Legal Secretary

About us

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals and over 600 staff based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client.

We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face.

Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do.  RollOnFriday recently ranked us as the 6th best law firm to work at in 2026.

With our ambition to succeed, comes a strong desire to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve, and we are committed to delivering the objectives set out in our ESG strategy. Diversity plays an integral part in all that we do, with female partners comprising 45% of our partnership.

The team you will join

Our Family Law team sits within the wider Private Client Division and brings together an exceptional group of Partners, Solicitors, Mediators, Arbitrators, and trained One Couple One Lawyer practitioners, offering a breadth of expertise.

You will work with the other Family Team assistants to provide support to all fee earners.

The team covers

Divorce

Separation

Relationship difficulties

Modern Families – includes surrogacy, adoption, fertility law

International family issues

Pre and post marriage agreements

Children arrangements

Mediation

One Couple One lawyer

Arbitration

Financial arrangements

The work you will be doing

You will work in the Family Team to provide professional, pro-active, high level secretarial support on a broad range of issues relating to all aspects of the family law services we offer.

Technical responsibilities will include:

To produce and amend documents including PDF court bundles with speed and accuracy.

To format, paginate, number and present documents in Birketts LLP house style

To proof read all work, checking for spelling and grammar

To be a user of key software packages and take responsibility for any training needs to improve relevant skills needed to meet the needs of the business

To proactively work with the fee earners to ensure relevant documentation is produced to meet clients’ expectations and deadlines

Administrative responsibilities will include:

Manage diaries of fee earners in Microsoft Outlook

To scan and save incoming and outgoing post

To add and amend data on Intapp, including contact details intermediaries, and referrals into and out of the team

To open new clients and to open and close matters and carry out conflict checks where appropriate

To complete the client engagement process, including preparing letters of engagement and sending Thirdfort invitations

Arranging meetings/conferences

To arrange payments

To ensure that all electronic filing and paper based filing is up to date and maintained at regular intervals

To keep team spreadsheets up to date

To carry out photocopying and scanning as required

Be the coordinator for mediation enquiries and matters

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.

What we are looking for

You will have the ability to contribute at an operational level, with excellent communication skills and can demonstrate general skills in:

Strong administration experience

Positive, enthusiastic and professional approach to all work

Strong organisational and administrative skills, managing tasks and priorities efficiently

Strong attention to detail to produce work documentation which is consistently of a high standard

Self-motivated, ability to use initiative and provide pro-active support to fee-earners

A desire to share new processes to support the wider team

To be competent in using Microsoft Word, Excel, time recording software, case management, Outlook and digital dictation

Benefits

As a Birketts colleague, you will be eligible to receive a wide range of benefits:

25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays

Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service

Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed)

Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee)

Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme

Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share)

Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance

Paid CSR Day

Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave

Subsidised gym membership

Electric car scheme

Dress for your Day Policy

You can find out more on our website: https://recognition-reward-benefits/

Inclusivity and Culture

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.

If you require this advert in an accessible format, please visit https://company/birketts/

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

At Birketts, we recognise the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal profession and recruitment. We welcome innovation and understand that candidate