, with minimal supervision
• Processes relevant applications, forms or searches, with minimal supervision
• Has an excellent knowledge of all systems/processes used within the Department
• Is professional and maintains effective communications with clients and Fee Earners
• Maintains up-to-date knowledge and understanding of Fee Earners' matters to enable a proactive support service
• Researches new clients/contacts and prepares bios before meetings, and conducts basic research (on-line or otherwise) for Fee Earners when required
• Arranges travel and any other activities on behalf of others, where appropriate

Client Relationship and Business Development

• Provides excellent service to clients, both internal and external, in a timely and professional manner, presenting a positive image of the Firm at all times
• Acts as a first point of contact for Fee Earners
• Provides assistance in the delivery of marketing communications, and records all business development meetings in InterAction, and sets up reminders where follow-ups are needed with prospects on InterAction or other systems/logs as required
• Recognises, respects and honours client confidentiality at all times
• Organises business development meetings and events for Fee Earners, and assists in the production of business development materials in liaison with the Marketing team

Document Production

• Creates typed work of a high quality, formatting in accordance with house style, at high speed, with accuracy and following internal guidelines
• Makes effective use of the Document Management System
• Creates new documents from the Firm’s templates, using contact data from InterAction where appropriate

• Proof-reads all documents for spelling, grammar and sense, querying wording where appropriate
• Proactively uses initiative to compose and send on behalf of Fee Earners, correspondence requiring focused concentration and attention to detail

IT Skills/Systems

• Maintains a high level of proficiency in core IT applications including the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)
• Makes suggestions for additional training, as required

File Management

• Adopts a pro-active approach and works with Fee Earners  effectively, to maintain regular file management, ensuring all files are up to date, closed and archived, as appropriate
• Keeps accurate records of all files sent to off-site storage via Records

Financial Risk Management

• Prepares bills (including bill narratives) with minimal supervision, as required by Fee Earners
• Prepares AML documentation and obtains relevant documentation from clients in a timely manner, as required by Fee Earners
• Carries out conflict searches and correctly identifies the work type
• Has an excellent knowledge and application of the Firm's procedures in billing, AML, Credit Control and debt management
• Liaises with credit control and alerting Fee Earners of unpaid bills
• Deals with time-recording matters as required by Fee Earners

• Strong legal experience – ideally immigration, but not essential

• Strong diary management

• Organised and good at prioritising/working to specific timescales at times

• Good common sense

• Proactive

• Good with billing and general numerical

• Willing to be flexible and a team player.

• Qualified to GCSE standard, grade C (or equivalent) at Mathematics and English essential
• Previous secretarial experience in a law firm essential

• The hours of work for this opportunity are 9:30am to 5:30pm but it is essential to be committed, flexible and prepared to work beyond the normal office hours when necessary and in response to client demand.