PA Secretary Legal Private Client

Salary: £26,000 – £30,000 per year

Our client is seeking an experienced PA Secretary for Private Client for this firm of Solicitors

Undertake work as directed by the nominated fee earner and provide support to the private client department with a wide range of activities relating mainly to wills, powers of attorney and administration of estates (probate) matters.

Provide secretarial and administrative support to the private client team.

Scope and Range

Post primarily reports to the nominated fee earner but may be asked to undertake tasks by others as required.

Hours of work

8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday with 1 hour for lunch (or 37.5 hours per week by arrangement).

Key Responsibilities

Working under supervision, the key responsibilities are:

Private Client related tasks

* Taking instructions from the fee earner for a wide range of tasks on all types of Private Client files including powers of attorney, wills, administration of estates, trust and tax advice, Court of Protection applications and property and affairs management.

* Dealing personally with clients and other organisations to deal with queries.

* Advising and keeping clients up to date with the progress of their matter both via email and telephone contact.

* Ordering copy Land Registry and probate documents, bankruptcy searches and other information as required.

* Preparing Lasting Powers of Attorney and managing the registration process.

* Dealing with pre and post grant formalities on an estate administration.

Case management tasks

* Opening and closing case files.

* General file management and case tracking ensuring timescales are met and that paperwork is processed, filed and kept up to date.

* Raising bills and financial control with particular regard to cash flow control through collection of monies on account and billing procedures and liaising with the accounts department in accordance with Solicitors Accounts Rules.

Administrative tasks

Provide general administrative and secretarial support to the Private Client Team.

Keyboard Work producing quality documentation using Microsoft Office applications.

Typing of audio-dictation.

Dealing with external and internal telephone calls from clients, staff and other professionals.

Booking and co-ordinating meetings and diary management.

Attending team meetings.

Assisting with maintenance of precedent documentation, spreadsheets and legal databases.

Communications and relationships

Excellent internal personal and communication skills are required as the role has extensive communication with clients (primarily on the telephone), financial and other organisations, lawyers, accountants, financial advisers, etc.

Most challenging part of the job

Working under pressure to support fee earning lawyers in a busy department.

Requires ability to track tasks and commitments and prioritise work to tight deadlines.

Requires strong organisational skills with attention to detail.

Knowledge, training and experience required

Essential:

Experience as a legal secretary / assistant.

Efficient and well organised, with attention to detail.

Well developed communication and interpersonal skills.

Adaptable and flexible with ability to work on own initiative as well as part of a team.

Ability to prioritise a heavy workload within tight time constraints under pressure.

Secretarial and IT skills.

Desirable:

Experience as a legal secretary within a Private Client department.

Experience using case management software.

Good knowledge of residential conveyancing processes and procedures.

We endeavour to reply to all applications, however, if you haven`t heard from us within 7 days, you have been unsuccessful with this particular role. You are very welcome to apply to future advertisements placed by Grafters Recruitment Consultants / Grafters Accountancy Personnel.