The Department

The pace of change in the business world has never been greater. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, new thinking, technology and business models have shaken up the old and made possible ideas that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.The Innovation Department brings together expertise from across the Firm, allowing a new level of collaboration and a focus on meeting the needs of clients in diverse and dynamic sectors. Our legal knowledge is underpinned by the latest technology to create better insights, better levels of customer service and increased efficiency for our clients.

The practices within the Innovation Department include those that are well established, recognised as being at the top of their game by the legal industry, and those that we have created in recent years as clients have come to us with new problems to solve and value models to create.

We offer a relentless curiosity for our clients' businesses and sectors, and a passion for finding new ways to help them meet their goals. We have an innate understanding of what drives those creating new ideas, because that's what we are doing within our own business every day.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main purpose of this team focussed role is to provide additional Practice Assistant support and effective cover for the PAs in the fee earning teams. Working across the business supporting the legal teams in a fast-paced environment, the role is ideally suited to a candidate who is proactive, flexible and has exceptional organisational skills.

In addition, the individual will help maintain the smooth running of our growing Oxford office. The Practice Assistant and Office Co-Ordinator will be a full-time office-based role, providing in office co-ordination support for the Oxford fee earners.

The main day to day responsibilities of the role would be ensuring all tasks are carried out to the required standards, including:

Practice Assistant

• Answer external and internal calls and ensure accurate messages are taken.
• Acting as a first point of contact on behalf of the fee-earners, fielding calls, emails, correspondence and meeting requests (both internally and from clients), responding on behalf of the fee-earner, if appropriate.
• Assisting with calendar management for assigned fee-earners, including scheduling calls/meetings (ensuring all supporting papers/information are available for each meeting), looking ahead and following-up as needed to ensure best use is made of fee-earners time).
• Using Microsoft Office, Outlook, DMS, Teams/Zoom, and other associated equipment to answer external/internal calls.
• To support fee-earners in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, and working closely with internal client on-boarding and compliance specialists to ensure all required information/documentation is obtained, issued and correctly stored on the Firm's systems. This will involve pro-actively chasing fee-earners and their clients for any missing information as well as full management of client files etc.
• Full management of travel and expenses for assigned fee-earners, ensuring business travel is booked via the Firm's in-house provider. This will include both routine and more complex travel arrangements, ensuring that fee-earners are provided with full itineraries, supporting materials and that business expenses are captured, approved and processed for payment in line with policy.
• Arrange handover meeting at start and end of cover period.
• Supporting our Archives Team in reviewing and processing archived documentation. This may include organising legal documents, destroying files, and re-cataloguing items.
• Organising business breakfasts, dinners or smaller events.
• Ad-hoc admin tasks as and when required.

Office Co-Ordination

• Meeting and greeting clients in reception with a smile in a friendly, professional and courteous manner and offering them refreshments.
• Ensuring that the spaces and meeting room are presented to the highest possible standard and any issues are reported to maintenance.
• Taking inventory of stationery and office supplies and ordering via facilities to maintain stock in the office.
• Maintaining the ink and paper levels for the printers and reporting any technical issues related to these or any other equipment.
• Ensuring the kitchen area is fully stocked, clean, tidy, and that the coffee machine is replenished and cleaned regularly.
• Liaising with other internal departments to obtain specialist input as needed, taking ownership of issues and following up where appropriate.
• Liaise with any Oxford premises management and operations team.
• Collate outgoing post daily; this includes printing, photocopying, scanning and filing/e-filing.

Skills/Experience

The ideal candidate will have experience of working in a professional services environment and will have assisted in the smooth running of the office. They must have excellent communication skills, efficient telephone manner and display professionalism at all times.

A calm, flexible and energetic approach is needed to ensure efficiency. They will need to be computer literate and possess excellent customer service and good organisational skills. In particular:

• Previous experience gained in an administrative role supporting a team in a similar professional services environment (ideally legal).
• Excellent IT skills across a broad range of MS Office and other business management applications.
• Excellent telephone manner and outstanding customer services skills
• Strong time management skills; will need to juggle a number of tasks at any given time, plan ahead, and have the ability to re-prioritise and adapt to changes in requirements.
• Excellent attention to detail, with the ability to deliver work to a consistently high standard of precision (even under pressure) in an environment where accuracy is prized.
• A flexible approach to work: able to respond positively and willingly to changes to requirements, schedules, work required etc.
• Organised and methodical, and able to operate effectively within structured work processes, in particular, with compliance/quality control frameworks.
• Self-motivated team player who takes ownership and responsibility for tasks
• Well-developed interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with a range of people and working styles.
• Able to communicate effectively, with warmth and professionalism, to clients and colleagues both orally and in writing, including drafting business emails/correspondence.
• High levels of discretion, with the ability to deal effectively with sensitive or confidential information.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

About The Mishcon de Reya Group

The Mishcon de Reya Group is an independent, international professional services business with law at its heart, employing over 1450 people with over 650 lawyers. It includes the law firm Mishcon de Reya LLP and a collection of leading consultancy businesses that complement the firm's legal services.

Mishcon de Reya LLP is based in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore and Hong Kong (through its association with Karas So LLP). The firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply. Its work is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, spanning seven core practice areas: Corporate; Dispute Resolution; Employment; Impact; Innovation; Private; and Real Estate.

The Mishcon de Reya Group includes consultancy businesses MDR Discover, MDR Mayfair (in London, Singapore and Dubai), MDR ONE, MDRi (in Hong Kong) and MDRx. The Group also includes MDR Lab, which invests in the most promising early stage legaltech companies as well as the Mishcon Academy, its in-house place of learning and platform for thought leadership.

Earlier this year, the Group announced its first strategic acquisition in the alternative legal services market, flexible legal resourcing business Flex Legal. It also acquired a majority stake in Somos, a global group actions management business.

We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk about flexible working.

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