Legal Personal Assistant

Salary: £28,000 per annum, plus company benefits

Location:

Guildford, GU1 4LP

Contract:

Full Time, Permanent

Shifts:

37.5 hours per week, Monday – Friday, 9am until 5:30pm with 1 hours unpaid break

Williams Lea is the leading global provider of skilled, technology-enabled, business-critical support services, with long-term trusted relationships with blue‑chip clients across investment banks, law firms and professional services firms. Williams Lea employees, nearly 7000 people worldwide, who provide efficient business services at client sites in often complex and highly regulated environments, from centralised Williams Lea onshore facilities, and through best cost company offshore locations.

The role of the Personal Assistant is to provide enhanced, proactive support to fee earners to enable them to operate efficiently. The support provided needs to be a seamless legal service to clients. The Person al Assistant role is expected to use a high degree of self‑management and initiative and to maintain a high level of confidentiality.

The Person al Assistant will act as workflow manager for other support services. This includes delegating and supervising the completion of document production, file management and copying/scanning work which are primarily undertaken by other relevant business support services.

• Proactively managing complex diaries for both partners and fee earners
• Answering telephone calls in a timely fashion, taking clear and detailed messages
• Organising internal and external meetings. Greeting visitors and arranging client refreshments
• Liaising with clients via email or telephone and acting as a point of contact
• Assisting fee earners in the billing and credit control process. Generating accurate billing reports, draft bills, and accompanying letters in a timely manner
• Assisting fee earners with finance tasks, namely requesting cheques, CHAPS/BACS payments, bank transfers and paying in money received, as appropriate
• Ensuring accurate and timely use of client relationship management tool to facilitate matter opening, maintenance, closure and archiving
• Maintaining up to date client records on the firm’s client relationship management tool, including client contact details, client specific requests in relation to billing and bill formats, details of other parties etc in line with the firm’s policy and processes
• Co‑ordinating fee earner movements and making travel arrangements
• Managing the client and matter inception process ensuring files are opened in a timely manner in accordance with the firm’s policies
• Managing the process of submitting partner/fee earners expenses in a timely manner
• Co‑ordinating the completion of document production (including digital dictations/manuscript amendments), e‑filing and file management, photocopying and scanning services, organising couriers, sending out of letters/faxes etc
• Undertaking any departmental specific tasks (e.g. working with Bundle docs, Land Registry portal, Searchflow etc)
• Adhering to and participating in the AML processes as per the firm’s protocol
• Actively participating in all relevant training provided by Williams Lea and/or the client
• Demonstrating flexibility with working practices/processes in line with the business need, especially in times of pressure/ high workload
• Assisting other members of the department, both proactively and at the request of the team leader and work effectively with other legal and support departments as required

• Previous PA experience is essential
• Exceptional standard of written and verbal communication
• Competent with the Microsoft Office suite
• Team player
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Solutions focused
• Have a high level of confidentiality and integrity
• Exceptional attention to detail

We believe in supporting our employees in both their professional and personal lives. As part of our commitment to your well‑being, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including but not limited to:

• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays (pro‑rata for part time roles)
• Salary sacrifice schemes, retail vouchers – including our…