PA (Commercial Disputes) 12 month Fixed Term Contract

Our Disputes & Risk Practice Group is seeking an experienced PA to support a team of fee earners including the Head of International Arbitration. The main purpose of this role is to provide highly professional, effective and proactive PA support to the team which focuses on Commercial Disputes and International Arbitration.

This is a 12 month fixed term contract position, based at our London office, although we are happy to consider some home working for this position too.

What you'll do

• Provide highly professional, effective and proactive PA support to a number of fee earners.
• Develop strong working relationships with our key clients; anticipate, mitigate and resolve potential client relationship issues or concerns.
• Proactive inbox and diary management, including the creation of to-do lists and drafting of emails as well as meeting room requirements for IT and catering.
• Assist with the file opening/client due diligence process where necessary; set up new matters, draft engagement letters.
• Play an active role in understanding, managing and taking responsibility for the billing process; work closely with matter managers and our finance team; prepare matter manager and client reports, create excel spreadsheets with billing calculations and track fees for clients with specific billing arrangements.
• Support the team with Business Development initiatives and marketing events; promote and be a champion for keeping our marketing database up-to-date; assist with the collation of information for directory submissions; assist with collating input and preparation of presentation and pitch documents; track pitches and introductions/referrals.
• Take responsibility for the organisation of all travel arrangements and itineraries in relation to client and non-client meetings, conferences and in-house and external events; complete expense reclaim forms.
• Draft short correspondence and communications; demonstrate excellent IT skills, with the ability to amend and format and fix documents.
• Keen and willing to get involved with the International Arbitration team. Provide support to the pro bono co-ordinator and ethical committee including diarising meetings over different time zones
• Draft meeting agendas and attendance of meetings with fee earners. Accurately taking minutes of meetings and following up with action points.
• Organise internal and external events, hearings, conferences, away days etc. working closely with the Events team and help organise social events for the department while tracking budgets and expenditure.
• Proactively identify opportunities, actively contribute and be involved with ad-hoc projects as given by the team.
• Support additional fee earners and colleagues as and when required.

We are looking for

We are looking for a candidate who has previous PA experience, who is able to use their own initiative, can demonstrate first class organisational skills and be an integral team player.

You will also be able to demonstrate:

• An enthusiastic and positive approach.
• The ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines with little supervision, taking initiative and anticipating problems or what will be required to complete tasks.
• Excellent time and performance management.
• The ability to pay close attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to interact at all levels.
• To be able to work with confidentiality, discretion and diplomacy.
• Be a team player who can build good relationships with the PAs, lawyers and other support departments.
• Excellent IT skills (Microsoft Office 365, MS Teams, Excel, PPT, document management systems).

Salary and benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

Our recruitment process

We welcome direct applications for our opportunities - if you would like any further information about this role or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Tim Jenkins (Recruitment Advisor) on 0117 917 3666 or email tim.jenkins@osborneclarke.com.

Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.

We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.

About Us

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations*. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success.

At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality.

*Services in India are provided by a relationship firm]]>