Personal Assistant

We are looking to recruit a personal assistant to provide professional legal support to our fee earners and general administrative support to ensure smooth operations in our Abu Dhabi office. The key responsibilities of this role relate to personal assistant duties and to participate in office operation activities when required to meet business needs.It is important to note that there are peaks and throughs in workload of the role where not all those tasks outlined are applicable on a daily or weekly basis. Some are ad-hoc tasks as and when they occur to meet business requirements (eg. office maintenance support with events proposals client meetings etc.)Key responsibilities and deliverablesOffice OperationsEnsures office and client meeting spaces are kept clean fully stocked and well maintained.Handle catering requests for meetings. Liaison with suppliers and contractors to ensure service standards are met.Prepares payment requests for general office services work with MENA Accounts team.Controls stationary inventory and deals with vendors to place orders when necessary.Delivering collecting and distributing documents and post.Coordinate local logistics bookings and transportation for visitors and new joiners.Assists with organising office delivery Gate Passes for suppliers with ADGM facility managers. Work with ADGM facility managers on permit applications for suppliers to undertake approved work activities in the Freshfields office within the ADGM campus.Assists with issuing and logging office access cards as well as prepares applications for lift and parking permits with ADGM facility managers as necessary.Provides administrative support to business services teams in MENA as required. Contributes to office/ team projects on an ad hoc basis.Office ReceptionAnswers phone calls through the reception directs as appropriate and takes accurate messages.Greets and farewells clients in a friendly and professional manner and escorts them to the boardrooms. Sets up and services refreshment requirements and ensures the room is checked on a regular basis during meetings and assist with cleaning when required.Manages incoming and outgoing couriers and deliveries and arranges distribution in a timely manner. Tracks outgoing packages to ensure receipt. Allocates fees to the appropriate cost code or client as per office procedures.PA responsibilitiesClient engagementResponds to assesses and prioritises clients requests however communicated and offers appropriate efficient and business-like help and assistance to meet their needs.Maintains a good knowledge of current matters and carries out client liaison duties including regular WIP updates.Develops and maintains an up-to-date knowledge of the stage of the matter upon which the fee earners are working current matter workloads potential issues and sensitivities.Marketing and Business Development activitiesProactively supports fee earners MBD responsibilities. Includes submitting content to MBD systems (CV database pitch/experience lists etc) intranet/LinkedIn publishing prompting fee earners to provide material for uploading conducting basic research on potential clients running regular activity and tracking reports to support MBD initiatives.Carries out basic business development duties such as updating contacts and sending out business development materials in conjunction with the MENA BD team.Assists with administrative support for both internal and external business development and client events working in conjunction with the relevant central and practice based MBD teams as appropriate.Support the MBD department as required on the production of pitches client presentations and maintaining up-to-date CVs for fee earners.General administrative supportCommunicates regularly with relevant fee earners line manager and PA team members to ensure high level of awareness of current priorities fee earners whereabouts and service requirements.Manages incoming communication (including fee earners e-mail) drafts and transcribes replies when directed by fee earners and ensures all mail is processed in an accurate and timely manner.Proactively manages fee earners diaries makes appointments arranges meeting rooms and organises travel arrangements and expense claims to ensure all work activities are scheduled effectively. Able to make reasoned decisions when conflicts occur or know when to refer to fee earner for the decision.Arranges all travel effectively and efficiently. This must include understanding fee earners preferences anticipating additional requirements (accommodation currency returns transfers) and planning in contingency.Types letters correspondence and legal documentation (often involving confidential material). Proofreads all work to ensure that completed documents are delivered accurately and to an appropriately high standard.Establishes and maintains a robust electronic filing system and other administration systems (such as client files if required) to ensure com