Job description
The Role
The Practice Assistant is primarily a Partner focussed role, based within a practice area in one of the Firm's fee-earning departments. The Practice Assistant will work with specified Partners and/or other senior fee earners to provide proactive, timely and high quality administrative/co-ordination support.
The Practice Assistant will need to be a self-motivated organised individual, who will be able to manage a busy workload and take responsibility for following tasks through to completion.
Duties And Responsibilities
Fee Earner Support
• 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.
• Full proactive and advanced 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).
• Ensuring the fee-earners working on the case are fully prepared for all client meetings by collating required information (and input from others), preparing background information and notes as needed, supporting the follow-through of action points etc.
• Support Fee Earners with expense claims.
Matter Lifecycle
• Supporting 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.
• Developing a strong working knowledge of the Firm's billing systems, including processes, IT systems and specialist support available internally, to support the fee-earners in being able to prepare and issue timely and accurate bills to clients.
• Supporting fee-earners with monitoring and addressing unpaid bills, liaising with Credit Control as required.
• To co-ordinate the WIP lists and billing on behalf of Partners, including liaison with billing team. Pro-active monitoring of time and bills against the estimate.
• Supporting the fee-earning staff to ensure compliance with the Firm's documented Compliance policy and guidelines, particularly around subsidiaries, new matters, conflict checks, searches etc.
• Ensuring all documents are maintained and filed in line with the Firm's electronic and hard copy filing protocols.
Business Development
• Working with the client lead Partner and BD team to plan and deliver the Client Care programme, including meetings, mailings and events and to co-ordinate and share client related news searches.
• Co-ordinating smaller events, and to help prepare content and presentations to the client. Where applicable, to manage Client Handbook and to keep central BD status report updated monthly.
• Organising business breakfasts, dinners or smaller events and assisting fee-earners with expenses.
• Researching company/client information and biographies.
• Logging referrals and contacts to the CRM system (InterAction) and management of CRM lists.
Travel
• Full management of travel 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.
Delegation
• Collaborating with administrative assistants to ensure that they provide support with filing and archiving, scanning, photocopying, updating contacts on Interaction and arranging couriers etc.
• Working closely with internal document/presentation experts for more specialist tasks, such as the preparation of documents, pitch/presentation materials etc.
• Liaising with other internal departments to obtain specialist input as needed, taking ownership of issues and following up where appropriate.
• When required stepping up to cover the Division Assistant, Client Co-Ordinator/Case Administrator or other Practice Assistants.
Skills/Experience
• Previous experience gained in an administrative role supporting a team in a similar professional services environment (ideally legal).
• Strong time management skills; will need to juggle a number of tasks at any given time, plan ahead, and have the ability to respond positively and willingly to re-prioritise and adapt to changes in requirements.
• Previous experience managing calendars for multiple individuals, with the ability to apply judgement and common sense to ensure the best use of people's time, and that any potential diary clashes are pro-actively identified and addressed.
• 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.
• Organised and methodical, and able to operate effectively within structured work processes, in particular, with compliance/quality control frameworks.
• Well-developed interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with a range of people and working styles.
• A strong team player, willing to take on work for additional fee-earners and/or help with other tasks as needed in order to meet the needs of the business.
• 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.
• Previous experience using bespoke in-house systems (e.g. client contact databases, matter management systems, billing systems etc.)
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
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 1400 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 six core practice areas: Corporate ; Dispute Resolution ; Employment ; Innovation ; Private ; and Real Estate .
The Mishcon de Reya Group includes consultancy businesses MDR Discover , MDR Mayfair (in London, Singapore and Dubai), MDR ONE , and MDRi (in Hong Kong). 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.
In 2024, 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 flexible working.
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