The firm
Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client.
We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.
Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do. RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 5th best law firm to work at in 2024.
With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 40% of our partnership.
The department
The team currently comprises over 28 specialist lawyers, including seven partners. We have the strength and depth of expertise to ensure we deliver the service you would expect in respect of technical quality, practical approach and timeliness of advice. We act as trusted advisers to individuals, families, family or owner-run businesses both in the UK and internationally.
The team won the Lexis Nexis award for the best family team to work for in 2024. We are a collaborative and supportive team and pride ourselves on our sense of community and belonging.
Purpose of job
You will work in the Family Team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to all aspects of the family law services we offer. You will work primarily with the newly formed Bristol team. You will also assist the wider Family team across the 7 offices and work with the other Family Team assistants to provide support to all fee earners.
The team covers:
- Divorce
- Separation
- Relationship difficulties
- Modern Families - includes surrogacy, adoption, fertility law
- International family issues
- Pre and post marriage agreements
- Children arrangements
- Mediation
- One Couple One lawyer
- Arbitration
- Financial arrangements
Accountabilities
Technical ability:
- To produce and amend documents including PDF court bundles with speed and accuracy.
- To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style
- To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar
- To be a user of key software packages and take responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business
- To proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines
- To help cover holidays, period of sickness in other teams when required
Administrative skills:
- Manage diaries of fee earners in Microsoft Outlook
- To scan and save incoming and outgoing post
- Familiarity with the creation and management of datarooms and file management processes
- To add and amend data on Intapp, including contact details intermediaries, and referrals into and out of the team
- To open new clients and to open and close matters and carry out conflict checks where appropriate
- To complete the client engagement process, including preparing letters of engagement and sending Thirdfort invitations
- Making appointments
- Arranging meetings/conferences
- Sending and responding to invites
- To arrange payments
- To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals
- To keep team spreadsheets up to date
- To carry out photocopying and scanning as required
- Be the coordinator for mediation enquiries and matters
Professional skills:
- To immediately clarify instructions from fee earners should they be unclear or if deadlines are not made explicit
- To respond to internal and external telephone enquiries politely and professionally and take accurate telephone messages (name /number /company), passing them on to the relevant fee earners etc.
- To support other members of the Family Team assistants when required and to provide cover as and when necessary to ensure that work is completed to a high standard and meets the required deadlines
- To provide full support to the Bristol fee earner(s) in the full range of activities that are performed and to carry out any other duties as reasonably requested
The candidate
You will have the ability to contribute at an operational level, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:
- Strong administration experience
- Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach to all work
- Reliable
- Strong attention to detail and high level organisational skills
- Self-motivated with an ability to use own initiative and a desire to learn
- A desire to share new processes to support the wider team
Skills
- Strong typing speed of at least 50 wpm
- Excellent spelling and punctuation
- Excellent written and verbal communications
- Ability to use discretion
- Excellent IT skills, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel
- Positive and enthusiastic approach to team work
- Good telephone manner
- Adaptable and flexible
- Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to fee-earners
- Ability to pay attention to detail and check own work
- Reliable and well organised
- Ability to remain calm and work under pressure to meet strict deadlines
- Commitment to ongoing learning and development
Equal opportunities
At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth. Alongside a flexible and inclusive work environment, we offer the following core benefits:
- 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays
- Long Service holiday award - 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service
- Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)
- Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)
- Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme
- Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)
- Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance
- Paid CSR Day
- Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave
- Subsidised gym membership
- Electric car scheme
- Agile/Hybrid Working Policy
- Dress for your Day Policy
https://www.birketts.co.uk/recognition-reward-benefits/
Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application.
Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.
Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation.
We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.
