Legal PA - 12 Month FTC (Maternity Cover)

Bryan Cave•Southampton, NY

About The Position

At BCLP, we've built our firm on the foundations of thinking differently. Curious, inquisitive and unbound by tradition, we're building change within our sector and beyond. It starts with our people, which is why we need a Legal PA to join our team and To provide fee earners with effective, pro-active, professional and high quality Legal PA support that enables them to focus on providing legal services to clients. It is a key requirement that the Legal PA is able to demonstrate exceptional organizational skills and an ability to use their initiative at all times. They will be an integral part of a busy team and will need to interact daily with partners, fee earners and clients to understand ever changing needs, and have the ability to prioritize workloads and liaise with Legal Admin Assistants, DPS and other support functions to ensure timely delivery. A Legal PA may also have work delegated to them from a Legal PA with coordinating responsibilities. This role is responsible for ensuring the smooth day-to-day running of the office, covering areas such as health and safety, facilities, IT support, reception and postroom duties and general administration. The role involves liaising with building management and service providers, overseeing supplies and budgets, coordinating training sessions, meetings and office events, and supporting HR and staff communications. Acting as a central point of contact, this position helps maintain a safe, efficient, and welcoming workplace environment for staff and visitors.

Requirements

Constant enthusiastic, can-do, positive and proactive approach to tasks and situations, as well as requests for action outside normal scope of duties.
Ability to take personal responsibility, ownership and behave responsibly.
An excellent communicator, both oral and written; being clear and concise and use appropriate, intelligent and professional language in all verbal and written communications, including email.
Friendly, co-operative and approachable at all times.
Remains calm and focussed under pressure, i.e. when faced with high volume workloads or difficult situations, but know when to seek assistance.
Ability to build relationships with Partners, Fee Earners, Legal PA Managers, other Legal PAs, Legal Admin Assistants and external clients/contacts.
Listening carefully and question to make sure you have all the information you need to take action.
Ability to maintain tact and diplomacy, trust and confidentiality.
Proven ability to plan and manage own workload and multiple tasks, and prioritise work calmly and effectively in a pressurised environment, and adapting to changing workloads, deadlines and new developments.
Naturally organised person who constantly strives to improve processes and increase efficiency.
Driven to become fully involved in the role.
Legal PA experience required.
Sound knowledge of Microsoft and other commonly used legal applications.
Effective and professional telephone manner.
Client service orientated approach and ability to use industry knowledge and experience to anticipate needs and respond to requests/queries from clients on own initiative.
Able to work either on own initiative or as part of a team.
Displaying sound judgement and decision making/problem solving skills.
Being attentive to detail; sense and quality checking your work and the work of others and identifying quality issues and address problems prior to fee earner review.
Accountable and professional.
Business and commercial awareness.
Ability to develop self and others and be learning oriented, wanting to learn and seek improvement.
Ability to display discretion when dealing with sensitive and confidential information.
Be willing to learn and understand different cultures as well as have the required patience to ensure good working relationships.
Flexibility with responsibilities and working hours as required and willingness to go the ‘extra mile' as required.

Nice To Haves

Real Estate Legal PA experience preferred but not essential.

Responsibilities

Pro-actively manage and maintain partner and fee earners' diaries, making appointments and co-ordinating internal and external client meetings, and ensure all work activities are scheduled effectively, including the identification and resolution of potential challenges and clashes.
Arrange (or delegate to Legal Admin Assistants)the booking of meeting rooms, video conference facilities, cars, refreshments, restaurants etc, and liaise with internal and external meeting attendees.
Management of fee earners' inboxes when they are out of the office (holidays/long meetings) and monitoring and responding to post and/or emails, prioritising correspondence to enable fee earners to focus on urgent matters and using initiative to route emails to the appropriate individuals for swift response and action; wherever possible, responding to and filing emails in to iManage on behalf of partners and fee earners to reduce volume.
Responding and dealing with external or internal telephone calls and queries in a professional manner, taking clear and concise messages for other members of the practice group as required.
Organising travel arrangements through the travel company, booking and confirmation of reservations, flights, hotels, car transfers, ordering currency and expense claims and producing detailed itineraries.
Organise individual client entertainment - e.g. deal closing dinners/drinks, table plans, travel booking, arranging small-scale hospitality for Partners or teams.
Arrange events (invitations and bookings for in-house and small external gatherings, individual client entertainment deal closing dinners/drinks, table plans, travel booking etc), occasional support at event e.g. registration desks.
Manage flow of complex legal documents and presentations to DPS, ensuring house style and deadlines.
Draft and type client correspondence (including BigHand dictation), proofread for accuracy, and retrieve documents from iManage.
Prepare agendas, presentations, and meeting papers; ensure timely distribution and planning.
Support billing by liaising with the billing team, producing documentation/reports, and prompting fee earners; understand Elite financial reporting.
Maintain and update fee earner CVs on Connexus; add new deals/cases and notify BD of web CV changes.
Amend/create capability statements, riders, and client-facing documents; source CVs and submit edits to BD.
Produce engrossed documents with multiple appendices.
Printing, small-volume photocopying/scanning, and managing large-volume document production/courier jobs.
Processing travel invoices, expense claims, and maintaining copies.
Handling payments for memberships and preparing admin for money transfers (e.g., CHAPS).
Open files, conduct conflict searches, and complete money laundering checks in liaison with the Business Acceptance Team.
Organise and maintain document management systems, including file closing, archiving, and ensuring electronic filing of paper documents.
Create, upload, and maintain client sites and extranets; collate and index legal documentation, deeds scheduling, and manage deed databases.
Update DynamicsCRM with contacts and BD activities; maintain mailing lists and contact reports.
Assist with speaker CVs, event materials, RSVPs, and delegate queries; notify fee earners of events.
Maintain deal database with marketing; ensure partners log post-closing details.
Support inclusivity initiatives: book rooms, coordinate meetings, arrange events (invitations, catering, speakers).
Assist Knowledge Lawyers with know-how sessions: compile programmes, liaise with L&D, manage AV, copy materials, set up rooms, return CPD sheets.
Update audio/video content on Connexus and support Knowledge Management team with external speakers.
Undertake research using internet and databases.