Our client is a prestigious law firm based in the beating heart of the City – they are now looking to recruit a Secretarial Services Manager to join their practice management department in London.

The Secretarial Services Manager will be responsible for leading their secretarial review project and for implementing the resulting action plan. The focus of this project is to support, develop and invest in their secretarial team.

The key objectives are to ensure that: their secretarial teams are working within an up-to-date competency framework that reflects the needs of the practice; to maintain and foster a motivated, engaged, and skilled team delivering proactive and efficient client and matter management support; to reduce Lawyer time spent on matter management; and to facilitate effective collaborative working.

The standard hours are 9.30am to 5.30pm. The salary on offer is up to £65,000 + Benefits. This role is a permanent role, and the client are currently using a hybrid working approach (2 days in the office, 3 from home).

Responsibilities as a Secretarial Services Manager include:

• Manage the Team Managers and Senior Secretaries (working collaboratively with Heads of Department and the Practice Director)
• Hold regular 1:1s and lead the annual and mid-year performance review
• Work with the Practice Director and HR to design and deliver the strategy for the secretarial services performance review, salary review and performance bonus processes
• Support Team Managers and Senior Secretaries to navigate performance and absence issues
• Work with Team Managers and Senior Secretaries to consider the business case for new or replacement roles
• Work with Team Managers and Senior Secretaries to manage holiday requests and arrange absence cover if required
• Work closely with secretarial teams and Business Teams to identify and respond to opportunities for process improvement
• Lead the bi-monthly Team Manager and Senior Secretary meetings
• Share knowledge and resources across secretarial teams
• Manage the current secretarial review project to successful completion
• Sensitively implement the changes resulting from the project and support the secretarial team to navigate the transition

Requirements as a Secretarial Services Manager include:

• Previous Secretarial Management experience ideally gained from a law firm
• Solid management experience, including significant experience of managing people
• Strong project management, analysis, and process improvement experience
• Excellent communication skills, in writing, presentation and discussion
• Technically excellent, commercially minded and have great people skills
• Highly skilled on all MS Office applications
• Ability to be flexible to meet the demands of the work