Paralegal

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 500 lawyers and legal professionals based in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. 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.

We have one of the best regarded and largest dedicated Real Estate departments within the country, numbering over 100 specialists.  Our property lawyers are particularly experienced in dealing with development and investment, planning, secured lending and landlord and tenant matters.

Our lawyers come from a range of backgrounds, including major City practices, other major national and regional firms, industry and local government and include individuals with construction, planning and commercial expertise. The depth and range of expertise means the team can work together in major and complex transactions on cost effective terms, providing our clients with true value for money. 

The team currently comprises a number of specialist qualified commercial property solicitors and Partners, making us one of the largest Real Estate teams in the East of England.

We have the strength and depth of expertise to ensure we deliver the service you would expect in respect of technical quality, practical approach and timeliness of advice.

The property team has experience in all areas of contentious and non-contentious legal matters, representing clients from a broad range of public and private organisations as well as individuals and senior executives and we are proud to act for sector leading clients nationwide and some of the East of England’s most important businesses and institutions.

To provide professional, proactive, high level legal paralegal and administrative support to an allocated group of fee earners and to the wider fee earning team. The role is within a team that manages a diverse caseload of all types of Real Estate work.

We are looking for the right person for this role, and all applicants will be considered on their individual merits, regardless of their prior experience - what matters to us is your ability to work effectively and efficiently as part of a team, supporting others and being supported by them. 

• To be expert in a variety of software packages such as Microsoft Word and Excel to produce correspondence and documents, spreadsheets and presentations and ensure relevant documentation is produced to a high standard to meet clients’ and fee earners’ expectations and deadlines;
• To be, or become, expert in legal software such as Hi Q, Expert Time Recording and Compare Docs;
• To prepare correspondence and requests for due diligence information following receipt of instructions from the client;
• Drafting of security documentation and accompanying documents;
• Liaising with fee earners and clients in respect of Commercial Property Standard Enquires and additional enquiries;
• Preparation and submission of Land Registry applications (including the preparation and submission of SDLT returns);
• Updating the client on progress when required;
• To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style or client standard form;
• To produce and amend documents with speed and accuracy;
• To proof-read all work, checking for spelling and grammar.

Administrative skills:

• To assist in maintaining compliant and accurate file management and office systems and develop and maintain a good level of understanding of firm policy and process;
• To carry out photocopying and scanning as required

Professional Skills:

• To clarify instructions from fee earners and the client should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit;
• To respond to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally and take accurate telephone messages(name/number/company), passing them on to the relevant fee earners etc. immediately;
• To provide full support to fee earners in the full range of activities that are performed and to carry out any other duties as reasonably requested;
• Supporting secretarial team members proactively and providing cover when necessary to ensure that work is completed on time and to a high standard;
• Managing the diaries of lawyers in Microsoft Outlook to include:      
• Maintaining and updating accurate client and other contact details on our database
• Processing forms including new client forms, new matter forms, money laundering forms, training course booking forms and similar
• Ensuring that all electronic and paper filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals
• Carrying out photocopying and scanning as required
• Scheduling deeds and documents and making arrangements for their storage
• Assisting lawyers with their file management, including monitoring inactive files and dealing with file closing formalities.

General Approach

• To show initiative when responding to queries and actively try to seek solutions to problems;
• To support your fee earners when clients are demanding the work product to be delivered;
• To support and build working relationships with your own fee earners as well as other members of the wider Real Estate team;
• To effectively liaise with staff from other departments and external contacts as required

• Proven IT/typing skills;
• Good/Advanced knowledge of Outlook, Word and Excel;
• Legal experience is required and law degree, LPC or equivalent is welcome but not essential;
• Experience in the property  industry and/or of working in a law firm/an in-house legal team is essential;
• Excellent computer/technical skills in particular working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite of software including Outlook, Excel, Word;
• Excellent spelling and punctuation;
• Strong written and oral communication skills. Ability to communicate with colleagues at all levels of seniority and liaise effectively with other internal departments and external contacts;
• Ability to use discretion;
• Positive and enthusiastic approach to team work;
• Good telephone manner;
• A flexible, highly motivated, proactive and ‘can do’ working style;
• Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to the Real Estate team;
• Ability to pay attention to detail and check own work;
• Good organisational skills, able to prioritise, make decisions and work effectively within a sometimes pressurised environment;
• Commitment to ongoing learning and development

The ideal candidate will have some experience of working in a law firm (but need not have experience of property transactions) and the ability to organise with run a busy caseload and to work independently with limited supervision.

All candidates will need excellent time management, organisational, communication and IT skills.  Working as part of a busy team, the ability to work under pressure to deadlines is also essential.

Competitive salary (dependent on experience/ability) and benefits including pension scheme, private medical insurance, permanent health insurance, life assurance, holiday from 25 days, cycle to work scheme and childcare vouchers. 

Working for one of the region’s leading commercial law firms, our lawyers are engaged in the highest quality work in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

We are committed to recruiting individuals on merits of suitability for each role, on the basis of qualifications and experience. All applications are treated fairly and equally regardless of sexual orientation, race, disability, religious beliefs and any other protected characteristic, ensuring that there are equal opportunities at all stages of the recruitment process.

Benefits

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• 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 / Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
• Life Assurance   - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
• Paid ESG day (Environmental, Social and Governance)
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Subsidised gym membership
• Electric car scheme
• Eye Care Voucher
• Agile Working Policy
• Dress for your Day Policy