Paralegal, Commercial Dispute Resolution - 9 month FTC (Portuguese speaking)

The role

This role sits within the Commercial Dispute Resolution team, which is part of our Dispute Resolution Department. The role will straddle the team's work streams: media, arbitration, insolvency and civil fraud. You will benefit from being exposed to a broad range of tasks and work types whilst interfacing with our fantastic team which consists of 25 fee-earners, 10 of whom are partners.

The team is busy with a heavy workload. Historically work has been undertaken by qualified solicitors/ trainees and they now require the support of a paralegal for a range of fee-earning and administrative tasks.

Role responsibility

• Assisting with disclosure exercises;
• Filing and file-keeping;
• Assisting in preparing scopes of work and letters of engagement;
• Providing administrative assistance for investigations and trials, including producing bundles;
• Performing research tasks using a range on online and traditional research resources;
• Liaising with third-parties via the phone and in writing;
• Accurately completing and processing legal forms and other documents; 
• Preparing for and attending client meetings, taking notes and completing attendance notes, where required.

About you

Essential;

• Fluency in written and spoken Portuguese.
• Previous experience of working within a litigation function and preferably experience gained working with a commercial dispute resolution team.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills to enable efficient co-ordination of work.
• Must demonstrate excellent literacy, spelling and grammar.
• The ability to communicate with clients and other business contacts in a helpful and efficient manner, responding to client queries where appropriate.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work well within a team. Must be able to establish and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues and clients at all levels
• Must be able to interpret instructions correctly and act upon them
• Must be comfortable using own initiative and taking responsibility where necessary and appropriate
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to perform in a high volume, deadline-orientated role
• Discreet and have a sound understanding of client confidentiality;
• Resilience and ability to work under pressure

Desirable:

• LLB/GDL/LPC/BVC/BPTC or equivalent work experience.
• Experience of time recording using Elite or a similar system.
• Experience of using Filesite or a similar document management system.
• Excellent skills in Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Filesite and E-Filing.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 25 days annual holiday
• Permanent Health Insurance
• Life Assurance
• Interest free Season Ticket Loan
• Private Healthcare
• Pension Scheme
• Staff Introductory Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

About us

We are a London based, full-service law firm, specialising in providing straightforward advice to entrepreneurial businesses and individuals on domestic and international matters.

We have grown substantially in recent years, including two mergers and an office move. We’ve also matured in terms of our approach to providing advice to our clients, seeking to simplify and improve the experience of working with a modern, independent law firm.

We’re proud of our journey. Without losing sight of where we’ve come from, we are focused on where we’re going. We are evolving and growing every day. And just like our clients, we are ambitious and moving forward. Many of our clients are entrepreneurial, ambitious enterprises who are often privately or family owned, or private equity backed. We are one of the only London based law firms with a large private wealth offering alongside significant business law capability.

The firm also advises major corporates on particular specialist legal matters who find our straightforward approach a compelling alternative to larger, less personal firms.