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

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

A vacancy has arisen for a Personal Assistant in the Clinical Negligence Team for Maternity Cover in Bristol, Birmingham or Leeds.

The Personal Assistant's principal role is to provide lawyers with the administrative support they need to provide seamless legal services to clients and help them maximise the amount of time they are able to spend on fee-earning tasks. The Personal Assistant will become involved in all aspects of the management and execution of their allocated Lawyers' day to day workload by providing exceptional and proactive administrative support. The Personal Assistants will act as workflow manager for other support services including delegating and supervising the completion of document production, file management and copying/scanning work. The Personal Assistants will take an active interest in and obtain a thorough understanding of all aspects of client requirements to provide exceptional service levels to both the lawyers and clients.

Key responsibilities

In line with policies and procedures, key responsibilities include:

Administrative

• Manage diaries, ensuring they are up to date and reminding lawyers of meetings etc on a daily basis
• Arrange meetings, book conference rooms, refreshments, check rooms prior to meetings etc and liaise with other attendees, both internal and external
• Organise travel arrangements, book and confirm reservations and deal with related details
• Arrange or, where not appropriate, conduct photocopying, printing, organising couriers, sending out of letters, faxes etc
• Arrange for files to be opened and closed, supervise general filing requirements and record keeping
• Use effective systems to ensure that both short and long term tasks are completed within required timescales
• Support lawyers in marketing activities including involvement in preparation of pitches and presentations
• Assistance in department wide projects, as required

Communication

• Take internal and external telephone queries, responding as appropriate and/or ensuring that all messages are passed on in a timely manner
• Monitor post and/or e-mails and dealing with as appropriate and ensure that all client related correspondence is passed on to an appropriate fee earner if the relevant person is out of the office
• Liaise with business support departments on behalf of lawyers as required
• Liaise with the department's Team Leader over any planned absences, arranging cover as necessary and communicating this to the relevant fee earners

Client relationship management

• Become an active part in the care of clients and be wholly familiar with contacts/clients
• Enter, maintain and update client details and relevant information on the firm's contacts system
• Deal with basic client queries and general administration
• Arrange client meetings

Document production

• Check correspondence, attachments, documents, reports, presentations, faxes etc produced by the Document Production team before they are passed to the relevant lawyer and undertake basic/minor amendments where appropriate
• Prepare urgent/short/confidential correspondence and emails, organise enclosures
• Produce and maintain Excel spreadsheets as required

Financial

• Assist lawyers in the billing and credit control process by liaising with the lawyer and accounts and to produce standard financial/time reports through the system
• Request cheques, bank transfers and paying in money received, as appropriate

Other duties and responsibilities

In addition to providing support to fee-earners, a Personal Assistant will also provide assistance to their immediate colleagues in the department and, where practical, other departments.

Team duties will therefore include:

• Assisting others in the department whenever there is spare capacity or it is evident that a colleague needs assistance with their workload
• Picking up telephone calls for other members of the department when they are away from their desk
• Participating in a lunch time telephone rota within the Personal Assistant team
• Assisting other members of the department, both proactively and at the request of the Team Leader
• Working effectively with other legal and support departments as required
• Being an ambassador for risk and compliance policies and procedures in the firm
• Assisting in the development of continuous improvement of service
• Any other relevant duties as reasonably requested by the Lawyers or Team Leader, or a person of an appropriate seniority

Find out how far you can go

A Personal Assistant has responsibility to ensure that their skill set is up to date and they are familiar with the firm's departments, key personnel, clients, internal systems and procedures. This will ensure that the Personal Assistant is able to carry out his or her role effectively and, where appropriate, discuss any training requirements with the Team Leader.

In addition to this, they should have/be:

• Accurate typing speed of at least 60 words per minute
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, research tools and other systems implemented by the firm
• Excellent telephone manner and competent knowledge of telephone system
• Excellent communication, organisational and team skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• Flexible and dependable, able to take the initiative
• Able to remain calm under pressure and work to tight deadlines
• Conscientious, approachable and enthusiastic
• Able to quickly build confidence, respect and trust with others
• Have a positive approach to daily tasks and have a solutions focussed working method

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. The hours are 36.25 per week, working shifts between 08:00 and 18:00 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 Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds are Great Western Air Ambulance, InUnity and Maggie's Cancer Care.

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).