Legal Secretary

Shakespeare Martineau is a law firm with big ambitions for both our clients and our people. We are one firm of original thinkers, inspired to create an outstanding future for our clients, our people and our community. 

Working with organisations of all sizes our team delivers a broad range of specialist legal services, and has particular expertise across sectors including but not limited to; energy, education, banking & financial services, investment funds and advanced manufacturing.  

Our vision is to be the outstanding legal force in our specialist sectors and markets. Our people are renowned for their flair and individuality.  We recruit people who have a blend of excellent technical and business skills with the talent to do things differently.

We firmly believe that people and spirit are at the heart of everything we do. Our commitment is to help all our people fulfil their careers and ambitions and we strive to create an environment where each individual can understand and then achieve their full potential. Great performance for us is a blend of excellent technical and business skills and the talent and drive to do things differently.

Our Litigation & Dispute Resolution group has a long-standing experience of working with some of the most successful and influential businesses in the UK and also internationally. Our specialist teams combine expertise with a sound understanding of the commercial landscape to provide exceptional solutions for every aspect of our clients’ corporate requirements.

Our dispute resolution, professional negligence and contentious probate team deals with all types of commercial disputes.  This particularly incorporates complex and high value commercial and contractual litigation, as well as corporate disputes, partnership disputes, transactional claims, injunctive proceedings and professional negligence claims. The team also specialises in contentious trusts and probate which includes disputes over wills, financial provision claims, disputes with executors, disputes regarding powers of attorney and contested Court of Protection applications. We pride ourselves on our technical expertise and resources to deliver the best possible solutions for our clients, ranging from large household names and multi-million pound turnover companies to small owner managed businesses.

The role:

You will work as part of a team to provide secretarial support to help our legal teams deliver great service to our clients, this will include the following:

Your key duties will be:

• providing timely and effective support to requests for assistance from members of the team
• the accurate production of Court forms and some documents; amendments to correspondence and documents, whether by tracked changes or otherwise
• attending to clients in person and on the phone taking messages and assisting, where appropriate
• using a case management system to process and progress files
• opening and distributing the post
• 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
• some limited production of documentation via digital dictation and copy typing
• photocopying, scanning, faxing, printing, filing and other general administrative tasks

Skills and experience you will have:

• solid previous secretarial experience gained ideally in litigation work
• a minimum grade C pass at GCSE (or equivalent) in English Language and Mathematics
• confidence with IT systems to include Microsoft Word, Excel and ideally Powerpoint
• fast and accurate keyboard skills

Key competencies you will need:

• 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, often to tight deadlines, whilst maintaining accuracy and good attention to detail
• the ability to prioritise well and be able to cope with changing demands
• to be able to demonstrate professionalism, flexibility, initiative and self confidence

About you- you will be:

• highly enthusiastic and willing to go the extra mile
• respectful towards others and have a positive, willing and ‘can do’ attitude

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.