Paralegal: Commercial and Affiliates (Durban North) at Aspen Pharma Group

JOB PURPOSE

• To take responsibility for and ensure efficient and effective secretarial, administrative and paralegal support to the allocated lawyers in the legal team (“Legal Team”) for maximum output in the delivery of quality business aligned legal services by the Legal Team, including facilitating and acting as an intermediary between the Legal Team and internal / external stakeholders including law firms. To undertake substantive legal work including preparation of first drafts and first legal review of standard agreements for the Legal Counsel, documenting and taking responsibility for workflow of legal matters generally through the electronic Legal practice management system (“FMS”). To take responsibility for and manage allocated matters from inception to resolution under supervision from the Legal Counsel. Preparing and managing efficient and accurate reporting.

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

Core Legal Work 

• Specialised Aspen and Business Unit (“BU”) aligned general legal work in the Legal Team under guidance of the responsible Aspen Lawyer.

Paralegal Expertise

• Efficient and accurate paralegal expertise including drafting, first comments, file management, project and matter co-ordination, management of deliverables and reporting. 

Legal Management Administration

• Efficient and accurate Legal practice management, electronic file creation and management, electronic document retention, contract management via the electronic Aspen Contract Library (ACL), electronic reporting and certain general administration including processing invoices.

Cross-Swimlane Projects

• Meaningfully contribute and deliver ancillary legal work in Group Legal cross – swim lane projects, as allocated by the Group Executive: Legal.

BU Allocated Responsibility

• Group Legal BU Allocated Responsibility, including: 
• Template creation, improvement and management.
• From time-to-time BU administration allocated by the Group Executive: Legal.

Group Legal BU KPI

• Meet (or exceed) and manage Group Legal BU KPI.

Aspen Values & personal Insights 

• Adopt and comply with the ways of working within the Aspen Group Legal BU, including specifically the Aspen Values and honest application of personal Insights® Profile (or similar from an Aspen Group service provider) to enhance interpersonal effectiveness.

Requirements
EDUCATION:

• Matric / Grade 12 and recognised professional paralegal qualification, or university degree or sound progress towards a university degree, which is preferable

CERTIFICATIONS/REGISTRATIONS:

• Registration with appropriate qualification body

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:

• 5 years demonstrated experience in performing a senior legal secretary and or paralegal function, some of which has ideally been at an in-house legal department

SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE AND REGISTRATIONS:

• Exposure to working with long, complex legal agreements essential
• Familiarity with legal terminology essential
• Relevant experience in a legal practice or corporate environment essential
• General commercial understanding and exposure
• Advanced legal sense; systems; pharma product knowledge and industry understanding an advantage

WORK-SPECIFIC SKILLS & EXPOSURE:

• Essential to have expertise in Microsoft Office, particularly advanced MS Word such as automatic numbering & cross-referencing (including table of contents and bookmarking), track changes, comments in different formats, document security & protection, comparisons and combinations, etc; digital signatures, advanced Excel such as formatting, headings, filters, linking between sheets and workbooks, conversions, etc; and advanced Powerpoint
• Database establishment and management, including transaction virtual data rooms (“VDRs”)
• Project management / co-ordination of deliverables and trackers

SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES:

• An above average natural affinity to accuracy of work
• Advanced PC literacy on all MS Word applications (including Windows, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel)
• Ability to decide, action and assess priorities and when to execute
• Minimum typing speed of 75 wpm
• Verbal and written proficiency in the English language
• Methodical implementation skills
• Administrative and organizational skills
• Electronic database establishment and management
• Positive, diligent and hard worker
• Ability to prioritise and co-ordinate work
• Flexible, outcomes-based, self-motivated and proactive
• Project management / co-ordination / monitoring of deliverables and trackers
• Ability to accurately monitor and manage spend against a financial budget 

COMPETENCIES: 

• Ability to plan & organise independently and deliver, including securing input and guiding others
• Initiating action, follow up and time management
• Stakeholder focus and outcomes-based approach
• Quality orientation
• Decision-making
• Stress tolerance and conflict resolution
• Problem-solving and analytical skills
• Service-orientated
• Extreme accuracy and attention to detail is a pre-requisite
• High level of integrity, ethical values and confidentiality