Executive Assistant - Government

Permanent - Full Time - Can be based in pir Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester or Norwich Office.

The role

Executive Assistant roles are based within the Executive Support Services (ESS) team which is responsible for supporting all areas of the business.  The role reports to the relevant office’s Executive Support Manager or Executive Support Team Leader and is responsible for providing a high quality support service to the lawyers, utilising available resources as appropriate.

The role is based within the firm’s Corporate and Commercial NSL and will work alongside the Document Production Specialists and Administration Assistants.

The person

This is a busy and challenging role and to be successful your background will probably include:

o              Experience in a similar role, such as a PA or Secretary and ideally within a similar environment

o              Experience of providing support to multiple people i.e. diary management, arranging travel/events

o              Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office systems; Outlook and Word

In addition, the role requires someone who:

o              Has the ability to work as part of a team and establishes good working relationships at all levels

o              Has excellent planning and organisational skills

o              Is flexible and willing to work additional hours as the role demands

o              Provides outstanding client service at all times

o              Is able to communicate clearly and effectively at all levels

o              Has excellent presentational and attention to detail skills

o              Remains calm under pressure

The activities

Clients

o             Work closely with the lawyers you are responsible for, supporting colleagues with all aspects of the firm’s core value of strong client relationships, anticipate and consider client needs and ensure comprehensive notes are available for any ongoing items

o             Investigate problems to produce a satisfactory solution and make any recommendations for improvement of client experiences and processes

o             Deal with all calls and queries in a professional manner, take clear and concise messages and ensure these are dealt with in a timely fashion

o             Prepare and distribute agendas, itineraries and meeting papers including chasing any pending items to ensure lawyers have adequate time for planning

o             Maintain client sites, National Service Line (“NSL”) and sector information on the Firm’s intranet site including any relevant FELIX know how

Leadership

o             Remain calm and focussed under pressure, knowing when to seek assistance

o             Champion new initiatives and adhere to all of the firm’s policies and procedures ensuring you are up to date with firm communications, including learning new skills and using these to benefit the wider firm

o             Think ahead of lawyer needs to free them up from administration tasks and actively assist with business development and marketing initiatives

o             Be focussed and fully involved in the role delivering work with high level of experience and act in a mentoring, coaching or training role to others

o             Take responsibility for your own personal development including developing your skills and wider knowledge of your team, National Service Line and also the wider business

o             The firm is committed to innovation in all areas.  Within your role, consider and put forward better and new ways of working

Business Management

o             Ensure lawyers’ diaries are managed and maintained, including but not limited to organising/arranging events/travel, ensuring all ancillary arrangements made, work and activities are scheduled, any potential challenges resolved to make the lawyers’ day to day working easier to manage

o             Manage and monitor lawyers’ inboxes including for planned and unplanned absence where possible reducing email volume by responding to emails and filing on worksite

o             Planning and managing work flow delegating appropriately ensuring you are fully aware of the workloads of others, including flexibility to going the extra mile for work to be completed to deadlines

o             Manage all aspects of file administration including being the point of contact on behalf of lawyers including file set up, ensuring compliance and money laundering requirements are up to date/in place, drafting letters of engagement (LOEs) and liaising with the Central Inception Team and Risk & Compliance

o             Maintain lawyers’ CVs/biographies and completion of lawyer submissions

o             Completion and submission of any official forms relevant to assist lawyers in their roles using relevant packages/websites or delegating appropriately

Technical Excellence

o             Ensure outstanding attention to detail, sense and quality check all work and identify quality issues and address problems prior to lawyer review

o             Ensure outstanding knowledge of Microsoft Office and other commonly used software and hardware

o             Manage the payment of lawyer and NSL expenses, memberships and subscriptions including using the Purchase Order system and preparation of payments etc.

o             Support lawyers with InterAction, delegating to the Administrative Assistants as appropriate, ensuring all new business/existing contacts are entered/up to date including lawyers’ Outlook address books, updating/adding business development activities, notifying lawyers of upcoming noteworthy events and producing lists and reports as required

o             Use plain English in all communication and ensure information is presented in a clear, logical and structured way

o             Work within and adhere to all of the firm’s policies, procedures and processes including adherence to client service standards (“CSS”)

o             Understand and support end to end billing process to assist lawyers

Government admin role

o              Diarise regular Government Sector meetings including but not limited to:

-             Monthly catch-ups

-             Six-monthly Strategy Board

-             Internal client account team meetings

-             Framework reporting strand meetings

-             Tender go/no go meetings

-             Ad-hoc sector leader meetings

-             CSR and PTR meetings

o              Attend and proactively capture meeting notes/actions from any relevant meetings above, monitoring progress against actions to ensure delivery.

o              Support with co-ordination of client training requests and away days, liaising with Jenny Beresford-Jones, other relevant lawyers and internal business support teams to:

-             booking rooms,

-             sending meeting request to clients

-             co-ordinate speakers

-             co-ordinate attendee lists

-             support on slide generation

-             ensure follow-up activities (including requesting feedback and interaction updates) are completed

o              Support Jenny Beresford-Jones and Emma Farmer with RM6179 Value Added Log to ensure effective recording of training, secondments, meeting rooms internally.

o              Support Emma Farmer with both the RM6179 and RM6240 Opportunities Logs, recording new opportunities as required

o              CCS prospectus updates for RM6179 and RM6240 – Supporting Lucy Hamilton with co-ordination of and updates to CCS prospectuses

o              Collate and maintain sector contract lists, diarise key contract events (e.g. contract expiry and renewal dates)

o              Board reporting and actions – working with Lucy and Greg on bi-monthly reporting, requesting updates from the sector and keeping on track with actions.

o              Diarise and monitor progress against Framework reporting obligations.

o              Co-ordinate client meeting space requests including liaising with client to understand requirements, booking meeting rooms and working with internal and client teams to ensure effective delivery

o              Manage internal Government Sector worksite folders where appropriate

o              Government sector specific interaction updates

o              Sector away day support – Working with the team on the organisation of sector meetings and away days including booking rooms, comms and working with the sector team on making this happen.

Pre-employment screening Please note that, in the event that we make an offer of employment, we will conduct pre-employment screening that includes checks relating to your professional and academic qualifications, references from previous employers, your eligibility to work in the UK and any disciplinary history recorded with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). You will also be required to complete a self-declaration to access your character and suitability.

The Mills & Reeve Executive Support Services (ESS) career structure

We have a firm wide ESS career structure and published career progression frameworks for each of the ESS roles of which there are five career levels.  For the purposes of the framework, this role is at an executive level and the role profile that details the outcomes and activities expected of an executive across the firm is included with this job description.  Further information on the firm’s ESS career structure is available from the HR team.