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Secretarial Positions

At Berwin Leighton Paisner we look for secretaries who have excellent secretarial skills together with a flexible and positive approach to working in a busy and demanding work environment.

The level of experience we require will vary depending on the particular vacancy and the practice area concerned. The firm also runs a trainee legal secretarial scheme where secretaries are recruited directly from colleges without any previous legal experience.

Induction

A two day induction course is provided for all new starters and includes training on the firm's IT systems, instruction in completing various internal forms and an overview of the support services available within the firm.

Secretarial structure

The firm has five secretarial grades

Trainee
Trainee legal secretaries will be those on our trainee secretarial programme as detailed below.

Junior
Junior secretaries are acknowledged to be still developing their skills and hence will continue to require a significant level of supervision from their principals.

Legal
Legal secretaries will generally have a minimum of three years' relevant experience. They will be technically proficient and able to work with minimal supervision on standard / routine tasks and with a reasonable level of supervision on non-standard tasks.

Senior
Senior secretaries will generally have a minimum of five years' experience. They will work very much on their own initiative, will be proactive in approach and will display a can-do attitude. A significant element of their role will be administrative in content.

Executive
An executive secretary will be a senior secretary operating in a largely administrative role. They will have significant additional responsibilities that will involve dealing with sensitive and confidential information. Executive secretaries are likely to be departmental managing partner secretaries. An executive secretary will have a high degree of autonomy. They will be viewed as a role model.

Secretarial Career Development

The secretarial career development programme is designed to fulfil individual requirements and to maintain standards of excellence in the delivery of legal services to our clients. A programme is tailored for each of the secretarial grades.

The programme is made up of two elements, one covering technical skills and the other interpersonal skills. For the technical element we use the Microsoft Office Specialist exams which are recognised as an industry standard and include courses in Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The interpersonal skills include training in personal effectiveness, client care, effective communication and team working skills.

Trainee Legal Secretary Scheme

Our trainee legal secretarial scheme is open to those who have completed a two year legal secretarial course at college and are now looking for their first job in the City. We look for bright, enthusiastic candidates who have good basic secretarial skills and a willingness to learn. In return, we offer a one year training scheme where you are given the opportunity to spend three months in four different departments. The work will vary between working for trainee solicitors, providing holiday cover and handling overflow work. Those who successfully complete the scheme are offered permanent positions with us.

We will be accepting applications for our next scheme from January 2008, the start date for the 2008 scheme will be in August.  If you have any queries in the meantime please email Kim Frewin at kim.frewin@blplaw.com.

Benefits

Benefits for secretarial staff include:

If you would like to be considered for employment with us, please   submit your CV to our CV Bank.