Legal PA/Secretary

Legal PA/Secretary to Partner – Head of Family and Childcare

Location: Canterbury Office

Working Hours: Full-time

Contract: Permanent

The Legal PA/Secretary role:

An experienced and highly organised Legal PA/Secretary to support the Head of the Family and Childcare Department in our busy Canterbury office.

Expectations of the Legal PA/Secretary:

· Have a few years' experience in a legal secretarial or PA role, preferably within a family or childcare law environment.

· Be highly organised, with the ability to prioritise multiple tasks and remain calm under pressure.

· Possess fast, accurate audio typing skills and experience managing busy professional diaries.

· Be confident using Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

· Communicate clearly and professionally, both in writing and verbally.

· Demonstrate a high level of attention to detail and accuracy in all work.

· Be professional, articulate, and able to build and maintain strong working relationships with colleagues, clients, and external contacts.

· Show a positive, can-do attitude and willingness to take initiative, even with tasks outside your usual remit.

· Be discreet, tactful, and trusted to handle sensitive and confidential information appropriately.

· Demonstrate enthusiasm for supporting others and being part of a high-performing team.

Key Responsibilities of the Legal PA/Secretary

The successful candidate will:

· Provide comprehensive PA and secretarial support to the Partner heading the Family and Childcare team.

· Provide support in accordance with the requirements of the Partner and following the caseworker file management document annexed hereto.

· Proactively manage and maintain the Partner’s diary, schedule appointments and coordinate meetings.

· Accurately type legal documentation and correspondence from audio dictation.

· Liaise with clients, Counsel, and other professionals with professionalism and tact building strong working relationships with clients and internal contacts.

· Handle telephone calls, emails and correspondence on behalf of the Partner.

· Assist with file management and the organisation of legal documents, court bundles and case materials.

· Liaising with other members of the team and delegating tasks as necessary.

· Provide general administrative support, including booking travel and managing expenses as required.

· Proactively manage and maintain diary planning and coordination for allocated fee earner, making appointments and co-ordinating internal and external client meetings, identifying, and resolving potential challenges and clashes. Ensure arrangements are made for equipment, venue and resources and that fee earners have all necessary paperwork.

· Dealing professionally and promptly with client (internal and external) telephone calls and communications, including calls diverted to the team.

· Monitoring fee earners' mailbox, responding to emails as necessary and prioritising correspondence to enable fee earners to focus on urgent matters.

· Using initiative to route emails to the appropriate individuals for swift response and action; wherever possible, responding to and filing emails on behalf of partners and fee earners to reduce volume.

· Providing secretarial assistance, which includes audio typing, copy typing, formatting documents, creating correspondence and ensuring requirements and timescales are clearly set out.

· Organising client documents (delegating scanning, formatting, photocopying, and collating of information where necessary) for client meetings or hearings and carrying out research as required.

· Working closely within the team to provide general support.

· Pro-active and flexible attitude for any other ad-hoc tasks