We are seeking a Senior PA to join our Real Estate service
line. This is a permanent position based in our London office supporting a
group of Partners and Fee Earners at varying levels of seniority. This role
offers hybrid working arrangements.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Senior
PA who will provide high-level, professional and proactive PA support. 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 Real Estate service line sits within our Projects, Real
Estate and Finance Practice Group. 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
- Provide professional, effective and proactive PA support to
a number of Partners and fee earners within the team.
- 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, WIP and
billing.
- Take ownership for diary and inbox 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.
- 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 documents.
- Develop and maintain positive relationships with the rest
of the Real Estate PA team and other client and internal contacts.
- A thorough understanding of the deeds process.
- Working closely with your Fee Earner to support all aspects
of their Business Development.
- A thorough understanding of Searches.
- Manage HighQ sites.
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:
- Highly organised, with excellent attention to detail and
the ability to manage multiple fee earners, deadlines and priorities calmly and
effectively.
- A team player with excellent relationship-building skills;
Able to build strong relationships with fee earners and influence their working
practices to ensure PA support is utilised effectively and efficiently.
- Commercially aware, understanding the importance of
maximising fee earner time on chargeable work and protecting client service
standards.
- The ability to prioritise work effectively, working under
pressure and to tight deadlines while maintaining excellent attention to
detail.
- Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with
the confidence to liaise with clients and senior stakeholders.
- Capable of taking initiative and developing solutions.
- The ability to work with confidentiality, discretion and
diplomacy.
- Excellent IT skills using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
and Outlook.
- Experience of deeds processes and Searches.
- Willingness to work flexibly to meet client needs.
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.