Company Secretary

Shakespeare Martineau is a leading law firm that combines creativity, commerciality and clarity. We work with blue-chip companies, leading organisations, high street brands and individuals across the country.

Our multi-disciplinary team delivers a broad range of specialist legal services, and particularly stands out for its expertise across sectors including, but not limited to: energy, education, banking and financial services, investment funds, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. 

We’re proud of our people’s varied backgrounds and expertise. Our different qualities stand out and make us interesting to our clients.

We firmly believe in working hard and being ambitious. We look to recruit and develop talented people to achieve their potential - and who will contribute to achieving ours too.

Here you can fulfil your ambitions, whatever they are and however rapidly you want to achieve them. Together, and individually, we create exceptional results.

Our Corporate and Commercial group undertakes various corporate, commercial, tax, banking and employment work at all levels. Our specialist teams combine unsurpassed expertise with a sound understanding of the corporate landscape to provide exceptional solutions for every aspect of our clients’ corporate and business law requirements.

Our experienced Corporate Finance team provide unrivalled expertise to funders and the businesses they fund.  We provide “cradle to grave” services supporting clients from raising or investing money to realising ambitions to create successful businesses and returns for investors. The team’s expertise includes joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, disposals and restructurings, private equity and venture capital, corporate finance transactions, regulatory and compliance services, public and private fundraisings, tax, corporate governance and strategic support and company secretarial services. The team is the core practice of the firm’s Investment Funds sector with a particular specialism in tax related products for the retail market and investment structuring for institutional investors.  We work closely with the banking and energy sectors providing a “world view” approach which really benefits our clients.

The role:

You will provide a high quality company secretarial service to clients on a full range of matters to our London-based Corporate Team, part of our Corporate & Commercial Group.

Your key duties will be:

• taking responsibility for your own portfolio of clients and reporting into the head of the company secretarial department;  such a portfolio will consist of a Standard Listed Company as well as a selection of AIM and NEX listed companies
• drafting meeting agendas and preparing board packs
• attending board and committee meetings and drafting board minutes
• reviewing and releasing announcements to the London Stock Exchange, where appropriate
• advising on the application of the EU Market Abuse Regulations as and when required
• assisting with Annual Report preparation
• drafting AGM documentation, assisting with printing and distribution to shareholders, proxy monitoring and attendance at AGM
• demonstrating a sound understanding of the Companies Act 2006, Listing Rules and AiM rules for listed companies, complying at all times with procedures contained within the firm’s procedures and such other internal sources
• assisting partners with providing high quality legal services to clients on a broad range of company secretarial work
• providing administrative support set out in company law and articles of association
• providing administrative support to the company secretarial practice by filing forms with Companies House, ensuring that clients are compliant with their obligations and that all statutory filing deadlines are met
• updating and maintaining statutory registers held on Blueprint, and where required, physical statutory books
• complying with legislation, including preparing and filing statutory returns, and maintaining the documentation of statutory records
• maintaining good file management including electronic and paper storage
• responding to client queries, taking telephone calls, handling queries and enquiries where appropriate
• keeping abreast of all professional developments in own area of work and undertaking such training as required
• ensuring confidentiality and security of all documentation/information belonging to the firm and clients
• undertaking projects and any other tasks as directed by the line manager
• ensuring personal time recording and billing targets are achieved
• ensuring that all chargeable work on client matters is properly entered and charging units accurately recorded
• supporting other team members generally in relation to the conduct of matters and in particular drafting of routine documents
• maintaining good working relationships with clients
• maintaining good working relationships with other key advisors to our clients; i.e. auditors, registrars, pension providers, banks etc.

Skills and experience you will have:

• a full qualification as a Company Secretary
• ideally a minimum of 12 months’ previous experience in a similar role
• experience dealing with public and private limited companies with key focus on companies listed on the main market, AiM and NEX
• experience attending board and committee meetings and drafting of minutes
• experience in AGM procedures for public limited companies
• good practical knowledge of Companies Act 2006
• good practical knowledge of Corporate Governance

Key competencies you will need:

• confidence working with and advising boards of directors
• excellent time management and organisational skills
• the ability to prioritise work effectively and work well under pressure
• good verbal and written communication skills are essential
• the ability to work independently and as part of a team

About you – you will be:

• highly enthusiastic, willing to go the extra mile and be happy to go beyond the job description
• respectful towards others and have a positive, willing and ‘can do’ attitude
• keen to learn, interested in driving your own career progression and be proactive in taking ownership of this

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.