Current vacancies

Key Responsibilities

• Horizon Scanning: Responsibility for preparing regular internal bulletins and proactively alerting fee earners to key changes in the law and practice affecting their work.
• Business Development: Working closely with the Business Development team, identify market developments affecting the Firm’s core practice areas and topics that can be used to showcase the Firm’s expertise.
• Drafting: Preparing and developing articles, legal commentaries, client briefings, mailshots etc. and ensuring that colleagues have easy access to this information.
• Knowledge Management: Taking responsibility for the collection, dissemination and management of knowledge from across the Firm, ensuring that it is appropriately stored and readily accessible, to enable colleagues across all of our offices to make best use of it.
• Knowledge Storage: Performing a key role in updating, expanding and maintaining the Firm’s knowledge management material available on the intranet site.
• Legal Research: Dealing with queries from fee earners and advising on the appropriate resources available to support them.
• Training and development: As appropriate, design, organise and (where appropriate) deliver internal training programmes for fee earners across all levels.
• Client Relationships: Supporting the Firm’s client relationships by preparing and delivering relevant information and training to clients.

The Person

Our Professional Support Lawyer will demonstrate the below key skills and experience:

• Experienced Construction Professional Support Lawyer with demonstrable knowledge of our three broad areas of focus, Non-contentious Construction, Contentious Construction and Professional Indemnity Insurance in Construction.
• Excellent drafting skills.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Keen interest in professional training and development, marketing and business development.
• Self-motivated and excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate confidently at all levels.
• Skilled in using AI to help with appropriate solution generation.
• A strong commitment to promoting the benefits of knowledge sharing.

The Role

You will be responsible for:

• Advising professional clients and their insurers on case strategy, claim and cost reserves and insurance coverage matters.
• Handling high value and complex claims from policy response to conclusion.
• Preparing reports for Insurers with the ability to explain and advise succinctly on difficult and complex areas.
• Managing the Insurer/Insured relationship, being aware of potential conflicts.
• Monitoring critical dates and ensuring compliance with Insurer service level agreements.
• Preparing for Court cases at all levels.
• ADR, including negotiation and mediation.
• Adjudication.
• Identifying and advancing business development opportunities.
• The supervision of less experienced members of the team.

Essential Skills & Experience

The successful candidate will, therefore, have a minimum of 8 years PQE, ideally in Professional Indemnity, however we will consider candidates with Litigation experience and who display excellent legal ability and initiative, strong technical skills as well as confidence in managing and prioritising a full and varied caseload. You will be a strong communicator with good attention to detail.

In addition, you will have excellent academics and a willingness to learn and develop your legal knowledge.

In return, you will benefit from being part of an organisation that is genuinely committed to its people.

Main Responsibilities

Correspondence and Documents

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• Producing and proofreading all correspondence and documents, ensuring typing and grammatical errors have been corrected and enclosures are correctly attached to the letters before passing to a fee-earner for checking and signing.
• Dealing with e-mails received/sent to/from the fee earners in their absence by filing into the relevant electronic file.

Filing

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• File management responsibilities – opening and closing files including ensuring electronic filing systems are maintained accurately and up to date.
• Ensuring that any drafts of pleadings etc are filed correctly on the electronic file (and paper file) and organising files in the correct manner e.g. pleadings files.
• If working for a Partner being responsible for attending WIP meetings, raising bills, ensuring issued bills are sent out within the requisite timeframe.

Archiving

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• Ensuring that when a matter is to be closed and ready to be sent off-site, any account balances are clear and if there are outstanding time and/or disbursements, giving Accounts instructions as to whether these should be written off or a final bill drafted.
• Ensuring that original documents are returned to the Client and that any hardcopy documents are passed to the archivist, and that electronic files are archived.

Diary

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• Keeping the fee-earner’s electronic diary, checking there is no conflict of appointments and making sure that the fee-earner is aware of their appointments for the day.

Travel
The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• Liaising with the fee-earner re travel arrangements and then liaising with facilities to book tickets/hotel etc and produce an itinerary.

Meetings and Boardrooms

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• Arranging meetings for fee earners and confirming these arrangements in writing where necessary and booking boardrooms for meetings through the office’s Services (requesting refreshments and lunch if appropriate). Ensuring that a diary entry is put in the fee earner’s calendar.

General

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• Maintaining confidentiality in all the fee-earner’s professional and private matters.
• Assisting with workload of PA team members within practice group and across the firm as required.
• Any additional ad hoc tasks as required.

Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience

The successful candidate will have:

Experience

• Previous experience working as a legal PA/secretary working in a law firm or other professional practice.
• Ideally have experience of billing within a law firm.
• A high level of IT proficiency with fast and accurate word processing and audio-typing skills.
• Professional telephone manner and the ability to accurately record and pass on messages.
• Sound technical skills in the following areas: Microsoft Office IT skills – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Proven experience of using a Client Relationship Management system.

Skills

• Be able to work in a busy open plan environment, sharing responsibilities with others, as well as working on their own.
• Excellent diary management, organisation and prioritisation skills.
• Be flexible and adaptable to deal with the ever-changing demands of a professional office environment.
• Good prioritising and organisational skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Key Requirements:

Compliance advice and guidance – Support in the delivery of key Compliance processes. Lead the delivery of some Compliance processes, such as oversight of AML requirements and queries, and Information barriers. Resolve issues as they arise, and identify areas for improvement in support of improved Compliance and risk management in the Firm.

Relationship Management – Ability to build relationships virtually (will be responsible for providing Compliance assistance to multiple offices) as well as in person, and at all levels, so as to maximise effectiveness and ensure the reputation of the Compliance department.

Work Planning – Contribute to work planning to ensure that Compliance and risk management projects are scheduled and delivered according to plan.

Compliance Policies – Ensure an up-to-date suite of Compliance policies is maintained for each of our jurisdictions. Assist with the oversight of the review and update of all Firm policies.

Compliance reviews – Assist with reviews of processes across the Firm.

Solution development – Assist in proposing solutions to the Senior Compliance Officer and Head of Risk and Compliance in respect of Compliance and risk issues as they arise.

Strategic Projects – Support with strategic projects as appropriate.

Person Specification:
Qualifications:

• Compliance or risk qualification is desirable but not essential.
• Knowledge of Regulatory requirements in E&W is essential, in Scotland, Ireland, Ontario and Dubai is desirable but not essential.

Experience:

• A successful track record in a comparable compliance role with an E&W law firm.
• An interest in developing Compliance, risk management, and regulatory knowledge is essential.
• Commercially aware – demonstrable experience of providing pragmatic, sensible solutions in a timely manner.
• Experience in a legal context is desirable but is not essential.
• Experience in providing clear, balanced support, advice and guidance on a range of compliance issues as appropriate, and of identifying and making suggestions for improvement.
• Experience in developing effective working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, both internally and externally.

Skills:

• Professional, persuasive and influential with a can-do attitude.
• Well organised with the ability to prioritise effectively.
• Ability to gain the confidence of stakeholders. Strong interpersonal skills.
• Ability to challenge.
• Collaborative and is a team player.
• Ability to relate impact of own role to wider firm plans.

The ideal candidate will:

• Deal with client risk assessments for AML purposes, CDD gathering and filing.
• Supporting with CDD gathering on matters where EDD required.
• Deal with supporting PAs and fee-earners on AML queries – usually interpreting Smartsearch. results and discounting false-positive PEP and other hits, advising on UBO structures.
• Oversight of matters rated as high-risk for money laundering.
• Dealing with ad-hoc compliance related queries.

About Beale & Co
Beale & Co provides specialist legal advice to the construction and insurance sectors. With lawyers spread across offices in London, Bristol, Glasgow, Dublin, Dubai and Toronto, the Firm has a long track record in successfully acting for clients all over the world. Our teams handle complex international arbitration; professional indemnity disputes; coverage; claims handling; corporate and commercial and contracts and projects advisory matters, with an emphasis on finding the best possible legal and commercial solutions to meet our clients’ needs.

Key Requirements:

• Work with MSP on determined infrastructure projects and improvements. Assisting them and acting as the Beale & Co technical representative during project meetings, being involved in all aspects of planning, communication, implementation, documentation and reporting.
• Oversee the MSP that administers firewalls, routing and switching to maximize network efficiency and security.
• Overseeing OS and software patch management solution (Autopilot) administered via an MSP.
• Support the design, implementation, maintenance, and updating of the firm’s information security systems in line with ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus requirements. Identify areas for improvement within the firms IT platform in areas such as security and automation.
• Act as technical representative from the department during client and internal audits.
• Oversight of the IT infrastructure inc. operating systems, software & hardware.
• Work closely with the Head of IT and IT Helpdesk Supervisor to provide training and written guidance, in relation to information security changes as well as new hardware/software to the wider IT team.
• Help administer the firm’s Azure platform, presently administered via an MSP.
• Arranging scheduled upgrades.
• Act as a technical escalation point for helpdesk analysts as needed.
• Work closely with vendors and consultants across a range of IT disciplines.

