Paralegal - Private Client, Trusts & Estates Disputes

The role

This is an excellent opportunity for candidates to join our Trusts and Estates Disputes team. The team requires the support of a Paralegal for a range of fee-earning and administrative tasks.

Our Trusts and Estates Disputes team helps families, settlors, trustees, beneficiaries, other lawyers and intermediaries involved in substantial trusts and estates disputes, often with an international element.

The team works with a range of clients who are either defending their actions or bringing a claim, advising on a wide range of trusts and estates disputes as well as Court of Protection cases.

Role responsibility

Working closely with the fee earners in the team across a broad range of trusts and estates dispute matters which are typically complex and often with an offshore element.

Tasks to include:

• Filing and file-keeping;
• Assisting in preparing scopes of work and letters of engagement;
• Providing administrative assistance for hearings 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 (including preparing bundles for counsel);
• Assisting with disclosure exercises;
• Assisting the wider Private Client department as required.

About you

Ideally you will be able to demonstrate;

• Previous experience of working within a litigation function - and preferably experience gained working with a trusts and estates disputes team.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills to enable efficient co-ordination of work.
• The ability to communicate with clients and other stakeholders in a helpful and efficient manner, responding to client queries where appropriate.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work well within a team. The ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues and clients at all levels
• The ability to interpret instructions correctly and act upon them
• Comfort using your own initiative
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to perform in deadline-orientated role
• Discretion and a sound understanding of client confidentiality.

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

With almost 200 lawyers in one location, we ensure our clients have the right team to help them get from where they are to where they want to be. We advise major corporates and institutions as well as entrepreneurial, ambitious enterprises which are often privately or family owned, or private equity backed. As well as our significant business law capability, we are one of only a few London-based law firms with a large private wealth offering. Our clients find our straightforward approach a compelling alternative to larger, less personal firms.

Whether you are an ambitious and talented individual wanting to hit the ground running from day one, or an established professional looking for a new opportunity, Howard Kennedy is the firm where you can really make it happen.

We have earned a strong reputation for our exceptional and uniquely talented people who between them deliver outstanding results for clients. In a firm of our size, our strong team dynamic creates a thriving culture of creativity and entrepreneurialism. Howard Kennedy is a pragmatic and non-hierarchical environment where success is shared, and you are proactively encouraged to thrive at your own pace.

Our distinctive culture is built on fairness and respect. Guided by the firm’s values of talk straight, think smart and be yourself, everyone in the firm holds equal value, and everyone plays their role in supporting, encouraging and inspiring colleagues to do their best work.

At the same time, we recognise and reward individualism, celebrating the diversity of our people and supporting them to grow their practice and drive their own career advancement.

As well as client work, there is opportunity to broaden your horizons at the firm with fulfilling pro bono and charity projects. We have a regular social calendar full of wellbeing activities, charitable and social events too.