Address The role will provide comprehensive and pro-active legal secretarial services to Kennedys Sydney office. This includes administrative duties in the management of litigation for fee earners, including but not limited to documentation, preparation of claims, liaison with client, courts and authorities together with client billing and related business development activities.
Team
Kennedys is a global, UK-based firm, and has had a presence in Sydney, Australia since 2006. In 2017, Kennedys opened an office in Melbourne, followed by Perth in 2021 and as of July 2022, Kennedys now have an office in Brisbane.
Key responsibilities
Document management including producing a variety of documents and court forms from dictation and handwritten/typewritten drafts, proofreading, and formatting documents as and when required by lawyers
Assist in handling of litigation, including completing documentation in relation to the preparation of claims and litigation as directed by the lawyers
File maintenance, including accurate daily filing, file organisation, opening and closing files in accordance with the firm's Quality Management procedures
Email/Inbox management, screening and electronic filing of emails
Create accurate and timely correspondence and legal documents from dictation, handwritten, typewritten drafts or notes
With a solid understanding of legal procedures and documentation, draft preliminary correspondence and legal documents under the supervision and direction of associates
Liaise with third parties, courts and counsel including prepare, file and manage documents for courts, tribunals and other administrative bodies together with managing related third party invoices
Prepare and collate documentation for briefs
Prepare outgoing documents for courier, mail or hand delivery
Manage billing cycle from generation of invoices through to assisting the Credit Controller follow up with clients to ensure satisfactory payment of accounts
Create and maintain effective relationships with clients. Respond to clients' specific requests, escalating to appropriate seniority where required
Attend to clients on the telephone, in person, and via email, with a high degree of professionalism and efficiency
Review online Registry and record all relevant information. Including diarise dates and download documents and record relevant order dates
Filing documents in any registry (court, land, etc.), including preparing the documents for electronic filing
Arranging external photocopying, courier, medical/exam appointments and counsel appointments
Prepare Expense Request Forms and other Accounting administrative tasks
Conducting Conflict Searches
Manage expense claims via the firms system ChromeRiver
External calling regarding general enquiries and banking detail clarification
Updating contacts and BD activities within InterAction
Adding and amending contact details in Kase
Attending to Property and Company Searches via Dye & Durham
Brief indexing and collation with Legal Secretaries assistance
Make effective use of all IT systems including Kase, Big-Hand, Teams, Excel, Elite 3E, PowerPoint, Outlook and InterAction
Manage and track work delegated to Office Assistants or Paralegals
Escalate matters to management when outside of scope of role
Required experience
Experience in a similar Legal Secretary role
Experience with litigation, client billing and client services is desired
Ability to handle all correspondence and transcribe dictation
Proficient in Office, including drafting correspondence and pleadings in Word and presentations in PowerPoint
Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys.
where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience.
