Legal Assistant

**SYDNEY - CBD**

**THE OPPORTUNITY**

Our Sydney office has an opportunity for an experience Legal assistant (LA) to join our high performing team. We are seeking a driven, flexible and engaged LA to provide outstanding support in a positive and efficient manner.
Our LAs play an important part in our business with the role of the LA providing high level quality administrative support in a timely and responsive manner to meet client requirements and to deliver an exceptional client experience.
This particular role will manage a high volume practice which will require your strong matter management skills, in particular billing. You will need a passion for working collaboratively within a team, a proactive approach to delivering your work and strong attention to detail will help set you up for success in this organisation.

Your key responsibilities will include:

- Planning for and delivering high quality, accurate work whilst managing deadlines and competing priorities
- Supporting the practice to achieve high levels of financial hygiene and meet required WIP, billing and debtor targets
- Managing the billing process for your direct team including clients with specific billing requirements;
- Assisting partners and lawyers with client and cost reporting requirements
- Managing the billing process for your direct team including clients with specific billing requirements;
- Demonstrating enthusiasm and proactivity in the workplace, including participating in and contributing to local and global projects, innovation initiatives, support and practice group meetings, business improvement activities, focus groups, pilot groups, team building activities, learning and development sessions and other relevant activities;
- Managing Partners internal and external appointments with appropriate meeting lead times including travel and diary management;
- Assisting with meeting preparation and the coordination of post meeting actions;
- Capturing and sharing information about client specific requirements;
- Coaching and mentoring team Administrative Assistants;
- Coordinating and managing a broad variety of responsibilities and deliverables (including delegating where appropriate and maintaining ownership and responsibility for outcomes).

**SKILLS, EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS**

Key skills and experience includes:

- Previous experience in a legal support role - minimum 5 years experience
- Typing speed minimum of 60wpm with 98% accuracy
- Strong organisational skills
- Good written and verbal communication skills with a demonstrated ability to building effective and trusting relationships with people internally and external to the firm
- Strong matter management and billing experience (Aderant Expert)
- Impeccable attention to detail and accuracy
- Ability to work high volumes to strict deadlines
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Ability to work within a support team

**GROUP / TEAM**

Dispute resolution

**GROUP / TEAM DESCRIPTION**

The legal support team provides the practical support our lawyers need so they can deliver the best possible service to our clients. The role of our assistants is critical in assisting our people to perform at the highest level. The team provides high-quality support to partners and throughout our practice areas. This ranges from providing administrative support and diary management to producing a wide range of complex documents. Our legal support team also plays a client-facing role as our assistants are typically in regular contact with our clients on behalf of lawyers.

**ROLE TYPE**

Legal PA/Secretarial

**CONTRACT TYPE**

Permanent

**WORKING PATTERN**

Full Time

**DIVERSITY & INCLUSION**

At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.

We understand that you have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create a working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which you can perform at your best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across your life.

Herbert Smith Freehills