Legal Secretary

It’s the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams, together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves, from when and where you work, to how you dress; we focus on outputs.  

Want to find more about our amazing benefits?

Our Social Housing Development team is part of one of the largest Social Housing teams in the Midlands specialising in all aspects of property acquisition and disposal for more than 60 Housing Associations across the country.  The team deal with a full range of property and development work including acquisitions, disposals, section agreements, commercial property and some landlord and tenant matters.

We are looking for a Secretary to join our vibrant Social Housing Development team which is largely based in our Stratford-upon-Avon office and is part of the firm’s Real Estate group.

You will provide critical secretarial and administrative support to help our legal team deliver a great service to our Housing Association clients.

What you will be doing / or your key duties will be:

• providing timely and effective support to requests for assistance from members of the team
• producing and amending correspondence and documentation, including through the use of digital dictation
• attending to clients in person and on the phone, taking messages and assisting where appropriate
• dealing with completions, registrations and SDLT, as appropriate
• conducting searches
• using a case management system to process and progress files
• managing file opening, closure and archiving
• producing bills and other financial administration
• managing diaries for the team, planning and organising meetings and making travel arrangements
• organising and maintaining departmental filing systems and document storage
• photocopying, scanning, faxing, printing, filing and other general administrative tasks

Role requirements:

• a minimum of 2 years of previous experience in a secretarial role, ideally gained predominantly within a legal environment with some property experience
• fast and accurate keyboard skills and confidence with IT systems including Microsoft
• the ability to work well in a team and develop good working relationships with colleagues and others
• confident interpersonal skills with the ability to liaise openly and clearly with colleagues and clients
• to be able to produce a high standard of work
• ability to prioritise well and be able to cope with challenging and changing demands
• to be able to demonstrate professionalism, flexibility, initiative and self confidence

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.

We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield.  This role will be a mixture of home based with travel as required into Stratford-upon-Avon or one of our other West Midlands hubs.

Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.