Team Personal Assistant (General Counsel, Compliance & Risk)
Reporting to the General Counsel, the Team Personal Assistant (PA) to General Counsel and Compliance & Risk team is responsible for supporting the General Counsel and the wider Compliance & Risk (“C&R”) team to provide full, comprehensive administrative support in all aspects of their work.
The C&R team’s mandate is wide ranging and includes: to ensure that the firm complies with its legal and regulatory obligations, to liaise with the SRA, to advise the firm on risk issues affecting the firm’s business generally, to lead on delivering relevant guidance and training, to develop and implement appropriate policies and procedures to ensure compliance and mitigate risk, to manage the onboarding of clients and new matter opening, to advise on client engagement terms and vendor contracts, to advise Partners and employees on professional compliance and ethics issues that may arise such as conflicts, to advise on data privacy compliance, to deal with client complaints, to deal with disputes with (former) clients and suppliers and to manage the firm’s insurance policies.
Within the Risk Legal team, there are 10 lawyers and 3 paralegals ultimately reporting to the General Counsel. The team includes a Director of Compliance, a Head of Professional Liability, a Head of Corporate Risk and Governance, and a Data Privacy Officer, all with supporting legal staff. The Head of New Business Intake leads a team of around thirty NBI managers and analysts in London, with a further three Senior AML Managers and supporting analysts in Zurich, Dubai and Hong Kong. The team is highly collaborative and there is a focus on team training and development.
The Team Personal Assistant to General Counsel, Compliance & Risk must be highly organised and driven, whilst having a strong track record in providing senior level support in an emotionally intelligent way. The successful candidate will support the C&R team’s effectiveness by ensuring a responsive and efficient level of administrative support to team members and the internal clients that C&R serves. The role will be a focal point of contact both within the C&R team and for colleagues seeking the assistance of C&R, judging priorities and ensuring the delivery of a high level client-focused service. It is crucial that the successful candidate understands and protects the highly confidential nature of information handled by the C&R team.
We are looking for an exceptional colleague who is an outstanding professional in their field, someone who is happy to challenge the status quo and has a ‘firm first’ mentality. This is a fast-paced and demanding role; it requires flexibility and resilience whilst offering the opportunity to work on a wide variety of different tasks and play a key role in ensuring the firm operates in accordance with its legal and regulatory obligations.
Roles and Responsibilities
• Providing an effective administrative service to the General Counsel, the Director of Compliance and other Heads of sub-teams, as well as to the wider team as capacity allows
• Assist with regulatory liaison and updating the firm’s SRA account as required
• Liaison with the firm’s senior management and their support staff
• Meeting scheduling and extensive diary management
• Providing necessary documentation in a timely, efficient way for internal and external meetings
• Acting as Secretary to the firm’s Risk Committee, including organising meetings, agenda management and full minute taking
• Taking minutes of other internal meetings where necessary
• Liaising with internal and external person/s for all meeting logistics including venue, attendance, refreshments and the distribution of materials
• Managing team travel to the firm’s offices globally including visas and itineraries, where applicable
• Processing invoices, purchase orders and expense claims in a timely manner
• Help prepare and administer relevant budgets
• Assist with insurance renewals process
• Help organise training sessions, including C&R’s delivery of training within the firm
• Liaise with external training providers and manage attendance at conferences
• Responding to correspondence via post and email on behalf of your stakeholders
• Assisting with creation of C&R alerts, updates and newsletters to be circulated within the C&R team and firmwide
• Answering and transferring telephone calls to the relevant person/team
• Use 3E to identify relevant information about clients and matters (matter numbers, billing status, CDD status etc)
• Taking ownership and maintaining the relevant intranet pages, ensuring content is kept up to date and accurate
• General administration tasks including preparing documents, proof reading and the creation of PDF bundles
• Helping to set up and manage client information barriers within iManage
• Assisting with ad hoc administration and project tasks
• Attending team meetings to share information and have clarity on future actions. Following up on actions as necessary to assist with moving things forward
• Liaise with other operational teams as required, especially Finance, FinSys, IT, HR and Business Development
• Managing team social events
• Comply with all relevant legal and regulatory obligations including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Standards and Regulations, and Principles.
Skills and Experience
• Previous experience as a Team PA and working with senior management is essential, ideally in a legal environment
• Previous operational experience is desirable
• A good working knowledge of Microsoft Suite, including Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Previous experience using iManage is helpful
Person Specification
• A proactive can-do approach and able to use initiative when required and demonstrates good judgement
• A professional manner with excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Builds rapport quickly
• Ability to balance competing priorities and multitask in a fast-paced environment, adapting to challenging deadlines
• Ability to classify the relative urgency of different tasks through understanding the broader role and objectives of the C&R team
• Accustomed to dealing with people at all levels with tact and diplomacy
• Flexible and dependable, will do extra hours where needed
• Maintaining confidentiality and discretion at all times
• Excellent attention to detail, highly organised and efficient
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