Legal Secretary

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.