Personal Assistant

The department

Your role would be within the transactional Shipping team, which is part of the firm’s wider global shipping practice. Our expertise covers the whole spectrum of transactional shipping from ship and aircraft sale and purchase, ship and asset finance, ship building and refit and repair projects. We are a leading provider of legal services to the shipping, offshore, cruise, ferry, superyacht and corporate jet sectors. With an international network of offices, we handle structured and complex international transactions for clients around the world. We work closely with colleagues across our global network on a daily basis.

The role

You will support the senior partners and a number of lawyers within the transactional Shipping team. You will be an essential part of the team and you will be given training and support to develop your skills and experience. 

You will be expected to take an active interest in and obtain a thorough understanding of all aspects of matter management and team administration. You will, on occasion, deal directly with clients and will, through your day-to-day work, learn how they work and what they need as part of helping your team deliver the levels of service expected. You will act as a workflow manager, liaising with support teams elsewhere in the firm, including IT, Conflicts, Risk and Compliance, Finance, Revenue and Collections, Document Production, Marketing & Business Development, and the partnership office.

You will be allocated a time recording code and will, on occasion, record time on the files on which you work.

Key skills and experience required

In line with all applicable policies and procedures, your key responsibilities in supporting the transactional Shipping team will include:

Client relationship management

• Opening and closing matters in compliance with the firm’s case management procedures, including running conflict checks and co-ordinating the collection of “know your client” documentation and more generally assisting.
• Drafting letters of engagement.
• Being active in the care of clients and wholly familiar with the team’s contacts and clients.
• Liaising with clients and handling basic client queries and general administration.
• Arranging client meetings.

Diary management and travel

• Co-ordinating the movements of your team on a weekly basis.
• Managing the diaries of your team, ensuring they are up-to-date, co-ordinating meetings and reminding lawyers of their movements and commitments.
• Arranging meetings, booking conference rooms, refreshments/catering, checking room set-up prior to meetings and liaising with other attendees, both internal and external.
• Arranging conferences and industry event attendance.
• Arranging the travel plans and bookings of your team, including travel itineraries and expenses.

Business development

• Assisting your team in their various marketing and business development activities.
• Supporting your partners in the development and implementation of the team’s business plan.
• Assisting in the maintenance of the firm’s CRM system (InterAction) by entering new contact details and updating as needs be, creating mailing lists, sending invitations, monitoring responses.
• Ensuring that your team’s client activities and business development reports are recorded on the CRM.
• Maintaining up-to-date biographies for your team.
• Liaising with conference managers and creating sponsorship materials and speaker profiles for events.
• Arranging LinkedIn posts and business development promotional materials;
• Working, alongside your team, on the production of capability statements, pitch documents and other business development documentation.
• Assisting the Business Development team with the planning and running of client events.
• Setting up webinars and other online training events.

Financial

• Assisting lawyers in ensuring their time is promptly and accurately recorded in the firm’s time recording system.
• Ensuring the correct posting of disbursement costs to matters and the payment of the same.
• Co-ordinating the production of invoices, liaising as needs be with your team and the Revenue and Collections team.
• Verifcation with clients and others of their account details.
• Arranging the payment of invoices from funds held on accounts.
• Drafting audit reports and statements of account, as required.
• Sending bills to clients and recording the dates of all bills sent on the practice management system.
• Requesting cheques and bank transfers.
• Claiming expenses incurred by your team.
• Monitoring internal budgets and expenses.

Administration

• Liaising with the Knowledge Management team regarding matters related to the continuous professional development of your team.
• Arranging subscriptions and the renewal of professional memberships.
• Arranging scanning, photocopying, printing, organising couriers, sending out correspondence etc.
• Arranging the execution of documents by Docusign and other electronic means.
• General filing requirements and record-keeping.
• Effectively using a range of systems to ensure that both short and long-term tasks are completed within required timescales.

Communication

• Receiving internal and external queries, responding as appropriate and/or ensuring that all messages are passed on in a timely manner.
• Monitoring post and e-mails and dealing with the same as appropriate. Ensuring that all client-related correspondence is passed on to an appropriate alternative fee earners where the intended recipient is out of the office.
• Liaising with full range of business support departments on behalf of your team as required.

Document production

• Drafting standard letters, e.g. letters of engagement, as and when required.
• Checking that correspondence, attachments, documents, reports, presentations, etc. produced by the Document Production team are returned in good time and making minor amendments where appropriate.
• Typing urgent/short/confidential correspondence, including meeting minutes and notes.
• Amending and collating legal documents using Microsoft Word.
• Producing and maintaining spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel.
• Working on Powerpoint presentations as required.

Team work

• Whenever there is spare capacity or it is evident that a colleague needs urgent assistance with their workload, being proactive in assisting your team and the wider Shipping practice with whatever may be required.
• Working effectively with other legal and business services departments as required.
• Spotting issues and being proactive in developing new ideas / new ways of working to support your team with the varied tasks and pressures they face and otherwise in response to the ever-changing work place and growing adoption of technology.

Such other ad hoc duties as may be reasonably requested by your team or the firm.

Key responsibilities

You will be responsible for ensuring your skill set is up-to-date and that you are familiar with the firm’s groups, departments, key personnel, clients, internal systems and procedures.

In addition, you will be expected to have:

• A minimum of one year’s previous experience in a law firm.
• A proven track record of service delivery.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, research tools and other systems implemented by the firm.
• Excellent customer service skills, dealing with people and tasks in a professional, polite and considerate manner.
• Excellent telephone manner and competent knowledge of modern office communications systems, including Microsoft Teams.
• Excellent communication, organisational and team skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Flexible and dependable, able to take the initiative.
• Able to remain calm under pressure and work to tight deadlines.
• Conscientious, approachable and enthusiastic.
• Able to build confidence, respect and trust with others quickly.
• Have a positive approach to daily tasks and have a solutions-focused working method.
• Flexible with regard to working hours, arriving earlier and staying later when the job or business requires.

Additional Information

Kindly note that this job description is not contractual. It will be reviewed periodically and may be amended or altered to meet the needs of the firm.

HFW aims to ensure equality of opportunity, and we are actively working towards improving the diversity of our staff. All applications will be considered only on merit and the applicant’s suitability to meet the requirements of the role.

HFW collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants to manage its recruitment process. The firm is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations. For information on how the firm will process your data, please see our Privacy Notice on our website, in the section “What we collect and how we use it”.

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About HFW

HFW is a sector focused global law firm. We have over 700 lawyers working across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. We take a progressive approach to our roles in commercial business – thinking creatively and pragmatically to support our clients.

Whether we are solving complex issues within the construction, aviation or shipping industries, or providing advice across insurance, commodities and energy we are specialist lawyers here to add value to our clients. We think about the commercial solution first, and then underpin our advice with a solid foundation of legal expertise.

Entrepreneurial. Creative. Collaborative.

Learn more about us