Person Specification:
Knowledge and Experience:

• Demonstrable experience of working in a TSLE role within a legal setting.
• Demonstrable experience of having worked successfully with MSP’s.
• Demonstrable experience of Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Azure administration and Conditional Access.
• Demonstrable experience of SharePoint Online and MS Teams.
• Demonstrable experience of InTune, inc. AutoPilot, application packaging and remediation scripts.
• Demonstrable experience of having provided training and having produced written training and guidance materials in above areas of responsibility.
• Knowledge of and experience with ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus requirements.
• Knowledge of and experience with PowerShell scripting.
• Knowledge of XDR and SIEM.
• Demonstrable experience of acting as the technical lead in successful IT projects.
• Demonstrable experience of preparing operational cost estimates for current and proposed projects.
• Understanding of ITIL principles.

Skills:

• Commercially aware.
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
• Clear client service ethos.
• Vendor Management.
• Flexible approach to problem resolution and service delivery.
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing.

Qualifications / Certifications:

• Industry certifications.
• M365 accreditations would be desirable but are not essential.
• ITIL qualifications would be desirable but are not essential.

Our market leading team has an extensive portfolio of work and has advised on some of the biggest and most challenging and innovative projects across the globe. If you have experience of advising on procurement routes, engineering and construction documentation, joint venture agreements, PFI and PPP documentation and alliance agreements, please get in touch.

The team are proud to act for some of the foremost companies in this sector. We advise construction professionals, contractors, employers, operators, investors and their insurers, across a wide range of industry sectors, providing all aspects of project advice.

We’re looking for experience of advising on procurement routes, engineering and construction documentation (including consultants’ appointments, building contracts, collateral warranties, third party rights and security documentation), joint venture agreements, PFI and PPP documentation, alliance agreements etc. The role would suite those with private practice and/or in house experience.

We have an extensive portfolio of international work. Experience of advising on projects internationally, is preferred but is not essential. Ideally the candidates will have contacts within the construction industry to develop into clients.

Key Requirements:

• Department leadership – Lead the Compliance Department to manage and deliver the Firm’s Compliance and Risk management processes to meet the regulatory and statutory requirements across all jurisdictions in which the Firm operates. Manage the Department budget.
• Compliance advice and guidance – Support EXCO, the COLP and the COFA in the delivery of key Compliance and Risk Management processes. Lead the delivery of Risk Management and Compliance processes. Resolve issues as they arise and identify areas for improvement in support of improved Compliance and Risk Management in the Firm.
• Relationship Management – Ability to build relationships virtually (will be responsible for providing Compliance assistance to multiple offices) as well as in person, and at all levels, so as to maximise effectiveness and ensure the reputation of the Compliance Department.
• Work Planning – Lead and oversee work planning to ensure that Compliance and Risk Management projects are scheduled and delivered according to plan.
• Compliance Policies – Ensure an up-to-date suite of Compliance policies is maintained for each of our jurisdictions. Manage the oversight of timely review and updating of all Firm policies.
• Internal and external stakeholders and Compliance reviews – Liaise with internal and external stakeholders as required. Schedule and oversee delivery of reviews of processes across the Firm.
• Solution development – Develop solutions to Compliance and Risk issues as they arise and oversee the implementation of those solutions.
• Strategic Projects – Support EXCO with strategic projects as appropriate, including the ongoing delivery of ISO27001.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

• Compliance or risk qualification, and/or proven experience is essential.
• Knowledge of Regulatory requirements in E&W is essential.
• Knowledge of Regulatory requirements in Ireland, Scotland, Ontario and Dubai is desirable.
• Knowledge of ISO27001 is desirable.

Experience:

• A successful track record in a senior general risk and compliance role with an E&W law firm or similar equivalent experience in another organisation.
• A continuing interest in developing Compliance, Risk Management, and regulatory knowledge is essential.
• Commercially aware – demonstrable experience of providing pragmatic, sensible solutions in a timely manner.
• Involvement in decision making, providing clear, balanced support, advice and guidance on a range of risk and compliance issues.
• Experience in developing effective working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, both internally and externally.

Skills:

• Professional, persuasive and influential with a can-do attitude.
• Well organised with the ability to prioritise effectively.
• Ability to gain the confidence of stakeholders. Strong interpersonal skills.
• Ability to challenge and hold senior members of staff to account.
• Collaborative but can lead by example and is a team player.
• Ability to relate impact of own role to wider firm plans.