Job Specifications
The Department
Legal Support Services includes document production specialists, paralegals, researchers, legal project management experts and legal operations professionals. The team covers a wide range of administrative, operational, and specialist matter and fee earner support using cutting-edge tools and innovative tech solutions to provide exceptional and frictionless service to the fee earners across the firm.
The Legal Operations team form part of the Legal Support Services department and provides high value administrative support for fee earners with a focus on matter management, diary management, travel and business development.
The Role
The Senior Legal PA is a member of the Legal Operations team situated within the Legal Support Services department. This role is primarily a Partner focussed role, based day to day within one of the Firm's fee earning departments. The Senior Legal PA will work with specified Partners and/or other senior fee earners to provide proactive, timely and high quality administrative/co-ordination support, flexing to provide support to the fee earners in the manner which best suits our clients.
The Senior Legal PA will be an engaged, self-motivated and organised individual, able to manage a busy workload and take responsibility for following tasks through to completion, delivering excellence in client service to both internal and external clients. The Senior Legal PA will need to demonstrate technical excellence with superb attention to detail.
Duties And Responsibilities
Fee Earner Support
Acting as a first point of contact on behalf of the fee earners; fielding calls, emails, correspondence, and meeting requests (internal and external), and responding on behalf of the fee earner, if appropriate.
Full proactive and advanced international calendar management in multiple time zones for assigned fee earners, including scheduling calls/meetings. Collating necessary information to ensure the fee earners are fully prepared for all client meetings; preparing background information and notes as needed, supporting the follow through of action points.
Supporting fee earners with expense claims.
Supporting fee earners in their ancillary supervisory roles and with other business related requirements.
Matter Management
Supporting fee earners in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, and working closely with internal client on-boarding and compliance specialists to ensure all required information/documentation is obtained, issued and correctly stored on the Firm's systems.
Supporting the fee earners and supervising Legal PAs to ensure compliance with the Firm's documented compliance policy and guidelines, particularly around new matters, retainer letters, conflict checks, searches, CDD and KYC.
Ensuring all documents are maintained and filed in line with the Firm's electronic and hard copy filing protocols.
Ensuring all inactive matters are closed, client funds are returned, and matters are archived in a timely fashion.
Financial Management and Billing Support
Developing a strong working knowledge of the Firm's billing systems, including processes and systems, to support the fee earners and supervising the Legal PAs and Business Administrators in producing accurate bills and financial information for their clients.
Ensuring files are set up with correct rates, discounts and billing information, and that Money on Account is collected, or files are on the exempt list.
Co-ordinating WIP lists and billing on behalf of Partners, including liaison with the billing team. Supporting fee earners with proactive monitoring of time and bills against the estimate.
Supporting fee earners with monitoring and addressing unpaid bills, liaising with Credit Control as required.
Supporting fee earners with ensuring disbursements, invoices and payments are issued correctly and promptly.
Travel
Full management of travel for assigned fee earners, ensuring business travel is booked via the Firm's in-house provider. This will include both routine and more complex travel arrangements.
Ensuring that fee earners are provided with full itineraries, supporting materials and that business expenses are captured, approved and processed for payment in line with policy.
Assisting fee earners with building a business case for travel.
Business Development
Supporting fee earners in preparing content and presentations for clients and prospective clients.
Organising business breakfasts, lunches, dinners or smaller events and assisting fee earners with expenses.
Logging referrals and contacts to the CRM system (InterAction) and management of CRM lists.
Delegation
Collaborating with the Legal PAs to ensure the smooth running of the matter lifecycle and appropriate delegation to ensure that all matters are compliant.
Collaborating with the Business Administrators to ensure that they provide support with filing and archiving, scanning, photocopying, updating contacts
About the Company
Based in London, Mishcon de Reya services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply. The work we undertake is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex. Our clients are dynamic and sophisticated and we reflect that in our belief in challenging the conventional or accepted ways of working. We like to solve problems quickly. We fiercely guard our clients' interests, recognising the significant nexus between business affairs and personal af...
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