Mishcon de Reya LLP
Executive Assistant and Department Business Analyst
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The Department
Legal Support Services includes document production specialists, paralegals, researchers, legal project management experts and legal operations professionals. The team covers a wide range of administrative, operational, and specialist matter and fee earner support using cutting-edge tools and innovative tech solutions to provide exceptional and frictionless service to the fee earners across the firm.
The Legal Operations team form part of the Legal Support Services department and provides high value administrative support for fee earners with a focus on matter management, diary management, travel and business development.
The Role
In addition to providing solid EA support to the Chair, the role holder will also operate as a Department Business Analyst to enable and support the Chair delivering against the wider firm objectives. The Chair sits on the Firm's Board and (through steering and working closely with the departmental management Board) is the key figurehead for one of our fee-earning departments. The Chair's role is focussed on strategy and growth. Within the department, the Chair is supported by Division Heads and Practice Leads (whose management remit is more operational) and who lead the fee-earning teams.
The EA is a visible, highly involved and responsible role that enables the Chair to successfully focus on shaping and delivering the departmental strategy. As well as an incredibly high level of organisational skills, the role needs someone with a strong interest in business strategy, management and operations. The person appointed will need to be resourceful and able to deliver a broad portfolio of work, both under their own steam and in close collaboration with others.
The person appointed will support Senior Partners in the Department, acting as a central point of contact for office management across the division/department.
Duties And Responsibilities
PA Support
- Primary point of contact for the Chair's office, dealing with phone calls, email, correspondence and requests for calls/meetings. Will use good judgement to prioritise requests, but will also respond directly and/or route to the most appropriate people for response as needed.
- Act as the primary point of contact for the Partners you are working for, dealing with calls, emails, meeting requests, correspondence.
- Full proactive and advanced calendar management, managing busy and frequent changing schedules to optimize time usage.
- Ensure the Partners are fully prepared for meetings: collate information, prepare notes, attend meetings, take minutes, follow up on action points.
- Support the fee earners in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, to ensure compliance with the Firm's documented compliance policy and guidelines.
Office and Department Support
- To act as a key interface between the Chair and other members of the Firm's Board and leadership team, exercising complete discretion when dealing with information of a confidential or commercially sensitive nature.
- Maintain key department/division documents and data.
- Supporting department or division meetings as needed.
- Build strong relationships across departments and business services, acting as a connector between fee-earners and Business Operations team.
- Work closely with the Division Assistant to ensure the smooth running of the Legal Operations team.
- Ensuring the Chair is fully briefed for all meetings (including Board) by collating required information (and input from others), preparing talking points/notes, taking minutes where needed, and ensuring all follow-up points are clearly communicated, tracked and actioned.
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Project & General Support
- Will develop a good understanding of the department's profile and reach within the Firm and externally, in terms of client strategy, competitors, key challenges and opportunities for growth and development.
- Will play a key role in working with the Chair in scoping and delivering a range of projects, which may require attending meetings on behalf of the Chair and working with others as needed.
- Will need to develop a good understanding of the Firm's transformation agenda, the various projects underway or planned, the interdependencies between these, and support the Chair in ensuring that relevant information (and any input needed) is shared across the teams.
- Contributing to key documents required by the Chair (e.g. input to reports etc.) through undertaking research and producing high quality, robust written work appropriate for a senior level audience that requires minimal redrafting.
- Working with the Chair to understand the frequency and detail of management reporting needed, and defining the scope of data. Will pull together data (often from several sources), undertake analysis, identify key points/trends/follow up points, and provide relevant, concise commentary around the numbers.
- Will support the Chair in ensuring the department's strategic focus is clearly articulated through the department developing a range of materials (newsletters, meetings, town halls etc.) working with Internal Communications specialists as needed.
- Supporting the Chair and the department leadership team through the planning and arrangement of town halls, department specific events (e.g. summer/winter parties) etc. working with the in-house Events team as required.
- To partner with senior business specialists (who work closely with the Chair) in areas such as Business Development, Finance, People and Technology to ensure their input is sought in a timely manner for both day-to-day and longer term, project based requirements.
Legal Operations Support
- Working with the Legal Operations Manager to deliver and support the Legal Operations strategy.
- Supporting and leading the Legal Operations team in the departmental objectives and engagement with the Global Capability Centre
- Feeding into and supporting firmwide improvement projects and process enhancement.
- Build strong relationships across the Legal Support Services Department and Global Capability Centre.
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Skills/Experience
- Educated to degree level (or qualified through equivalent experience), perhaps with an additional business-related qualification/membership.
- Previous experience in an involved, responsible role working on a 1:1 level with a senior leader in a fast-moving, commercial environment.
- Previous experience supporting board/committee members and processes, including end-to-end co-ordination of meetings, minutes, tracking and following through on action points etc.
- Good understanding of the dynamics and nuances of a partnership. Able to successfully influence, generate consensus and marshal others in pursuit of a shared goal.
- Commercially minded: able to understand business strategy, priorities and challenges and work with senior leaders and their teams to support them in scoping and implementing short and longer term initiatives that address these.
- Highly professional and credible in style, yet not overtly corporate. Will be comfortable working in a fluid environment, and will be able to collaborate effectively with people of all levels.
- Outstanding organisational and time management skills. Able to juggle a heavy workload (including input needed from others) on a varied range of tasks and projects.
- Strong research and drafting skills: able to assimilate high volumes of information, identify key points and produce high quality written work (emails, briefing papers, presentations, reports etc.) ready for a senior level audience.
- Comfortable gathering and analysing numerical data to produce meaningful and accurate management information.
- Strong IT skills (particularly Excel), with the ability to successfully use a range of internal business systems and a willingness to develop own knowledge of these.
Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.
About
About Mishcon de Reya LLP
Mishcon de Reya is an independent law firm, which now employs over 1400 people with more than 650 lawyers offering a wide range of legal services to companies and individuals. The firm has grown rapidly in recent years, showing more than 40% revenue growth in the past five years alone.
With presence in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE, the firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply.
The work the firm undertakes is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, centred around three increasingly entwined and connected sectors: the Innovation Economy, Private Wealth and Capital, and Real Estate. The firm is known as a disputes powerhouse with a formidable capacity firmwide for dispute resolution.
We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk flexible working.
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