Legal Secretary (ref 1199)

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.

The department

We have one of the best regarded and largest dedicated property 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 Real Estate solicitors and Partners, making us one of the largest Commercial 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.

Purpose of job

This is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious Secretary to join our successful and growing Commercial Real Estate team in Ipswich. We are seeking someone who will work as a member of our existing team of secretaries and administrators to support the lawyers in all aspects of their 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 – we are as happy to work with someone at the start of their career as we are someone with decades of 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.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with our lawyers in delivering excellent client service on the full range of Commercial Real Estate deals, both locally and nationally, including residential and commercial development, investment sales and purchases, leasing and asset management (acting for both landlords and tenants), real estate finance and general advisory work.

Accountabilities

Technical ability:

• Producing and amending documents with speed and accuracy
• Formatting, paginating, numbering and presenting documents in Birketts’ house style
• Proof reading all work, checking for spelling and grammar
• A user of key software packages and applications, including the Land Registry portal, DocuSign and third party search providers, and taking responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet business requirements
• Working proactively with colleagues to ensure documentation meets client expectations and deadlines
• Processing property searches, responding to search provider queries and collating/tracking results for lawyers to review.
• An understanding of ledgers and the ability to deal with any enquiries relating to credit/debits and client account balances.

Administrative skills:

• Managing the diaries of lawyers in Microsoft Outlook to include:
• Making appointments
• Arranging meetings/conferences
• Sending and responding to appointments
• Booking restaurants
• Processing expenses claims, payment requisition forms and returned advances
• 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
• Preparing narratives and bills and keep billing files up to date
• 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.

Professional Skills:

• Promptly clarifying instructions should they or deadlines be unclear
• Responding to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally, taking accurate telephone messages, and passing them to the appropriate person
• Supporting other secretarial team members proactively and providing cover when necessary to ensure that work is completed on time and to a high standard
• Providing full support to lawyers in the full range of their activities and carrying out any other duties as reasonably requested.

General Approach

• Showing a positive approach and interest in the work of our team
• Showing initiative when responding to queries and actively trying to solve problems
• Supporting the lawyers to meet clients’ demands
• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with other members of the team, including lawyers and other secretaries and administrators, and actively working in the interests of the whole firm.

The candidate

• Secretarial qualification or educated to GCSE
• Typing speed of at least 50 wpm
• Excellent spelling and punctuation
• Excellent written and verbal communications
• Ability to use discretion
• Excellent IT skills, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Positive and enthusiastic approach to teamwork
• Good telephone manner
• Adaptable and flexible
• Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to fee-earners
• Ability to pay attention to detail and check own work
• Reliable and well organised
• Ability to remain calm and work under pressure to meet strict deadlines
• Commitment to ongoing learning and development

Equal opportunities

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
• 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
• Dress for your Day Policy

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

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.