Job Details

Legal Secretary
Northenden
£18,000-£21,000

Douglas Scott are partnering with one of the North Wests largest PI Solicitors who due to internal promotions are seeking an experienced Legal Secretary to join there impressive team!

The ideal candidate for this legal secretarial position will have legal secretarial experience preferably in a personal injury or civil litigation environment. Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office packages, and a strong command of English spelling, punctuation and grammar are both essential. An audio typing speed of 65+ wpm is a distinct advantage.

My client are LEXCEL and Law Society accredited and are a Legal 500 Leading Firm for both Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence. Six of the firms Partners are members of the Law Society Specialist Personal Injury Panel and one of our Partners is a member of the Law Society Specialist Clinical Negligence Panel.

Main duties consist of:

* To prepare correspondence and documents for a busy Solicitors firm. Usually within a defined work stream of RTA, Employers Liability, Public Liability or Clinical Negligence.
* To administer filing which will include daily filing and the opening, closing, storage and retrieval of client files in accordance with the detailed procedure contained in the Staff Handbook
* To prepare mail and enclosures for despatch if required.
* To arrange for all copying to be done, in person if the admin assistant is not available to undertake the task.
* To make appointments, arrange meetings and to liaise with fee earners, clients, counsel.
* To provide support to other secretaries and the administration team as required.
* To attend clients both in person and on the telephone and to provide such support in a professional and friendly manner in keeping with the firm's standards for client care.
* To undertake any specific training when required to do so and overall to have a responsibility towards self-development.
* To ensure the confidentiality of all the firm's and clients' documentation and information.
* When working on a file always making sure there is a task in there for the next step. Review the file and make sure if you have e.g. requested a Form of Authority, the appropriate chaser task is set.
* Fully complete jobs. If a dictation asks you to make a call to arrange e.g. an appointment, you may not mark the dictation as closed until the appointment is made (especially where it takes repeated attempts contact the client). Legal Secretaries must put their own tasks on the Proclaim file to ensure this is not forgotten (and use text and other means as necessary)
* Update case details such as client email address and / or 3rd party details. We are required to send as much correspondence as possible electronically.
* Responsible to ensure all COB's are completed before going home for that day and you must check regularly.
* Responsible for sending completed to the file handler for checking.
* Legal Secretaries must proof read their own work before giving to the file handlers. No spelling errors, typos or grammar issues. Pride in the speed and accuracy of work completed is the hallmark of an effective legal secretary.

Person specification

Essential criteria
* Legal knowledge
* Computer literate.
* Excellent command of English spelling, punctuation and grammar (Grade C and above at GCSE)
* Excellent word processing and audio typing skills
* Excellent customer service skills, including professional and friendly telephone manner.

Desirable criteria
* Knowledge of the Proclaim case management system
* Experience of working in a personal injury law firm, or civil litigation firm
* Audio typing speed of 65+ words per minute
* Experience of working with court forms and creating pleadings
* Experience of digital dictation

Please contact Lilly Tomlinson, Legal Recruitment Consultant, to discuss the role in more detail or apply through the vacancy for immediate consideration.

Please contact Lilly Tomlinson, Legal Recruitment Consultant, to discuss the role in more detail or apply through the vacancy for immediate consideration.

Douglas Scott are a legal recruitment expert and the UK's leading law firms trust us with their legal vacancies. We are a regulated recruitment consultancy and will discuss this role and seek your approval before submitting an application directly to the decision maker.