Executive Assistant and Department Business Analyst

The Department Legal Support Services includes document production specialists, paralegals, researchers, legal project management experts and legal operations professionals. The team covers a wide range of administrative, operational, and specialist matter and fee earner support using cutting-edge tools and innovative tech solutions to provide exceptional and frictionless service to the fee earners across the firm.

The Legal Operations team form part of the Legal Support Services department and provides high value administrative support for fee earners with a focus on matter management, diary management, travel and business development.

The Role In addition to providing solid EA support to the Chair, the role holder will also operate as a Department Business Analyst to enable and support the Chair delivering against the wider firm objectives. The Chair sits on the Firm’s Board and (through steering and working closely with the departmental management Board) is the key figurehead for one of our fee-earning departments. The Chair’s role is focussed on strategy and growth. Within the department, the Chair is supported by Division Heads and Practice Leads (whose management remit is more operational) and who lead the fee-earning teams.

The EA is a visible, highly involved and responsible role that enables the Chair to successfully focus on shaping and delivering the departmental strategy. As well as an incredibly high level of organisational skills, the role needs someone with a strong interest in business strategy, management and operations. The person appointed will need to be resourceful and able to deliver a broad portfolio of work, both under their own steam and in close collaboration with others.

The person appointed will support Senior Partners in the Department, acting as a central point of contact for office management across the division/department.

Duties And Responsibilities PA Support

• Primary point of contact for the Chair’s office, dealing with phone calls, email, correspondence and requests for calls/meetings. Will use good judgement to prioritise requests, but will also respond directly and/or route to the most appropriate people for response as needed.
• Act as the primary point of contact for the Partners you are working for, dealing with calls, emails, meeting requests, correspondence.
• Full proactive and advanced calendar management, managing busy and frequent changing schedules to optimize time usage.
• Ensure the Partners are fully prepared for meetings: collate information, prepare notes, attend meetings, take minutes, follow up on action points.
• Support the fee earners in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, to ensure compliance with the Firm’s documented compliance policy and guidelines.

Office and Department Support

• To act as a key interface between the Chair and other members of the Firm’s Board and leadership team, exercising complete discretion when dealing with information of a confidential or commercially sensitive nature.
• Maintain key department/division documents and data.
• Supporting department or division meetings as needed.
• Build strong relationships across departments and business services, acting as a connector between fee-earners and Business Operations team.
• Work closely with the Division Assistant to ensure the smooth running of the Legal Operations team.
• Ensuring the Chair is fully briefed for all meetings (including Board) by collating required information (and input from others), preparing talking points/notes, taking minutes where needed, and ensuring all follow-up points are clearly communicated, tracked and actioned.

Project & General Support

• Will develop a good understanding of the department’s profile and reach within the Firm and externally, in terms of client strategy, competitors, key challenges and opportunities for growth and development.
• Will play a key role in working with the Chair in scoping and delivering a range of projects, which may require attending meetings on behalf of the Chair and working with others as needed.
• Will need to develop a good understanding of the Firm’s transformation agenda, the various projects underway or planned, the interdependencies between these, and support the Chair in ensuring that relevant information (and any input needed) is shared across the teams.
• Contributing to key documents requir…