Personal Assistant - Abu Dhabi - Freshfields

Description

We are looking to recruit a personal assistant to provide professional legal support to our fee earners and general administrative support to ensure smooth operations in our Abu Dhabi office. The key responsibilities of this role relate to personal assistant duties, and to participate in office operation activities when required to meet business needs.

It is important to note that there are peaks and throughs in workload of the role where not all those tasks outlined are applicable on a daily or weekly basis. Some are ad-hoc tasks as and when they occur to meet business requirements (eg. office maintenance, support with events, proposals, client meetings etc.)

Key responsibilities and deliverables

Office Operations

• Ensures office and client meeting spaces are kept clean, fully stocked and well maintained.

• Handle catering requests for meetings. Liaison with suppliers and contractors to ensure service standards are met.

• Prepares payment requests for general office services, work with MENA Accounts team.

• Controls stationary inventory and deals with vendors to place orders when necessary.

• Delivering, collecting and distributing documents and post.

• Coordinate local logistics, bookings and transportation for visitors and new joiners.

• Assists with organising office delivery Gate Passes for suppliers with ADGM facility managers. Work with ADGM facility managers on permit applications for suppliers to undertake approved work activities in the Freshfields office within the ADGM campus.

• Assists with issuing and logging office access cards as well as prepares applications for lift and parking permits with ADGM facility managers as necessary.

• Provides administrative support to business services teams in MENA as required. Contributes to office/ team projects on an ad hoc basis.

Office Reception

• Answers phone calls through the reception, directs as appropriate and takes accurate messages.

• Greets and farewells clients in a friendly and professional manner and escorts them to the boardrooms. Sets up and services refreshment requirements and ensures the room is checked on a regular basis during meetings and assist with cleaning when required.

• Manages incoming and outgoing couriers and deliveries and arranges distribution in a timely manner. Tracks outgoing packages to ensure receipt. Allocates fees to the appropriate cost code or client as per office procedures.

PA responsibilities

Client engagement

• Responds to, assesses and prioritises clients' requests, however communicated, and offers appropriate efficient and business-like help and assistance to meet their needs.

• Maintains a good knowledge of current matters and carries out client liaison duties including regular WIP updates.

• Develops and maintains an up-to-date knowledge of the stage of the matter upon which the fee earners are working, current matter workloads, potential issues and sensitivities.

Marketing and Business Development activities

• Proactively supports fee earners' MBD responsibilities.  Includes submitting content to MBD systems (CV database, pitch/experience lists etc), intranet/LinkedIn publishing, prompting fee earners to provide material for uploading, conducting basic research on potential clients, running regular activity and tracking reports to support MBD initiatives.

• Carries out basic business development duties such as updating contacts and sending out business development materials, in conjunction with the MENA BD team.

• Assists with administrative support for both internal and external business development and client events, working in conjunction with the relevant central and practice based MBD teams as appropriate.

• Support the MBD department as required on the production of pitches, client presentations and maintaining up-to-date CVs for fee earners.

General administrative support

• Communicates regularly with relevant fee earners, line manager and PA team members to ensure high level of awareness of current priorities, fee earners' whereabouts and service requirements.

• Manages incoming communication (including fee earners' e-mail), drafts and transcribes replies when directed by fee earners and ensures all mail is processed in an accurate and timely manner.

• Proactively manages fee earners' diaries, makes appointments, arranges meeting rooms and organises travel arrangements and expense claims to ensure all work activities are scheduled effectively.  Able to make reasoned decisions when conflicts occur, or know when to refer to fee earner for the decision.

• Arranges all travel effectively and efficiently.  This must include understanding fee earners' preferences, anticipating additional requirements (accommodation, currency, returns, transfers) and planning in contingency.

• Types letters, correspondence and legal documentation (often involving confidential material).  Proofreads all work to ensure that completed documents are delivered accurately and to an appropriately high standard.

• Establishes and maintains a robust electronic filing system and other administration systems (such as client files if required) to ensure completeness and accuracy of technical, professional and matter information.  Uses Worksite for e-mail filing as per departmental standards.

• Carries out day-to-day administrative tasks to ensure provision of high quality service in all areas, including liaison with department business centres and other service departments as appropriate.

• Assists fee earners with basic technical queries allowing them to make best use of available IT and KBD resources.  Ensures own knowledge of technical packages is up to date. Coordinate with global and/ or regional IT teams as required to resolve any technical issues.

• Assists with administration, co-ordination and logistics for internal seminar and training events, ensuring relevant events are diarised for fee earners.

• Carries out risk checks, matter openings and draft engagement letters.

• Assists fee earners with the billing processes, preparing first drafts of bill narratives and managing process of sending bills end-to-end. This includes ensuring Freshfields information is correct and up to date on various client supplier portals, often in conjunction with e-Billing team.

• Provides fee earners with appropriate support in managing personal matters, such that fee earners are able to focus their time on providing efficient services to clients.

• Provide support to the wider PA and business services teams where necessary.

• Involvement in ad-hoc projects as assigned by line manager.

Key requirements (Communication/skills/experience)

Essential

• Administrative support experience

• English at business fluent level

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral).

• Friendly and helpful customer service approach.

• Good organisational skills and attention to detail.

• Ability to prioritise and act on own initiative.

• Able to work fast to tight deadlines.

• Able to work as part of a team.

• Ability to adopt a flexible and proactive approach and retain a professional attitude under pressure.

• Flexibility to work in evenings and/ or weekends as required.

• Excellent IT Skills, including fast, accurate audio and copy typing (60 wpm).

• Able to produce high quality Word and PowerPoint documents.

• Able to create, manipulate and interrogate Excel spreadsheets.

• Experience in using FileSite, Intapp, WorkDay, SalesForce, IntroHive or industry equivalent

• Willingness to broaden experience and develop skills further.

• Willingness to work overtime and/or outside of normal working hours as required.

Desirable

• Valid UAE driver's license

• Formal legal secretarial qualification

• Experience working in a legal environment

• Competent in Arabic language is an advantage