Owen Reed is looking to recruit a detail-oriented and professional Secretarial Services Administrative Assistant to join a top law firm in London.

POSITION OVERVIEW
Provide administrative and secretarial support to the Secretarial Services management team, as well as cover certain tasks as absence back-up. Work collaboratively with the management team and others to efficiently support Firm, client, and departmental needs.

JOB DESCRIPTION
•Monitor morning absence calls and emails for attendance related matters, ensure any secretarial absence is communicated per procedure.
•Assign alternate cover for same-day sickness absence, notify attorneys/teams accordingly, and liaise with IT regarding email notifications.
•Respond to and coordinate secretarial holiday and personal time requests, ensuring sufficient resources are available, and arranging cover when needed.
•Approve absences through PeopleSoft and update internal schedules/spreadsheets accordingly.
•Monitor Firm HIRS to ensure all timecards are balanced, and report and follow up on any discrepancies, as needed.
•Source secretarial support for office visitors, including attorneys and senior staff, as and when requested.
•Prepare weekly holiday cover list and ensure distribution to relevant departments.
•Working with HR to source secretarial buddies for new joiners.
•Schedule meetings and assist with planning and coordinating department meetings and events.
•Use Firm software (MS Office, including Excel & PowerPoint, DMS, PeopleSoft etc.) to prepare, revise, format and finalise a wide variety of work, including correspondence, spreadsheets, reports, and presentations.
•Proofread and question inconsistencies in material, including email communications and documents, produced by the department.
•Monitor and maintain legal secretary attendance and overtime records.
•Monitor, coordinate, and maintain secretarial services intranet site and materials; schedule conference calls and Zoom meetings; maintain department DMS folders, OneNote, and calendars.
•Generate regular reports re various administrative datapoints.
•Coordinate backup team assignments, as necessary, to meet attorney staffing needs, and arrange overflow assistance for attorney/client work and special projects.
•Interact with business support departments within the Firm to facilitate highest possible support, including Human Resources, Business Development, Information Governance, Travel, Meetings & Events, General Services, Guest Services, Conference Center, Catering, Reprographics, Digital Services.
•Utilising the Firm’s Document Management System, establish and maintain paper and electronic files in compliance with current Firm policies.
•Other general duties and projects as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS
The position requires:
•Excellent communication and organisational skills.
•The ability to adapt to change and evolving processes.
•The ability to provide excellent customer service in a professional, respectful, and positive manner, maintaining a courteous and flexible demeanor.
•Strong attention to detail.
•The ability to perform administrative activities which may be highly confidential, sensitive, and require discretion and diplomacy, with utmost care to avoid unauthorised disclosure.
•Judgment to efficiently organise and prioritise workload and assignments.
•The ability to take initiative.
•Critical thinking skills.
•The ability to foster professional, cooperative and supportive relationships with colleagues.
•The ability to work efficiently, both independently and as part of a team.
•Adherence to all Firm policies, including attendance guidelines, dress code, security measures, and confidentiality requirements.
Education, Work Experience, Skills
•Must have recent administrative experience.
•Flexibility for overtime is required.
•Minimum of GCSE education required, including Maths and English, or equivalent work experience is required.
•Strong proficiency in MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint), with advanced Excel skills a plus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, telephones, photocopiers/scanners/shredders.