Legal Secretary

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich, Sevenoaks and Bristol. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: property, corporate services, litigation and private client advisory.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do.  RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.

Our Employment team boast some of the best lawyers in the country. Their work is varied and includes individual client, companies, charities, education and health institutions and others. 

Our Employment Team will help our clients be informed and to manage regulatory changes, so that they are not a barrier to effective staff management and business growth.

We have one of the largest employment law teams in the region, with expertise across the board in all issues facing businesses from everyday operational challenges to advising on strategic issues.

Our lawyers give proactive, timely and effective advice to help clients manage their staff in a way that suits their organisation’s needs, advising on a diverse range of businesses from start up through to cessation and everything in between.

The Employment department in Cambridge are recruiting for an articulate and forward-thinking Legal Secretary to come and join us on a full-time permanent basis to provide professional, pro-active, and high-level administration support to a small group of busy ambitious fee earners.

Key accountabilities include:

• Monitor fee earners inboxes daily as well as managing the inbox of junior staff when on holiday.  Monitoring at regular intervals throughout each day - possibly every 20 to 30 minutes depending on workload.
• Manage diaries by bringing urgent items to attention, deleting sales emails/old emails, to leave around the last 6 weeks in the Inbox at any one time.
• Copy any instructions or information for meetings into the appropriate calendar entry and delete.
• Coordinating meetings, meeting rooms, car park spaces, lunches, dinners, transport arrangements.
• Assist with BD event.
• Format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style.
• Proofread all work.
• General PA type duties including booking restaurants and accommodation.
• Accurately maintain and update client and other relevant contact details on our client database.
• Respond to internal and external telephone enquiries professionally.
• Proactively support other members of the secretarial team and to provide cover as and when necessary to ensure that work is completed to a high standard and meets the required deadlines.

You will have the ability to contribute at an operational level working well in a team and with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

• Strong proactive administration and or secretarial experience.
• Positive, enthusiastic, and professional approach.
• Strong attention to detail, high level organisational skills and reliable.
• Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative with a desire to learn.
• Flexibility to learn and manage new things and work at pace when needed.
• Ability to create positive impressions and relationships with clients.
• Ability to liaise closely and seamlessly with colleagues in other offices and build good working relationships with others. 

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays (rising with service up to a maximum of 30 days). 
• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme 
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid CSR Day
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Agile/Hybrid Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy

https://www.birketts.co.uk/recognition-reward-benefits/

Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application. 

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.