Senior Executive Assistant

Senior Executive Assistant (SEA) - Personal and Family

Based in Edinburgh

JOB PURPOSE

The role of the Senior Executive Assistant (SEA) is to support the workload management of the secretarial team within their practice area, being the first point of contact for day-to-day queries. The role holder will also provide executive assistant / administrative support to the team, under the supervision and guidance of the Practice Support Manager (PSM).

The SEA position is a responsible senior role which requires strong organisational, communication and people skills. The role holder will already be a highly experienced Executive Assistant (EA), preferable with experience working in Personal and Family, and have an extensive range of skills which include the ability to juggle multiple priorities, communicate effectively with the Partner team and colleagues, implement new processes positively and support, coach and encourage team members to work together as a team.

CORE TASKS

• Act as the first point of contact for day-to-day workloads of the secretarial team via BigHand/team central in-box ensuring all work is complete within required timescales for the legal team and our clients.
• Develop and maintain solid working relationships with the legal and secretarial teams to effectively deliver a seamless secretarial/administrative support service to the business across all locations.
• Buddy and/or arrange buddies for new secretarial support into the business providing them with the appropriate welcome document for the practice area, making sure that they understand and use Brodies secretarial protocols and procedures effectively.
• Take responsibility to support the EAs if their BigHand Queue should become unmanageable.
• Take responsibility to support the secretarial team, particularly with tasks that require more experience and initiative to complete.
• Take responsibility for updating the welcome document for the practice area.
• Allocate new start lawyers and secretarial support to the assigned legal team via the BigHand server updating the PSM accordingly.
• Take responsibility to check that the colleague directory for the legal team, in respect of secretarial new start details, has been updated.
• Allocate Trainees to their EA in line with their allocated Line Manager in advance of the practice area seat moves taking place within the business, updating the PSM accordingly.
• Providing EA feedback to the PSM ahead of our annual appraisal process within the business for your area.
• Identify and organise opportunities for secretarial development, taking responsibility for arranging meetings where knowledge can be shared.
• Manage annual leave requests received from the EA team to adequately support workload and allocations, making sure that there is always enough support in place, whilst communicating effectively with our legal colleagues and the PSM to ensure a consistency of service is maintained.
• Working collectively with other legal colleagues as and when the business requires.
• Identify opportunities for process improvement and enhanced service delivery and encourage others to do the same.
• Be aware of Brodies’ information security policies, and protect information assets from unauthorised access, disclosure, modification, destruction or interference at all times

ADDITIONAL TASKS

The role holder will also be expected to perform the duties of an EA, in addition to the tasks outlined above, including, but not limited to:

• Diary, meeting & email management - manage calendars, arrange meetings, prepare meeting materials, and proactively manage lawyer inboxes and client communication.
• Travel & meeting logistics - arrange travel and accommodation, prepare itineraries, take minutes and anticipate required documents and information.
• Client support - respond to client queries via e-mail, phone or in person, ensuring that accurate messages are communicated and dealt with professionally and proactively. Update contacts and distribution lists in Outlook and draft letters of engagement.
• Document & data management - scan and save documents to DMS, file documents accordingly, update databases and contact lists, assist with inputting data into case management system, and ensure accurate document preparation, proofreading, and template upkeep.
• Billing - support billing processes, prepare expenses and process invoices.
• Document production - prepare Excel spreadsheets, letters of engagement, PowerPoint presentations, and complete mail merges. Assist with BigHand dictation and ensure timely document turnaround.
• Team support & general duties - assist colleagues across the Personal & Family team and handle ad hoc tasks from lawyers and paralegals.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Highly experienced and outstanding performer with a proven track record as an EA, preferably within Personal and Family.
• Possesses knowledge and experience of working within a busy Personal and Family secretarial team.
• Strong communicator with the ability to build and maintain relationships at all levels.
• Self-motivated.
• Ability to strategically identify and set expectations.
• Always present a professional image to clients and other external organisations.
• This position is demanding so the successful candidate should be used to working under pressure, often to tight deadlines.
• Proactive in problem solving.
• Seeks out opportunities to provide a more efficient and proactive service to lawyers and paralegals.
• Ability to effectively communicate (both verbally and in writing) at all levels to achieve positive outcomes, with a demonstrated ability to persuasively facilitate opposing views.
• Good intuition and the ability to work independently, managing ad-hoc projects with minimal instruction and supervision.
• Ability to quickly understand / adapt to change and conflicting priorities of stakeholders with different levels of support needs.
• Actively support the firm’s vision and strategies including embracing and promoting change and communicating and executing on challenging decisions.
• Working practices and EA allocations within the practice group will change from time to time and the successful candidate should have an open and flexible attitude to change and a willingness to train within other legal practice areas.

SKILLS

• Excellent time management and organisational skills.
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal.
• Ability to build relationships at all levels.
• Ability to multitask and prioritise.
• Excellent in the use of Microsoft applications:
• Outlook – diary management, contacts, tasks.
• Excel.
• PowerPoint.
• Willingness to enhance IT literacy through training.
• Experience of Aderant.
• Experience of DMS.
• Experience of Bighand.
• Accurate and competent in document production including formatting and presentation.

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