Departmental Assistant London, England
Job description
Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.
With offices in London, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.
Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.
This role will be working to support multiple legal practice groups including Corporate, Data, Privacy & Cyber, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property and Digital, Commerce & Creative.
The teams that this role will assist, are made up of leading advisers for creative, innovative and brand-focused businesses, offering a deep understanding of the industry sectors in which clients operate combined with real expertise across a wide range of legal services. From start-ups to multinationals, the firm’s comprehensive and commercially focused advice helps clients succeed in an increasingly complex and converged international marketplace.
In this role you will be working directly with and supporting the PA team with the following tasks:
- Assisting with distribution of papers for meetings (i.e. Know How, partner meetings)
- Assisting with travel requirements (i.e. booking taxis/liaising with our external travel company)
- Assisting with couriers
- Assisting with maintaining the Engage database
- E-filing as requested
- Carrying out external local deliveries as required
- Ad hoc project work, creating spreadsheets etc
- Assisting with PDF documents for bundles etc
- Assisting the marketing team to complete marketing packs and badges, assisting with seminars
- Assisting with searches for files, deeds, Wills etc
- Assisting with regular archiving
- Liaising with Reprographics on print requests
- Assisting with photocopying
- And other general support from time to time
Billing & Finance
- Processing disbursements/payment requests and other Finance forms
- Processing expenses using ChromeRiver
- Assisting with billing projects
- Sending out client bills via email
File Inception
- Under supervision, creating new client and matter requests
- Assisting with CDD, Companies House information etc
- Creating draft Engagement Letters
Candidate profile
This is a challenging role offering hands-on experience working within a legal environment. The role may suit a candidate with an interest in learning more about a career in future as a Legal Secretary, although the role will not automatically lead to this. The successful candidate must have excellent communication skills and enjoy working in an involved team environment. They must be highly organised with a flexible nature and able to prioritise tasks allocated, with a co-operative and willing attitude.
Specialist experience
- Some office work experience would be an advantage
Abilities and desired qualities
- Typing skills (40 wpm)
- Good attention to detail and enthusiasm
- Excellent organisational and communication skills
- Ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure
- The ability to work overtime when require
IT skills required
- Some experience or knowledge of Word, Excel, document management systems and Outlook would be beneficial, although not essential as full training will be provided
Educational and professional qualifications required
- Good grammatical English - at least to GCSE standard or equivalent.
At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.
