We are seeking a Senior PA to join our Commercial Disputes
service line. This is a permanent position based in our Bristol office,
offering hybrid working arrangements.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Senior PA
who will provide high-level, professional and proactive PA support to the
Service Line Leader (SLL) and a team of fee earners. This is a busy and varied
role which requires an organised and proactive individual who enjoys working
with different people in a fast-paced environment.
The Commercial Disputes service line sits within our
Disputes and Risk Practice Group and provides expert legal advice across a
broad range of commercial litigation matters. The service line is led by a
Service Line Leader (SLL) who is responsible for the strategic direction,
business development and day-to-day management of the team.
Key Responsibilities
A core element of this role is providing dedicated support
to the SLL. You will be expected to act as a trusted partner to the SLL,
playing a critical role in the smooth running of the Commercial Disputes
service line.
Key support duties include:
- Assist the SLL with tracking and reporting on key team
deliverables, deadlines and actions.
- Assist the SLL with coordination of team meetings, agendas,
collating materials, and follow-ups.
- Maintain the service line’s annual management calendar and
support all people-related cycles.
- Identify opportunities, actively contribute and be involved
with ad-hoc projects as given by the SLL and Disputes & Risk Operations
team.
- Work closely with the Disputes & Risk practice
management team to improve team efficiencies, communications, management of
work-in-progress and roll-out of IT applications and improved working
practices.
Wider PA Responsibilities include:
- Provide professional, effective and proactive PA support to
a number of Partners and fee earners within the Commercial Disputes service
line.
- Have regular one-to-one meetings with fee earners to
understand their proactive work needs for the week, record and follow up on
actions including diary management, travel, meeting booking, expenses and
billing.
- Take ownership for diary management (complex in the case of
Partners) including anticipating and avoiding potential diary clashes,
organising meetings and travel using initiative in advance of the planning and
scheduling stage, and acting as gatekeeper for meeting invites and requests
from across the business.
- Proactively take responsibility for travel arrangements
(including international travel), conference and meeting bookings, and ensure
any travel itineraries are prepared in advance together with any agendas
required for meetings.
- Monitor and assist with management of mailboxes including
acting as gatekeeper to field messages and calls in a timely and professional
manner.
- Deal with enquiries from clients, colleagues and third
parties.
- Assist with the file opening and client due diligence
process where necessary; set up new matters and draft engagement letters.
- Play an active role in managing the billing process by
working closely with the finance team including accessing relevant reports,
transferring time, ensuring correct rates, initial mark-up on billing guides
and drafting emails for invoices to be sent to clients.
- Play a key role in managing financial administration for fee
earners including monthly cost updates, updating client documents and
requesting purchase order numbers.
- Collate and process expenses including proactive management
in a timely manner.
- Document comparisons and electronic filing.
- Draft short correspondence and communications; demonstrate
excellent IT skills with the ability to amend and format large and complex
documents.
- Develop and maintain positive relationships with the rest of
the Commercial Disputes PA team and other client and internal contacts.
- Work with the team to continuously develop effective ways of
working within the team.
- Provide ad-hoc support for the PA team (covering for other
PA absences).
- Assist with ad-hoc IT queries and liaising with the IT team
to resolve these queries, particularly for new joiners.
Key Skills
We are looking for an experienced PA with a proactive work
ethic. The position requires someone with drive and ambition who is able to use
their own initiative, has first-class organisational skills and is an integral
team player. Flexibility and proactivity are essential personal attributes.
You will also be able to demonstrate:
- The ability to handle complex diary management and meeting
arrangements.
- A team player with excellent relationship-building skills;
great at maintaining good working relationships with fee earners and PAs in the
team.
- The ability to prioritise work effectively, working under
pressure and to tight deadlines.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Capable of taking initiative and developing solutions.
- The ability to work with confidentiality, discretion and
diplomacy.
- Excellent attention to detail.
- Excellent IT skills using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
and Outlook.
- The ability to prepare financial reports for clients.
Salary and benefits
We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.
Our recruitment process
Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.
We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.