PA / Personal Assistant

Job Title: PA and Department Administrator

Location: Manchester, M22

Salary: £19,000 to £23,000

Hours: 8:30am-5:30pm Monday-Thursday and 8:30am to 5pm Friday (negotiable)

Holiday Entitlement: 20 days holiday per annum, plus bank holidays rising by a day a year up to 23 days. In addition, the office is closed between Christmas and New Year and you will not be required to use your holiday allowance for this period.

Our client prides themselves in the work they do helping injured people. They are a top 200 Law firm that specialises in personal injury litigation. They cover every area of personal injury including public liability, occupier's liability, road traffic accidents, employer's liability, industrial disease, serious injuries and clinical negligence matters. Additionally we have a thriving costs and budgeting department that undertakes all costs and costs budgeting work for the Firm.

They are currently looking for a PA to work with the partner heading up the Costs and Budgeting Department. The partner also handles some complex personal injury cases and has a senior role in the Firm's management team.

The role will involve diary management, attending meetings in order to take minutes, assisting with the allocation of new work, monitoring completion dates for active work within the department, and keeping a department court hearings diary. Additionally, the role provides secretarial support to some of the senior fee earners within the department. This will include typing audio dictated documents, preparing standard precedent documents, and finalising court bundles. The role requires good communication skills as the candidate will have regular contact with barristers, the court, legal opposition and senior members of the department.

The ideal candidate must have a minimum of 3 years' experience as a legal secretary, ideally PA experience. Further the candidate must have a background in personal injury litigation. Costs and budgeting experience are desirable but not essential. The candidate should have excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office packages, a strong command of English spelling, punctuation and grammar and GCSE level mathematics. An audio typing speed of 65+ wpm and experience of the Proclaim case management system and Excel will be a distinct advantage.

Key Responsibilities:

• To prepare correspondence and documents through audio-typing and word processing.
• To make appointments, arrange meetings and to manage the fee earner diaries
• To attend clients both in person and on the telephone and to provide such support in a professional and friendly manner in keeping with the firm's standards for client care.
• To administer filing which will include daily filing and the opening, closing, storage and retrieval of client files in accordance with company procedure
• To prepare mail and enclosures for despatch if required.
• To arrange for all copying to be done, in person if the admin assistant is not available to undertake the task.
• To requisition and make payments associated with department cases.
• To make telephone calls to the court barristers and legal opposition in connection with department hearings and also case progression.
• Monitor and action own and partner task list
• To perform any such task required by the Partner to support them in the efficient management of cases, including monitoring important dates/deadlines, autonomously producing chaser letters and chaser calls, dealing with routine incoming letters
• Creating and updating cases on Proclaim
• Provide ongoing support to team regarding policies and systems
• Produce agenda & minutes for meetings.
• Assisting with the allocation and monitoring of work within the costs department.
• To create and sometimes work from management reports.
• Ensure department has stationary supplies, printer cartridges, paper, calculators etc.
• Organise team social events
• Monitor team holiday requests and manage holiday calendar
• To provide support to other secretaries and the administration team as required.
• To undertake any specific training when required to do so and overall to have a responsibility towards self-development.
• To ensure the confidentiality of all the firm's and clients' documentation and information.
• Any other ad hoc duties as and when required.

Person Specification:

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable legal secretarial experience within costs/personal injury
• Computer literate
• Excellent command of English spelling, punctuation and grammar (we may test at interview)
• GCSE mathematics

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the Proclaim case management system
• Audio typing speed of 65+ words per minute
• Experience in costs and or budgeting
• Experience of requisitioning of payments
• Understanding how to read a client ledger

To apply for this role, please click APPLY to submit your CV and a Cover Letter.

Candidates with experience of; Legal Secretary, Secretary, Commercial & Private Client Litigation Secretary, Company Secretary, Compliance Executive, Chartered Secretary, Assistant Company Secretary, Finance Secretary, Part-Qualified Secretary, Legal Assistant, Legal Support, Administrator, Administrative Assistant, PA, Legal Administrator, Administration, Personal Assistant, PA, EA, Executive Assistant, Personal Injury, Assistant will be considered for this role.