Legal Secretary (Intermediate) – Tax Department - Johannesburg at Bowmans (Law Firm)

Purpose:

Responsible for and performing administrative, legal secretarial and related duties and offering skilled legal assistance to the Partner/s and/or their team.

Experience and Qualifications:

• Senior Certificate
• Paralegal Diploma or short legal courses advantageous/or qualified by experience
• 4 to 6 years legal secretarial experience specifically in Corporate advantageous
• Advanced knowledge of MS Office package
• Experience in a legal accounting package essential
• Ability to maintain high level of confidentiality and discretion

Key Accountabilities

Act as first point of contact

• Liaise with people both inside and outside the firm, supporting the Partner/s and team in their duties and responsibilities.
• Acts with a high level of confidentiality and discretion.

Connecting people

Professional and effective communication internally/externally

• Screening of all calls to ensure that calls are handled or directed to correctly.
• Manage all forms of communication efficiently to ensure that correct message gets across effectively and is dealt with accordingly.
• Possess well developed interpersonal and communication skills and good telephone manner to ensure that all staff members, colleagues and clients are treated professionally.

Diary Management / Scheduling and Maintaining of Calendars

• Organise and manage the Partner/s’ diary and make appointments.
• Updating Partner/s on diary entries and ensuring that they are appropriately prepared prior to meetings/ events/presentations.
• Providing partner with relevant information and documentation to ensure preparedness for meetings.
• Ensure that the correct people are invited and available to attend; booking boardroom for meetings and conference calls (VC), booking catering if necessary, making sure enough time is allocated for travel for offsite meetings.
• May act as team coordinator.

Document Generation

• Audio and copy typing.
• Drafting amending and formatting general correspondence and documents, paying attention to detail and ensuring good spelling/grammar/punctuation.
• Drafting amending and formatting of legal correspondence and documents, paying attention to detail and ensuring good spelling/grammar/punctuation.
• Preparing presentations and reports as required by the partner or department.
• Adhere to ‘in-house’ document style guide to maintain standardisation of documentation.
• Amend documents using track changes and cross referencing, requiring advanced computer and software skills.

Office Administration/Management

• Filing and maintaining filing systems.
• Arrange and coordinate team and inter-office planning/strategy sessions/team functions.
• Collating copies and distributing printing.
• Opening and closing of client files.
• Archiving of records.
• Ordering of stationery.
• Obtaining client FICA documents.
• Seeking ways to pro-actively improve efficiency and administration within the department (effective office management).
• Ability to assess and prioritise workload.
• May from time to time be required to support senior members outside of the immediate team.

Travel Arrangements

• Make all travel arrangements understanding preferences and ensuring cost effectiveness.
• Arrange relevant meetings, set up a travel itinerary and prepare documentation.
• Research travel and immigration requirements. Ensure that they are all met, and Visa applications are processed timeously.
• Manage unforeseen travel changes.

Meeting Support

• General meeting support as directed by the team.
• Action post meeting deliverables and follow-up.

Finance Administration

• Generate and raise invoices for the team to ensure timeous payment of such.
• Time capturing for partner/team.
• Debt collecting / following up on outstanding accounts.
• Assist with general financial management relating to the partner/team/department (e.g. credit notes, general financial queries, requisitions, correspondent and advocate requisitions, reimbursement requisitions for team, track and monitor matters with a fee cap, obtain contributory costs, e-billing etc.).
• Allocate, track and monitor trust money.

Relationship Building

• Develop and maintain relationships with all levels of staff as a trusted resource.
• Maintain strong working relationships with and have open and transparent communication between all members of the team.
• Develop and maintain relationships with vendors to ensure quality of service delivery.

Competencies

• Adaptability
• Attention to Detail
• Continuous Learning
• Interactive Communication
• Initiative
• Problem solving
• Resilience
• Writing Skills