Reed Smith LLP
Paralegal
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Position Summary
Working within a delivery team, the Paralegal is an entry or junior-level legal professional responsible for managing day-to-day work on live matters under supervision. The role focuses on developing broad legal delivery capability while building specialist knowledge of derivatives and related financial markets documentation, including transactional documentation, due diligence, repapering, and remediation workstreams.
Job Duties And Responsibilities
Core Role Responsibilities
- Manage assigned day-to-day workload on live matters under close supervision, maintaining high standards of accuracy, quality, and timeliness.
- Ensure a high standard of work in line with required hours targets and applicable time-recording expectations.
- Contribute to the maintenance of relevant delivery frameworks, playbooks, and standard operating procedures as directed by the manager.
- Identify personal training needs and address them with the manager or through individual development to support a high level of service delivery.
- Apply a continuous improvement mindset and identify opportunities to improve processes relating to assigned work.
- Learn to use relevant technology solutions for delivery and identify opportunities to apply technology effectively.
- Build effective working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders, and, where relevant, clients.
- Provide peer-level quality control review of others' work when required by the manager.
- Assist with other tasks required by the manager, the relevant group, and other groups across the global firm.
Practice-specific Responsibilities: Derivatives
- Assist with the review, analysis, and management of ISDA Master Agreements and related documentation, including Credit Support Annexes (CSAs).
- Support work involving Global Master Repurchase Agreements (GMRAs), repo documentation, and related matters.
- Conduct review and due diligence of derivatives documentation, including identifying, extracting, and summarising key contractual provisions.
- Support derivatives repapering and remediation exercises, including high-volume document review projects.
- Assist with over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives matters and relevant regulatory and documentation requirements.
- Prepare due diligence reports, summaries, and other derivatives-specific outputs.
- Support matter and workstream management, including maintaining trackers, monitoring deadlines, coordinating follow-ups, and liaising with lawyers and clients.
- Use and contribute to the development of derivatives playbooks, templates, and standardised processes.
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Job duties and responsibilities included are not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary. Reed Smith reserves the right to revise or modify job duties and responsibilities at any time.
Required Skills And Experience
- Enjoys working as part of a team and adapts working styles to foster teamwork.
- Comfortable with change and embraces opportunities to work faster and smarter.
- Demonstrates strong matter and project management skills, attention to detail, and the ability to meet tight deadlines without sacrificing the quality of client service.
- Fluent in standard Microsoft Office applications and able to master new software quickly.
- Shows resilience under pressure and is motivated by accountability and the desire to meet or exceed objectives and deadlines.
- Has excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to build relationships.
- Comfortable and capable of working proactively in a global organisation.
- Reliable, meets deadlines, and anticipates problems.
- Takes personal ownership of self-improvement.
- Demonstrates a positive, solution-focused approach.
Preferred Skills And Experience
- Exposure to derivatives, banking, capital markets, structured finance, or financial services documentation.
- Experience of document review, due diligence, repapering, remediation, or other high-volume legal delivery projects.
- Experience using document review platforms, workflow tools, or legal technology solutions.
- An interest in financial markets, trading documentation, and legal operations.
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Qualifications
Essential
- Degree-level qualification at 2:1 or equivalent.
- Up to 12 months' prior relevant paralegal experience, or experience as a foreign-qualified lawyer, gained within a professional services environment.
Preferred
- Law degree, Graduate Diploma in Law, or equivalent qualification from a common law jurisdiction.
Supervisory Responsibilities
- Reports to the Managing Staff Attorney.
- No formal people management responsibility. The role may provide peer-level quality control support as directed.
Working Style and Collaboration
- Hybrid working arrangement.
- Works closely with delivery team colleagues, lawyers, clients, and other stakeholders to support high-quality legal service delivery.
Statement
At Reed Smith, we welcome direct applications either in response to one of our advertised vacancies or on a speculative basis. Please click on the “Apply Now” button to submit your details, and we will be in touch.
No search firms/agencies please.
Reed Smith's success depends heavily on the effective utilisation of qualified people, regardless of their race, ancestry, religion, colour, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, disability, veteran status, or any characteristic protected by law. As a firm, we adhere to and promote equal employment opportunity for all.
We are committed to making all stages of our recruitment process accessible to candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions. If you have a disability or a long-term health condition and require adjustments within the recruitment process, please contact a member of the Recruitment team. For more information on our approach to diversity and inclusion, please visit our website.
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