Careers

Join a team that makes real changes

Bevan Brittan is a UK-Top 100 commercial law firm providing a comprehensive range of legal services from offices in Birmingham, Bristol Leeds and London.

The firm advises businesses across construction, energy & resource management, higher education and financial services, complementing the firm's market leadership within housing, local government and health and social care.

We currently employ over 480 staff, including 82 Partners, and our award-winning teams provide construction, commercial, corporate, property, regulatory, employment and litigation (commercial and clinical negligence) legal advice.

Bevan Brittan was named among 'The Times Best Law Firms 2021' and has recently won three major industry awards, along with being shortlisted as a Finalist for a further eleven.

Bevan Brittan is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

Learn from the best

Working as part of a small executive assistant team, aligning to the Commercial and Infrastructure team, the role of the Executive Assistant is to provide comprehensive, operational management support to assist the Department Heads in driving forward improvements and best practice in the day to day running of the department.

Bevan Brittan has strong recognition in the independent legal directories - Chambers & Partners and Legal 500. In both guides we are consistently ranked in the top tier for our practices across the UK, with multiple individuals recognised as leading lawyers.

A very supportive firm with the depth of skills in its teams to provide a full service. - Chambers 2021

Rise to the Challenge

Main Responsibilities include:

Management Support

• Keeping the department business plans updated.
• Working with the team heads to keep team business plans updated
• Co-ordinating partners for actions and initiatives and delivery against objectives.
• Planning and delivery of department away days.
• Assisting with Partner and fee earner meetings, e.g. diarising, preparing agenda and papers, taking minutes, circulating actions and follow-up.
• IT kit approval administration

Financial

• Central filing and retrieval of all management financial information regularly used by Department Heads (DHs)
• Assist with budgets, e.g. pulling together statistics and compiling spreadsheets
• Basic analysis, e.g. reviewing fee earner utilisation data provided by Finance and distilling and providing top line info for DH on a weekly basis
• Monitoring KPIs
• Liaising between Finance and partners as to aged lock up. Chasing and reporting to DH.
• Streamlining the process of write-offs. Monitoring leakage as against WIP.

Risk & Best Practice

• Supporting departmental Best Practice Partner and DH.
• Liaising with Risk & Best Practice team as required.
• Weekly chasing and reporting to enable individual analysis of partner performance in relation to:
  
  • Chapter 1 and engagement letters
  • Breached estimates
  • File closing
  • Completion of training and Compliance Statements
• Coordinating and ensuring delivery against audit requirements

Business Development

• Liaising with BDM team as required to develop assessments, reports and team plans.
• Coordinating and chasing up partners in relation to submissions for directories.
• Ensuring CVs / fee earners' website profiles are kept up to date.
• Maintaining and keeping up to date departmental database of marketing information for use in tenders.

Knowledge Management and Training

• Planning internal training with Knowledge Director and department training partner / Professional Support Lawyer (PSL).
• Logging requests for external training, monitoring spend against budget and liaising with regular external training providers regarding upcoming events.

HR

• Assisting implementation of personal development plans.
• Administrative support for recruitment.
• Assisting with coordinating appraisals and objective setting.
• Administration support in relation to promotions, annual pay and bonus review.

Transformation

• Assisting with identification of transformation opportunities.
• Supporting and coordinating project work.
• Management of departmental HighQ sites

Other

• Any other duties as required by DH.

Find out how far you can go

Skills and Experience Required:

• Significant experience as a senior or board level PA / management assistant
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience of working with highly sensitive and confidential information
• Strong financial skills
• Demonstrable influencing skills
• Confident in having challenging conversations
• Project Management experience
• Excellent attention to detail
• Highly organised and proactive
• Flexibility to travel to other offices as required
• Advanced Microsoft Office Skills, particularly on Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Work-life Balance

We offer a substantial benefits package to all employees, which includes 25 days holiday (plus the option to buy up to an additional 5 days), a generous pension scheme and private medical insurance through Vitality (including "phone a GP service", discounted gym membership and 'Vitality' Partner discounts).

All of our people are entitled to a biannual private health assessment through Nuffield Health and are included in the group life assurance scheme. We also have an Employee Assistance Programme (free telephone support and counselling service) and a cycle scheme (Save Tax & NI on a bike for cycling to work).

Due to COVID-19, all of our roles are currently home-based until it is safe to return to our modern office spaces. Our core operating hours are 9am - 5:15pm Monday to Friday, however we are open to considering requests to work more flexibly.

Responsible Business

To us, being a responsible business is second nature; a core part of Bevan Brittan's identity, running through our culture and embodied by the clients we serve.

Bevan Brittan seeks to play an active role within its local office communities. Through regular fundraising events, support for local initiatives and annual charity donations at Christmas, we have established a culture of giving within the firm. This has laid the foundations for our Responsible Business strategy.

In December 2020 we donated a total of £40,000 to our four regional office charities, with each charity receiving £10,000 towards the causes colleagues support throughout the year. The donations went towards providing vital services after a particularly challenging year. Our current selected charity in St Peter's Hospice in Bristol, Bowel Cancer UK in Birmingham and Maggie's Cancer Care in Leeds.

We want to demonstrate our commitment to these causes through action rather than words; colleagues from across the firm are already heavily involved, living and breathing the four pillars of our Responsible Business strategy:

• Community Engagement
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Wellbeing
• Environmental Sustainability

Collectively, these four pillars ensure we look after our colleagues' wellbeing; offer an environment in which all can progress on merit, regardless of personal circumstances or background; give something back to the communities in which we work; and protect the environment.

Some recent initiatives include:

• Strava running club: a virtual firm-wide running club on Strava, with regular challenges to keep us all motivated to stay active.
• Live Cook Along for Black History Month: We hosted a live virtual 'Cook Along' to share the connective power of food and community.
• UK Disability History Month: We supported the event with informative pieces and real life stories, reflecting our commitment to supporting those of our colleagues who have a disability or who care for someone with a disability.
• Each lawyer has the opportunity to undertake pro bono legal work for local charities and not-for-profit organisations. This has seen colleagues support the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (Bristol), St Werburgh's City Farm (Bristol) and Moseley Road Swimming Baths (Birmingham).