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Senior Secretary - Edinburgh

Employer
DLA Piper
Location
Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
25 Feb 2019

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Job Details

THE ROLE

We are recruiting a Secretary to work within our IPT, Corporate, Finance & Projects team within our Edinburgh office.

DLA Piper has a unique approach to our legal secretarial function - 'the hub' (a model encouraging true teamwork). This approach allows us to stretch and develop your skills ensuring you are given interesting work at an appropriate level whilst making sure you are not over-burdened. You still have contact with clients and partners but you will collaborate and work with a wider range of people in the department than in a traditional secretarial model.

The feedback on 'the hub' from our existing team has been really positive - we see it as the natural evolution of secretarial services.

We have 4 levels of role in the team:

  • Team Coordinator - monitors incoming work and team capacity and distributes jobs and projects to members of the team, whilst also operating as a senior level secretary. They are also responsible for communicating with fee earners to keep them appraised of a task or projects status.

  • Senior Secretary - takes ownership for the efficient running of the team by role-modelling as an effective and responsible team member and act as workflow supervisor where required.

  • Secretary - provides general secretarial and administration services as part of the secretarial team.

  • Team Administrator - a junior role for those still developing their skills, undertakes routine secretarial tasks at the direction of the Team Coordinator.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

At DLA Piper a Senior Secretary:

  • takes ownership for the efficient running of the team - acting as an senior team member by setting a good example to more junior team members

  • plays an active role in knowledge sharing with administrative staff to ensure growth and development;

  • acts as workflow supervisor, when required, on a shared basis with other senior secretaries;

  • ensures urgent work is promptly completed or delegated to the appropriate team member;

  • ensures all work (other than confidential) is directed through the team and works hard to make sure fee earners follow this process;

  • delegates all junior level tasks to administrative resource;

  • assists the team in providing fee earners with effective and high quality secretarial support , enabling them to focus on providing the best legal services to clients;

  • undertakes all aspects of the role using the most appropriate tools and resources for the task to meet deadlines;

  • demonstrates flexibility and proactively contribute to the team's success by actively seeking to improve working processes;

  • ensures all work is undertaken in the correct priority order;

  • devises a plan to share complex tasks which are time bound;

  • proactively engages with and assists fee earners regarding work requirements and encourages and supports all team members to utilise the team;

  • communicates with fee earners to keep them appraised of a task's status;

  • engages in mutual delegation of tasks between team members and assist the team to meet deadlines;

  • ensures clear and concise record keeping relating to tasks undertaken and correct filing of tasks and supporting materials (e.g. email instructions / discussions);

  • follows team processes and procedures when undertaking tasks;

  • collaborates with team members on team processes, procedures and solutions - ensuring more junior members of the team understand and adhere to these.

  • actively participates in team meetings.

SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES

  • Extensive relevant experience as a legal secretary

  • Have a strong working knowledge of WorkSite and Bighand or similar tools

  • IT literate with high level of proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook) & Lync - Skype for Business

  • Excellent diary management

  • Exemplary document management and filing

  • Excellent telephone manner

  • Detailed understanding of billing

  • Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills

  • Applies knowledge and judgement to solve problems and make decisions

  • Experience of delegating to, and training, junior team members

THE FIRM

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.  Our global reach ensures that we can help businesses with their legal needs anywhere in the world.

We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality, service excellence and value to our clients and offering  practical and innovative legal solutions to help them succeed. Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies, as well as government and public sector bodies. 

At DLA Piper we are firmly committed to diversity and inclusion. For us, diversity isn't just about visible differences, it's the unique blend of talents, skills, experiences and perspectives that makes each of us an individual and we know it's crucial to have a culture and environment where those differences are genuinely valued.

We offer exceptional career opportunities to our lawyers, aspiring graduates, and business services professionals in a truly challenging and rewarding environment.  

PRE-EMPLOYMENT SCREENING

Please note that, in the event that we make an offer of employment to you and where local legislation permits, we may conduct pre-employment screening that can include checks  relating to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the relevant jurisdiction, any criminal records, your financial stability and references from previous employers.

Company

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world.

We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality and value to our clients, and we achieve this through practical and innovative legal solutions that help our clients succeed.

We’re proud to serve an international client base that includes more than half of the Fortune 250 and nearly half of the FTSE 350 companies. We help the world's top companies with their business-critical issues. Many of the deals we work on are complex and challenging – transcending not just practice areas, but borders, languages and legal systems. With offices throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, we represent more clients in a broader range of geographies and practice disciplines than virtually any other law firm in the world. Our lawyers have wide experience in arbitration, banking, competition and trade, as well as corporate crime and corporate finance. We have strong practices in employment, energy, hospitality and leisure, insurance, intellectual property, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and have developed key teams in pensions, private equity, real estate, tax, and technology

As a firm we are committed to diversity and to building an inclusive culture for all of our people, where differences are genuinely valued. For us, diversity isn't just about visible differences, it's the unique blend of talents, skills, experiences and perspectives that makes each of us an individual and we know it's crucial to have a culture and environment where those differences are genuinely valued.

Company info
Website
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7349 0296
Location
160 Aldersgate Street
London
EC1A 4HT
GB

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