The Executive Assistant provides high level support to Partners and fee earners, acting as a trusted member of the client and matter teams. The Executive Assistant will anticipate needs, take ownership of tasks from start to finish, and reduce fee-earner involvement wherever possible while maintaining excellent client service, financial hygiene and compliance standards.

• Develop a strong understanding of how the Partners and Associates supported work, including their clients, active matters, priorities and preferred ways of working.
• Provide proactive support by anticipating needs, identifying next steps and completing tasks as far as possible before escalating for fee-earner input.
• Act as a single point of contact for delegated administrative tasks, taking end-to-end ownership and ensuring matters are progressed efficiently.
• Build relationships with clients, handling queries appropriately and professionally, and becoming involved in large client matters from the outset as part of the wider client team.
• Deliver an exceptional client service experience, acting as the first and last point of contact for clients by answering calls, meeting and greeting visitors, handling queries appropriately and representing LS as a trusted ambassador.
• Proactively manage administrative aspects of large client matters, ensuring actions, deadlines, documentation and communications are handled accurately and on time.
• Support client events, including meeting and greeting clients, coordinating logistics and developing effective working relationships with client PAs and administrative contacts.
• Provide marketing and business development support as required, working closely with fee earners and relevant central teams.
• Manage diaries, inboxes, travel arrangements, call handling and general EA duties within agreed parameters, always exercising judgement and discretion.
• Maintain strong financial hygiene through close coordination with Finance and the Billing Secretary teams including monitoring WIP, debt, cash collections and client billing requirements.
• Develop strong expertise in finance reporting to provide clear, timely visibility on billing, payments, WIP, debt and cash collections, ensuring reports are accurate, useful and aligned to Partner and client needs.
• Understand and respond appropriately to client-specific billing nuances, reporting regularly to Partners and escalating issues where necessary.
• Take responsibility for the administrative elements of matter management and compliance-related processes, including conflict checking, liaising with Partners and the central Compliance team as required.
• Ensure quality control of work completed by others where tasks have been delegated, maintaining accuracy, consistency and high service standards.

You will have a professional manner, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and have previous experience working within an office. You’ll have a flexible nature and will enjoy working within a fast-paced team and will be highly organised. You’ll also possess strong numeracy and attention to detail skills, which will be key within this role. We are looking for someone who is passionate about being a team player, who is keen to support others.

Our ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• Proactive and forward-thinking approach - able to anticipate needs and take ownership of tasks from start to finish.
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to maintain quality control and high service standards.
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders with competing priorities, exercising sound judgement and discretion.
• Strong financial acumen - comfortable with billing, WIP monitoring, debt and cash collections.
• Confident communicator able to build effective relationships with clients, Partners and internal stakeholders at all levels.
• Commitment to delivering an exceptional client service experience, acting as a trusted ambassador for the firm.
• Team player with a flexible, solutions-focused approach and willingness to reduce fee-earner involvement wherever possible.
• Strong IT skills - Office 365, Word, Elite, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams, DocsCorp PDF Docs, Word Compare (DocsCorp CompareDocs), Document Management System (Netdocs), Interaction, Chrome River, although full in-house training will be provided.