Trainee Executive Assistant

An exciting opportunity to join our Birmingham office as a full time, permanent Trainee Executive Assistant

The role

This is a training role to develop the skills needed to provide Executive Assistant services to your team. To succeed in the role, you will work closely with Executive Assistants, Team Leaders and Regional Executive Services Managers to learn the skills of an EA in order to support just a few lawyers initially. You will utilise the internal resources available, including the Document Production team, Administrative Assistants, and Business Services. While you will have a degree of autonomy in how you structure your day, you will be expected to develop a good level of client knowledge, strong relationships across the business and become an integral part of the EA team.

The expectation is that after approximately six months in the role, you will have developed the skills and competence to transition into an Executive Assistant role and so be responsible for providing EA support to more lawyers.

The person

Given the challenges of this role, it is likely that your background and experience will include having spent some time working in an Administrative Assistant position or professional office environment. You will be a natural organiser who thrives in a role that requires multi-tasking and working with a variety of people across the business.

The role additionally requires someone who:

• will manage a small number of lawyers and delegate where appropriate using the support teams available;
• will develop their prioritisation skills in order to manage their workload;
• is organised and methodical in how they approach their work;
• has good written as well as verbal communication skills;
• has good attention to detail, communicates effectively and works well within a team;
• will become confident in building sustainable relationships with internal and external clients; and
• is willing to take on new responsibilities and challenges, whilst developing resilience.

The activities

Business development

• Attend team and project meetings, taking minutes where required, assisting with the preparation of meeting arrangements including booking travel, rooms, catering, accommodation, desks, equipment and updating internal business development calendars;
• help with the planning of events including liaising with business support teams and updating attendee lists or reports;
• engage in networking in order to build new relationships to raise the business profile as well as your own, to include use of external media platforms such as LinkedIn, etc;
• manage email bounce backs, processing feedback forms and logging referrals and activities;
• support lawyers with legal directory submissions and updating lawyer biography/CVs and sector pages; and
• assist with updates and newsletters to clients, including adding to mailing lists.

Client service

• Deliver outstanding client service by looking for improvements, speaking up and taking responsibility;
• receive verbal and written instructions and see them through to conclusion;
• work proactively and use own initiative to progress tasks;
• client/matter creation and updating tasks, alerts, reserves, estimating tools and ensuring these are kept up to date and accurate throughout matter life;
• ensure compliance process is followed, including carrying out conflict checks, matter risk assessments and liaising with Central Inception team and clients for ID;
• run client financial reports;
• use our digital technology to update and manage in-house data systems such as Collaborate, Volume Control and Dialogue;
• participate in the running of helplines, websites, phone calls and logging referrals, which may include liaising with clients, counsel and other professionals;
• being a point of contact to assist with client and matter contact queries;
• initial drafting of correspondence and legal documents; and
• coordinate file reviews.

Diary management

• Coordinate diary appointments ensuring papers, itineraries and all other arrangements are in place; and
• add key dates and reminders to diaries and matter files.

Finance and billing

• Have regular financial housekeeping meetings with lawyers, printing billing guides and preparing breakdown of costs and liaising with the finance team;
• raise draft proformas;
• help prepare and despatch client invoices with covering correspondence;
• liaise with counsel and experts regarding fee notes and outstanding bills;
• deal with general day to day client and finance queries;
• prepare of finance forms including generating purchase orders;
• update internal reporting systems;
• manage standard annual rate review letters and terms of business;
• complete timesheet input for sickness/holidays/own time where appropriate; and
• manage lawyer/business support expense claims.

Workflow management

• Prioritise tasks effectively, including managing emails, monitoring inboxes, meeting deadlines, progressing instructions, providing regular updates and managing expectations;
• communicate effectively with lawyers and internal support teams, such as Business Support, Administrative Assistants and Document Production teams in order to meet required deadlines;
• provide clear instructions and review in order for high quality work to be completed; and
• manage and update specific client spreadsheets.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

The benefits

As you'd expect, we offer a competitive salary and a wide range of benefits.

Pre employment screening

If we offer you a role, we will conduct comprehensive pre-employment screening. This screening will include, but is not limited to, a basic DBS, verification of your right to work, a three year employment history and a self-declaration to assess your character and suitability for the role. Full details of our pre-screening employment process are available upon request.

The firm

Mills & Reeve is centred on achieving more for clients, their businesses and the wider communities we serve. Our clients and their industries benefit from our knowledge and learning, and receive consistent experiences with no surprises. We tell them what they need to know when they need to know it.

We build personal relationships, with advice individually tailored to individual need. And if clients need things we don't offer, we draw on our network to give recommendations. Our 1,250 plus people and over 750 lawyers share one vision – achieving more for clients.

By joining Mills & Reeve, you'll have the chance to build your skills and experience within a firm that's not only ranked in the top 50 UK law firms, but also one that truly values their people. Our mantra is “Achieve more. Together.”, which we feel embodies our purpose and is more than just a catchphrase! We're also ranked in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list, and were recently awarded Platinum Investors in People.

and finally

Everyone at Mills & Reeve brings a unique perspective and ideas to the team and we do everything we can to help each person to thrive. We're committed to providing an inclusive and supportive working environment, are happy to consider flexible working arrangements, and want to achieve the right balance for both our people and the firm. We encourage everyone to ask if they feel they need any workplace adjustments, and will do our best to support with these.