PA

Shepherd and Wedderburn are currently recruiting for a PA to join their Employment Team based at our Aberdeen office.  The successful candidate will provide effective and efficient PA, administrative and secretarial support to the fee earners in the team. 

Role

• To provide effective and efficient PA, administrative and secretarial support to fee earners in the Employment and Immigration team.
• You will be one of two PA’s serving the Employment and Immigration team. The other PA is based between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Despite our PAs working from different offices, we operate as one team and expect our PAs to collaborate and cooperate with each other to meet the needs of the team wherever our fee earners are based and/or working.   
• The Employment and Immigration team sits within our Private Wealth, Pensions, Tax and Employment/Immigration Division. From time to time, you may be required to assist with wider Divisional needs, although the Employment and Immigration team is normally sufficiently busy that your day to day focus will be on serving the needs of this team.

Main Duties

• Accurately produce correspondence, documentation (including any related matters e.g. mailslips, forms, couriers etc) and presentations, utilising efficiently relevant software e.g. Word, Excel, PDF Editor, PowerPoint, and dictation software. 
• Liaise where necessary with WP in the production of WP documents but be capable of creating and amending large documents.
• Carry out client and matter opening and closing using and in accordance with the firm’s processes and procedures, including liaising with Finance and AML teams, carrying out and recording the outcome of conflict checks and producing letters of engagement.
• Diary management checking weekly, monthly and annual commitments in advance and responding to enquiries relating to availability, including room booking, catering, IT support and communication with attendees, as required.
• Manage email accounts, including review of partner inboxes, and inboxes of all fee earners on holiday or otherwise absent (including travelling) and e-mail storage and file management.
• Manage attendance, rooms and technology and attend and potentially take notes for all Team Meetings.
• Carry out Active Matter reviews with fee earners in connection with regular billing and payment of invoices.
• Manage process for producing invoices (at month end and otherwise as required) and sending these to clients. Completion of all required information for clients’ fee portals and/or reporting requirements.
• Dealing with queries regarding invoices, including managing and obtaining client purchase orders where applicable.
• Undertake filing/scanning where required (the team is almost entirely non-paper based so there is less of this sort of work than historically was the case).
• Arrange and, as necessary, assist with photocopying/binding.
• Deal with clients and contacts and assist/redirect as required.
• Plan and manage (including creating itineraries and updating diaries with relevant details) travel and hotel arrangements and reclaim expenses.
• Manage contact information for clients and contacts (including updating CMS/Marketing database).
• Undertake ad hoc administration e.g. organising team training, as required.
• Check FlowMatrix for fee earners daily (ensuring document distribution, saving and naming protocols are followed).
• Manage the team’s paper storage – including indexing; local storage; off-site storage etc.
• Liaise with support teams e.g. Finance, Facilities, Reception, Marketing and Communication, IT.
• To provide support to the wider PA group, including other divisions and offices, as and when required.

Candidate Profile;

Essential

• Excellent organisation skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• Excellent administration skills
• Excellent communication skills

Desirable

• Legal sector experience
• Previous experience as a PA / executive assistant

Other Business/Work Management Requirements

• Works as part of a team to attain objectives within agreed timescales and budgets.
• Complies with all firm policies and procedures, including financial.
• Implements improvements in working methods.

HR Contact 

If you would like further information on the role or require accommodations to make your application please contact Marc McRae (marc.mcrae@shepwedd.com).

Equal Opportunities 

At Shepherd and Wedderburn we strive to provide a supportive, inclusive and high performance working environment, where everyone feels they belong. Diversity and inclusion is at the heart of our business and we therefore welcome applicants from different backgrounds to all levels of the organisation. To foster inclusivity we particularly encourage applications from those who may be from underrepresented groups, including candidates from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBT+ people, people with disabilities or who are neurodivergent and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Data Protection

Shepherd and Wedderburn is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information that we collect as a “controller”. The information provided by you will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice for Applicants. If you are successful in obtaining paid employment with us we will hold your information in accordance with our Privacy Notice and Data Retention Policy for Personnel, which will be provided to you at the relevant time.

Relevant information will be disclosed to the interview panel and Human Resources staff members. We may contact any referees provided for the purposes of discussing your application and will ask your permission before doing so.

If you provide any information deemed to be “special category” information under the General Data Protection Regulation, we may use this as follows:

• We will use any information provided in relation to reasonable adjustments to make appropriate arrangements for interview or other selection processes.
• We will use any information provided in our diversity monitoring form to ensure meaningful monitoring and reporting. Any analysis of this data will be done on an anonymous basis.

Should your application be unsuccessful, the information provided will be deleted on the basis of the timescales set out in our Privacy Notice for Applicants.

If you have any further questions about how we process and store your information, or your rights in relation to this, please refer to our Privacy Notice for Applicants.