Legal PA - EPC - London

We are recruiting a Legal PA within our Energy, Projects and Construction (EPC) Practice Group to join our London office.

About us

CMS is a Future Facing firm with more than 80 offices in over 45 countries and 5,800+ lawyers worldwide. We combine deep local market understanding with a global perspective. We are passionate about building strong relationships with our clients, our people, and the communities we work in.

We take a bold, dynamic, and agile approach to ensure our clients are able to face the future with confidence. We are driven by emerging technologies such as generative AI and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of working.  Our aim is to inspire, impact and support our clients and our people, helping them to maximize their potential and thrive.

About the role

Within our Energy & Infrastructure team, a role providing you with a broad base of responsibilities supporting specialist energy partners. You will have proven strong PA experience, preferably working within a Law firm, providing support at Partner level and have strong organisational skills. You will be confident in meeting the frequent demands of a fast-paced environment, with the understanding that strong communication with those you will be supporting, is fundamental.

Key Responsibilities including:
•    Diary management - anticipating and managing all areas of diaries, including diarising calls and meetings, proactively managing travel and diary reorganisation, and helping to organise events with external clients
•    Drafting correspondence as required, including emails and sending on behalf of partners, including liaising with clients
•    Comprehensive travel arrangements including sourcing and booking hotels and transport on our online booking tool
•    Understanding the partner’s way of working and adapting to meet their needs, including proactively staying on top of tasks and suggesting new methods of working more efficiently
•    Assisting with client relationship management and client pitching, including creating and amending PowerPoint presentations and being PowerPoint proficient
•    Establishing own administrative systems
•    Efficiently managing own workload and being proactive with the ability to work on own initiative
•    Becoming adept at proof reading and quality checks on all work produced
•    Building good working relationships with colleagues
•    Establishing rapport with clients
•    Becoming adept at using CMS CMNO systems and office equipment, including Centric (to help with managing and keeping contact lists up-to-date) and CMS deal rooms
•    Becoming familiar with legal terminology of practice area
•    Establishing relationships with clients and anticipating their needs
•    Understanding firm’s culture and goals
•    Organises document management, including opening files and drafting retainer letters, archiving and ensuring that all relevant documents are filed electronically and paper-based, as required
•    Demonstrates an in-depth understanding of the end-to-end billing process and Elite (Financial System) and liaising with billing/finance systems teams, producing the relevant documentation and reports and dispatching invoices
•    Assisting across practice groups/teams whenever he/she has spare capacity/as required
•    Delegating where necessary administrative tasks to administrative members of the team

About you

We will invest in your ongoing training and development to support your professional goals and help you to thrive in your role from day one. Our opportunities are open to all suitably qualified applicants, so to be considered for this role, you must meet the following skills and experience: 

• Strong PA/secretarial background at partner level
• Advanced level written and verbal skills
• 70 wpm typing skills
• Good understanding of entire Microsoft Office Suite
• Skills & Knowledge
• Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Document management system
• Positive attitude with a practical, common-sense approach; resilient
• Audio and copy typing
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills
• Drafting documents autonomously
• Fee/Billing Management
• Confident with excellent communication skills, ability to relate to people at all levels
• Ability to prioritise tasks and remain calm when working under pressure
• Excellent attention to detail

What’s in it for you?

We want to reward you today and help you plan for tomorrow. We appreciate that everyone is different, therefore we have designed a benefits system that offers choice and flexibility based on individual needs and lifestyles. To name a few, these include:

•    Competitive basic salary (reviewed annually)
•    Flexible, hybrid working policy subject to firm and Partner requirements (minimum of 50% working time to be office based)
•    Generous bonus scheme
•    Up to 25 days holiday (rising to 28 days with service)
•    Holiday exchange scheme
•    Private medical insurance
•    Enhanced parental leave
•    Reasonable adjustments and accommodation for disabled talent in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

If you would like to read more information regarding our range of benefits, please visit our Rewards & Benefits page on our website.

Equal opportunities

At CMS, we place diversity and inclusion at the centre of our culture and the heart of our organisation. As a firm we recognise, celebrate, and embrace the diverse talent our society has to offer because we know that to solve big problems, we need the best and brightest minds available to us.  In support of this goal, we commit to actively breaking down barriers which stand in the way of those from diverse backgrounds and play our part in levelling the playing field. 
 
As a Future Facing Firm, we strongly believe that a career in law should be open to people from all walks of life, because not only does diversity of thought and experience make our firm a stronger and more sustainable business, but it also makes it a more rewarding place to work.
 
When recruiting, we prioritise attracting talented people and we actively promote a flexible working environment which enables all our team members to thrive. If you see a role you are interested in, but don’t feel you meet 100% of the criteria we encourage you to still consider making an application. We also welcome applications from those who may be looking to return to the workforce after a career break. 
 
We are proud to say our leadership in creating an inclusive working culture has been celebrated and recognised externally, including being listed for a number of years in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women and the Social Mobility Index.
 
We are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer, and we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities, whether visible or invisible. We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity throughout our recruitment process and in every element of the employee life cycle. If you require assistance, or if you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements or adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please contact Becky Lowe at TalentAcquisition@cms-cmno.com who will be happy to support you.

Ready to apply? Here are the next steps.

We look forward to receiving your application online via the CMS careers site. Please contact our Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions. 

Please note that we have a preferred agency panel in place. Only applications submitted via the portal at the point of instruction will be accepted.

#LI-TBC