Legal PA

Roles and responsibilities

1. Administrative Support

• Calendar Management: Managing calendars for lawyers or legal teams, scheduling meetings, appointments, and court appearances, and coordinating travel arrangements.
• Document Management: Organizing, filing, and maintaining legal documents, both digitally and physically. This includes keeping track of case files, evidence, correspondence, and legal research materials.
• Creating Reports & Briefs: Drafting and formatting documents, including legal reports, client communications, and other administrative paperwork.
• Filing Systems: Developing and maintaining filing systems, whether paper-based or electronic, for easy access to critical documents.
• Legal Correspondence: Drafting, reviewing, and editing letters and emails on behalf of lawyers, communicating with clients, courts, and other parties involved in legal proceedings.

2. Client Interaction & Communication

• Client Liaison: Acting as a point of contact between clients and lawyers, answering client inquiries, scheduling appointments, and managing client communication.
• Telephone Handling: Answering and directing phone calls, taking messages, and providing timely follow-up.
• Client Updates: Providing clients with status updates, reminders about meetings, and other relevant information regarding their cases or legal matters.

3. Document Preparation & Drafting

• Legal Document Drafting: Assisting in the preparation and formatting of legal documents, including contracts, letters, briefs, and court documents. While the Legal PA doesn’t typically draft complex legal content, they may assist with simple templates or standard legal forms.
• Proofreading & Editing: Reviewing and proofreading documents for errors or omissions, ensuring that all correspondence and legal documents are clear, accurate, and consistent with legal practices.
• Document Production: Organizing and assembling documents for legal filings or hearings, including binding and organizing exhibits or evidence for court proceedings.

4. Time Management & Organization

• Prioritization: Managing multiple tasks and competing priorities for the legal team, ensuring deadlines are met and that urgent matters are addressed first.
• Meeting Preparation: Preparing agendas for meetings, taking minutes during legal proceedings, and distributing materials ahead of time.
• Task Tracking: Using project management tools or task lists to track and ensure the timely completion of ongoing tasks and projects.

5. Billing & Invoicing

• Timekeeping: Tracking time spent on specific legal matters and client projects for billing purposes, ensuring that all billable hours are recorded accurately.
• Invoicing & Payments: Assisting with the preparation and submission of invoices to clients, following up on unpaid invoices, and managing any related billing queries.

6. Legal Research & Case Support

• Research Assistance: Performing basic legal research, such as checking case law databases, reviewing legal precedents, or gathering information for briefs.
• Case Management: Assisting with the case management process by organizing case files, keeping track of deadlines, and ensuring that all necessary paperwork is filed and updated in a timely manner.

7. Court & Legal Procedure Support

• Court Filings: Assisting with court filing procedures, preparing court bundles, ensuring documents are filed correctly and on time, and coordinating any necessary logistics for court appearances.
• Legal Deadlines: Keeping track of important legal deadlines, including court hearings, filing dates, and submission deadlines for legal briefs and documents.

Desired candidate profile

The Legal PA must be able to perform various administrative duties, drafting documents, proof-reading documents, putting together PowerPoints, organising and attending meetings and taking minutes.

This role will also collaborate with the Partners and Finance Team, responsible for monthly billings and will also support the Business Development Team to assist in events, pitches, marketing and carry out any adhoc duties where required.

To be considered for this role, the successful candidate will have experience working within a busy, corporate environment. The ideal candidate will have a professional and personable approach with attention to detail and exceptional organisational skills, with eagerness to grow.

The ideal candidate will have strong verbal and written communication skills in English and be fully IT literate in Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook and will be fully competent in legal software such as 3Elite. Further Education in the related field is preferred.