Temporary Legal Assistant - Social Care, Education and Employment

Reference no: Haringey RQ832452

Pay rate: £15.17 per hour PAYE

Role Length:  This opening assignment is for 2-3 months

Working outside normal office hours on occasions may be required

A Legal Assistant is required to provide assistance and support to lawyers and managers in the conduct of Social Care (Children and Adults) and Education and Employment and in the delivery of legal services. To conduct routine legal work and assist members of staff with legal work, as assigned and to carry out the duties of the post in a pro-active, enabling manner and within the policy objectives of the Council.

Key responsibilities:

• Organise and carry out legal tasks in one or more of the fields of social care, employment and education or any other function within the Council’s duties
• Deal with routine legal enquiries by way of telephone or correspondence.
• Participate in the daily duty rota dealing with general queries and correspondence.
• Carry out a range of legal duties as allocated, including issuing proceedings, drafting routine court documentation, obtaining hearing dates, writing letters, obtaining statements and affidavits, preparing bundles, witness templates, contacting experts, obtaining transcripts and police evidence, arranging service by post or personal service and arranging attendance at court, liaising with the parties concerned as appropriate.
• Conduct all work in accordance with practice management standards laid down by the Law Society (Lexcel) and all other departmental and corporate performance standards in order to maintain a standard of excellence.
• Undertake legal research and assist staff within legal services in respect of their work and ancillary duties as required.
• Liaise with officers and managers in other departments, keeping them informed of progress of cases and taking any other appropriate measures to ensure continued client satisfaction.
• Ensure that all duties are carried out with due regard and compliance with the provisions of Health and Safety legislation, the Council’s Equal Opportunities, Data Protection Act and Customer Care Policies including client confidentiality.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

• Education to law degree level.
• Relevant vocational training e.g. LPC, BVC, Ilex desirable.

Experience & Knowledge:

• Experience of undertaking legal assistant role in connection with Children and Adult Safeguarding and associated matters.
• Knowledge and understanding of s7 Children Act 1989.
• Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.

Skills:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Good organisational skills - able to plan and manage own time and workload effectively ensuring that deadlines and timescales are met while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail to deliver legal support on a number of concurrent tasks for more than one person at a time.
• Ability to work objectively, calmly and efficiently under pressure.
• Ability to contribute and to work well within the Legal Services’ Teams. Commitment to personal development and willingness to support the development and improvement of the Legal Service and to work flexibly adapting to a changing environment.
• Good customer care skills and focus.
• Able to visit a range of locations within and outside the Borough, attend meetings which may occur outside of the normal working day and work outside normal office hours on occasions.
• Strong IT skills using Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF.

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.