Legal Secretary

Maddocks is committed to making a difference for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate.

Our support staff are pivotal to our success. They work closely with our lawyers to help deliver an outstanding level of service to our Australian and international clients.

**About the role**

We have an exciting opportunity for a skilled Legal Secretary to join our busy Government practice, in a full or part time capacity, in our Canberra office. You will provide a high level of administrative and secretarial support to a partner and a mix of senior and junior lawyers in a growing and exciting practice. In this role you will have exposure to a wide range of major and high profile Commonwealth projects and matters.

You will be part of a close-knit team that embraces a supportive culture. You will get to know our clients and our projects, and be able to offer focused support for our work. We are passionate about what we do, and value our relationships with our clients. We are looking for a proactive and energetic team member to work closely with us, our clients, and our projects.

There is plenty of variety with the key responsibilities and duties being:

- Coordination of meetings (including proactive support for the lawyers when they are in meetings)
- Time entry, preparation of bills and processing of monthly billing
- Drafting high quality legal correspondence and documentation
- Assisting with matter management, including preparing matter status and billing reports for the team and for clients
- Assisting prepare tender documentation and other high quality client facing documents
- Processing credit card expenses
- Manual and electronic filing of records and preparing for the archiving process
- Opening and closing new files and conducting conflict searches
- General administrative duties

We work in a hybrid way at Maddocks, with part of our week in the office, and also have wider flexible working arrangements, whether that's hours, place of work or the leave you take. We welcome the opportunity to talk to you about working flexibly.

**About you**

You are self-motivated and adaptable in a dynamic environment. You also are a team player and pride yourself on exceeding expectations. A strong work ethic and commitment to your role will see you succeed in this position.

Ideally you will have:

- At least one year legal secretarial experience within private practice
- Previous experience working with billing software such as Aderant Expert is advantageous
- Polished secretarial skills including knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite, including Teams, Word, Power Point and Excel spreadsheet skills
- A proactive approach and an enthusiasm and capability to work independently
- Excellent organisational skills
- A high level of professionalism and excellent interpersonal skills
- The ability to produce accurate, high quality work (attention to detail is critical)
- A collaborative approach and friendly nature
- The ability to think critically and creatively
- Paralegal experience would also be valuable, but not essential.

**About us**

We are a proudly independent Australian law firm that works closely with corporations, businesses and governments throughout Australia and internationally. We have a particular focus on the built environment, education, government, healthcare and technology sectors.

**What makes us unique**

We understand that our people are our greatest asset and we invest heavily in attracting and retaining the best. We value collaboration, knowledge sharing and high standards of professionalism. We look for diversity of experience and background and then provide the tools and training for career success.

We are proud leaders of the legal profession when it comes to promoting a diverse workforce. We have been an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the Workforce Gender Equality Agency every year since 2004. We promote diversity internally through our Maddocks Women and Maddocks Pride groups and we are committed to sustainability, through our membership of the Australian Legal Sector Alliance (AusLSA).

**Interested?**

At Maddocks, we are committed to providing a safe environment for all staff and clients and have a COVID-safe policy in place.