Withers Worldwide

Previous work experience

Previously a paralegal at  the US law firm Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.  I was based in the Project Finance and Capital Markets departments which involved very long documents (200 pages +) for financial institutions and very, very, long hours. 

About the department I work in

I currently work mainly for the US team of the International Group of the Wealth Planning Department based in London.  Our clients are generally individuals rather than companies which I enjoy as it means that I have direct client interaction and we are providing a service appreciated by the clients personally which makes the work more interesting.  Because the work is for individuals I am also able to see the work through from beginning to end so you get a sense of achievement.  We work very much as a team.

About my role

My main responsibilities include:

• producing legal documents for clients, such as wills and trust documents and general drafting of correspondence to clients
• dealing with client queries either directly where possible or by arranging for contact with fee earner where necessary
• diary management and arranging meetings, including arranging monthly departmental meetings
• monthly billing, including drafting of letters, bills and detailed narratives to clients and dealing with client queries where appropriate
• handling of general administrative tasks such as dealing with client opening forms and money laundering issues
• producing Powerpoint presentations
• travel arrangements.

In addition to this I also do some fee earning work where appropriate including:

• due diligence work
• initial drafts of dual qualified charity documents including US tax returns.

I consider there to be two main aspects of my job, one to take care of as much of the non-chargeable work, such as basic admin and billing as possible to enable fee earners to concentrate their focus on billable client work and second to ensure that when clients come through to me with queries to ensure that they are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner. 

Hot topic : IT Training for secretarial staff

Withers is very strong on providing the most up to date IT hardware and software to all its staff and providing training so that staff are kept up to date on its use.  We are offered regular courses in all applications.  As well as refresher courses on software which is not necessarily used on a regular basis such as Excel and Powerpoint there are also courses on advanced use for these and other software such as Outlook and Word.  We are also offered the opportunity to take Microsoft Office qualifications in to prove that our skills are being kept up to date and are provided both the training for these and the cost of the examinations. 

Advice to anyone considering joining?

Withers is very much a team oriented firm.  In my experience everyone is treated with respect and is not just a cog in the machine.  If you want to have responsibility and involvement in your work they are very much in favour of enabling you.  Obviously this is taken from my specific point of view but from observing other teams I think it is true of the firm generally.