Legal Secretary

Birketts is an ambitious full service, top 50 UK law firm, operating in East Anglia, Essex, London and the surrounding areas.  With a rich heritage spanning over 150 years we’ve built an enviable track record advising businesses, institutions and individuals in the UK and internationally.

Throughout our history our ethos has remained simple: we provide clear legal advice and value and insight to our clients.

We believe that through this approach and a combination of technical excellence and high quality service we can develop long-lasting partnerships and become our clients' solicitor of choice.

Birketts has one of the highest regarded and largest dedicated property teams within the country, that numbers over 100 specialists.  Our property lawyers are particularly experienced in dealing with development and investment, planning, secured lending and landlord and tenant matters.

Together, as a collaborative firm, we have close to 1000 people working with us and we are ranked highly in the Legal 500 across all areas we practice in. We are people orientated, offering a dynamic, progressive and supportive culture where you can learn from our Partners and Senior Associates who are experts in their field.

Our Commercial Property division are looking to recruit a Legal Secretary to come and be part of our secretarial team to provide professional, proactive, high level secretarial support to an allocated group of fee earners as well as the wider fee earning team. 

We are a multi-disciplinary team, used to working together on major projects. The breadth of our expertise means that we provide our clients with a fully comprehensive service.

This is an opportunity to join a highly regarded and expert team which has experienced significant growth in recent years and with high profile tender wins that growth is set to continue.

The role of Legal Secretary does not require you to have any experience or knowledge of Commercial Property but the role will require you to have the technical ability to produce and amend documents with speed and accuracy; format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP 'house style' and proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar.

You will proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentations are produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines, manage diaries in Outlook and make all necessary travel arrangements.

You will prepare papers for meetings, dealing with any necessary paperwork following meetings attended by fee earners.

Further accountability could include:

• Process all forms including new client form, new matter form, money laundering form, training course booking forms etc;
• Prepare narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date;
• Immediately clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit;
• 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.
• To 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, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

• Strong administration 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.
• Excellent IT skills, including Outlook, Word and Excel.

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.

Core Benefits

One of the best things about joining Birketts is our rewards package. At Birketts we’re appreciative of the people who work for us and our rewards package is reviewed regularly to reflect that. You can expect to receive:

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
• Private Healthcare - 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 (Environmental, Social and Governance) day
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Season Ticket Loan
• Gym Flex membership
• Electric car scheme
• Dress for your Day Policy
• Agile Working Policy