About Porter Dodson

Porter Dodson is an award-winning Top 200 UK Law Firm, providing commercial and private legal services to individuals and businesses across Somerset, Devon and Dorset.

We're proud of a regional presence that gives clients the local connections and friendly in-person service they love. Being embedded in our local communities and market sectors gives our clients a superb service grounded in the real world.

What makes Porter Dodson a great place to work is our people and our culture. Our team are the lifeblood of the firm, and we are fully committed to ensuring our team are motivated, well cared for, and fulfilling their potential at work. Our people are our priority, which is why we have such excellent staff retention rates and how we have sustained a gold accreditation from Investors in People since 2016.

 

The Role

We have an excellent opportunity for a Paralegal to join our growing Residential Property team in Yeovil. This role will assist Legal Advisors by providing administrative support in a way that is conducive to enabling them to operate at optimum efficiency. The successful applicant will undertake some fee-earning work with special emphasis on drafting straightforward legal documents and proactively assisting clients with a view to building relationships with clients and taking on basic instructions from clients directly. The role will include but not be limited to the below responsibilities:

• Assist in compiling and providing fee-estimates for new clients

• Deal effectively with new file requests and client onboarding

• Order Titles from the Land Registry

• Prepare and regularly update Completion Statements

• Prepare and send Chancel Reports to clients

• Obtain draft Indemnity Insurance policies

• Conduct pre-exchange searches

• Deal with post-exchange letters and tasks

• Deal with all aspects of the completion process including finances, phone calls, emailing of all parties, and billing

• Prepare any necessary Notice of Transfer/Charge if applicable

• Submit SDLT return(s) and pay tax where applicable

• Process Land Registry applications

• Deal with Land Registry Requisitions (dependent upon experience)

• Open files, prepare and send initial client engagement documentation.

• Prepare client care paperwork, review client ID documents and source of funds to ensure compliance with Money Laundering obligations and internal policies.

• Ensure all email correspondence and attachments are entered on to Peppermint and Matter Summary Sheets are updated accordingly.

• Draft straightforward legal documents using the precedents provided, filing documents online where appropriate and develop skills to deal with more complex transactions.

• Contribute to the maintenance of a strict diary note of deadlines and timescales relevant to Legal Advisor(s) matters.

• Ensure all photocopying and scanning is accurate; take responsibility for checking photocopying/scanning done by Office Assistant.

• Attend to clients on the phone and in person, accurately recording any messages and passing on to the appropriate person without delay.

• Attend to drafting, calculation, approval, submission, and payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax.

• Deal with the registration of properties and leases at the Land Registry electronically including dealing with any requisitions.

• Provide proactive administrative support and matter management tasks that include but are not limited to keeping up to date with progress on matters; identifying follow up actions needed; proactively contributing to team billing and file closures where appropriate, WIP, disbursement and debts, file closure and residual balances.

 

 

About You

Working in our Residential Property department, this role would best suit someone who is pro-active and enthusiastic, with great interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels. Strong organisational and administrative skills are essential, along with the ability to multi-task and a confident telephone manner. More technical requirements include excellent IT skills including the use of Microsoft office. Ideally you will have experience in a law firm environment providing legal support to fee earners.

 

The Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, you will also get:

• 25 days holiday, plus Bank Holidays

• Extra Day of Holiday for your Birthday

• Private Healthcare

• Pension Scheme(s)

• Life Assurance

• Eye Tests

• Flu Jabs

• Corporate Gym Membership Discounts

• Legal Support

• Opportunities to get involved with charity fundraising, sports teams and office socials