Legal PA/Executive Assistant-International Arbitration

Department:      Projects/International Arbitration/Disputes

Reports to:          Partners and Office Manager    

Office:                   New York, NY

About us

With nearly 5,000 staff, including 2,800 lawyers, premier, global, law firm is one of the largest, fully-integrated law firms in the world and is the leading firm in Asia Pacific.

We advise many of the largest and most ambitious organisations across all major regions of the world. Our reputation for providing outstanding legal expertise is thoroughly deserved: we are globally pre-eminent in all forms of dispute resolution and an international leader in corporate and finance. We are one of the world’s top-ranked energy and resources firms. We offer our clients a top-tier capability across a single global platform with a distinctive focus on industry sectors and an un-paralleled depth of expertise.

Join us, and you will work with inspiring people, many of whom are leaders in their fields. You will be faced with demanding and intellectually stimulating work that will require more than just technical ability. You will need to have a sense of the bigger picture, the ability to cut to the heart of the matter and a gift for developing exceptional working relationships. With more than 20 offices across the globe in fast-growing markets like China, Indonesia and Russia and established centres such as the UK, Europe, the US and Australia, we can offer you the international opportunities that only a leading global practice can provide.

We recognize that the success of our business and our clients relies on the skills, knowledge and ideas of all our people. Our environment is one in which high performance is expected, in return, we will provide you with rewards and opportunities tailored to your personal and professional goals. 

The New York office
Located in the heart of Manhattan in the Grand Central area, our offices give us easy access not only to our clients but also to many of the social and cultural attractions of one of the world’s most exciting cities.

Legal PA services

We provide our lawyers and their clients with outstanding legal PA services and recognize the valuable and professional contribution that secretaries make to the firm.
The Legal PA services group employs people across a wide spectrum of roles within the firm, both legal and non-legal, document specialists to personal and executive assistants and management roles. We recruit secretaries of the highest caliber, both with and without legal experience.

 The Role

To provide all necessary PA support to a high standard and in a timely manner.

Key responsibilities

• Having a good knowledge of own practice area and its business issues, including ‘hot topics’, so that appropriate priority is given to queries and requests;
• Managing own email and fee earners’ email in the manner the relevant fee earner requires. This will include activities such as filing emails, filtering incoming correspondence, proactively dealing with queries printing and hard copy filing emails, managing meeting planners and responding to emails on occasion;
• Producing fee earners correspondence. This includes drafting engagement and billing letters, replying to invitations and other miscellaneous correspondence;
• Proactively managing and controlling fee earners’ diaries using discretion and business knowledge to prioritise commitments. This will include booking  relevant meetings (some of which are large scale and complex) and travel time, ensuring there are no diary clashes, inviting attendees to meetings, booking meeting rooms, reminding fee earners what meetings they have coming up and preparing appropriate paper work in advance;
• Maintaining confidentiality at all times;
• Arranging lunches, dinners and other events including reviewing venues and menu planning;
• Monitor progress and ensure all committee/meeting minutes and actions and paperwork are coordinated in preparation for meetings as and when required;
• Arranging both national and international travel for relevant fee earners in the manner the relevant fee earner requires. This will include activities such as booking flights and hotels;
• Answering and screening fee earners’ telephone calls, dealing with queries when appropriate, relaying accurate messages and picking up other phones in the group;
• Typing (both audio and copy typing) and document/email management;
• Proactively collecting relevant information and ensuring that all firm wide databases, such as Interaction, are up to date;
• Completing billing activities in the manner required by the relevant fee earners. This may include activities such as completing pre-bills, following up on actions from the WIP meeting and liaising with the finance department on behalf of relevant fee earners;
• Providing support to fee earners for completion of time sheets and expense claims as required;
• Ensure that relevant documents are printed, photocopied or scanned as and when required by PA colleagues and the relevant fee earners;
• Ensure that relevant documents are electronically and hard copy filed as and when required by the group and the relevant fee earners;
• Be available and prepared to contribute towards working out of office hours to a reasonable extent;
• Provides ad hoc support to the relevant fee earners such as dealing with incoming mail, circulating important information, managing small projects and any other administrative duties;
• Assist Office Manager with various administrative and HR tasks. 

Work based competencies

• We would expect candidates to have 5-7 years secretarial experience, preferably in corporate, international arbitration and litigation practice within a large firm;
• Typing speed of 55 wpm with high accuracy;
• Expert working knowledge of Outlook and Word;
• Good working knowledge of Excel and PowerPoint.

Behavioral competencies

• Communication: Communicates in a professional way in English;
• Client and business focus: Responds positively to internal and external client demands;
• Planning and organizing: Prioritizes own work appropriately;
• Teamwork: Values the contribution made by others;
• Problem solving: Analyze information to fully understand the key issues and solutions;
• Adaptability and flexibility: Proactively communicates a positive message to others during times of change.