Bilingual Executive Assistant - Business Law

At McCarthy Tétrault, we offer challenging and rewarding career opportunities and are delighted to have been selected for the eleventh consecutive year in 2023 as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers. Our culture is built on professional excellence, collaboration, innovation, thought leadership and entrepreneurialism. We embrace inclusion in all its forms and we provide the tools and opportunities to help our people develop to their full potential.

The employee in this position will be required to interact with customers and third parties who understand and communicate only in English. This position also requires the candidate to be able to interact fluidly with colleagues in our offices across Canada, where English is the predominant language. As we estimate that over 60% of the work required by this position must be carried out in English, the language requirements for this position are a high level of writing and reading comprehension as well as a beginner's level of oral communication.

This position is based out of Montreal. McCarthy Tétrault employees benefit from a hybrid work environment.

As a Bilingual Executive Assistant, you will be:

General Lawyer / Client Support

• Managing the workflow of lawyers’ support needs with access to emails (if delegated), calendar, files, due dates, and client-related activities to provide day-to-day administrative support.
• Anticipating work requirements to efficiently maximize the time of lawyers by managing priorities and workload. This includes adequately preparing for meetings, briefings on daily/weekly schedule with required documentation and materials.
• Coordinating internal and client meetings, including preparation of agenda, scheduling rooms and arranging for needed catering or technology support.
• Attending to lawyer travel arrangements and ancillary arrangements including preparing itineraries in coordination with the Firm’s travel resources and in compliance with Firm and client travel policies.
• Providing consistent backup support within the Practice Support Team on an as-needed basis; providing support managing multiple tasks and competing deadlines and working proactively as a positive and productive member of the team.
• Coordinating and dispersing tasks to be performed by various groups such as the Resource Centre, Billing Analysts, Finance, IT, Facilities, Concierge, Clients & Markets, etc. where appropriate while ensuring tasks are completed in a timely manner.
• Attending training on new tools and taking responsibility for teaching their lawyers one-on-one with in-person demos.

Documents, File and Time Management

8. Preparing, editing, proofreading, formatting, printing, scanning and revising correspondence, memoranda, large transaction documents, reports, forms, labels and other printed material through dictation, copy typing or other instructions, in accordance with the requirements set by the practice group and supported where needed by the Resource Centre.
9. Managing files including: opening new files, maintaining large and complex files, developing, maintaining and utilizing an orderly filing and retrieval system to ensure ease of reference to historical paper or electronic records, organizing law and precedent files.
10. Working with Records Management to create, maintain and store client files as appropriate.

Email, Mail, Fax and Phone Reception Functions

• Monitoring emails, assessing priorities, gathering relevant information, taking appropriate action and preparing response.
• Reviewing and routing incoming mail and fax communications; preparing and processing outgoing mail and faxes; and arranging for specialized mail or messenger services as required.
• Receiving, handling, screening and/or directing incoming calls as directed by lawyers; responding to routine inquiries and requests from clients; and taking messages as required.

Financial Functions Activities

• Working collaboratively with lawyer and Billing Assistants to ensure bills are reviewed and processed on a monthly basis in line with Firm deadlines.
• Proactively monitoring outstanding client invoices and working with lawyers and collections team to follow-up on outstanding payments.
• Working with Finance to coordinate new Client and Matter openings (KYC), including submitting requests for conflict checks.

Market / Business Development Activities

• Coordinating and arranging for on-site and external meetings, conferences and events. Coordinating logistics of internal and external conferences, meetings and small events e.g., communication, location, meals, technical equipment, materials, RSVPs, and travel, . Attends on-site at venue to confirm logistical arrangements, as needed and also traveling arrangements.
• Proactively coordinating business development activities with internal lawyers, teams and functional area staff as needed to ensure efficient execution of business development plans, targets and action items, client entertainment, client distribution lists, and managing sponsorship requests received by lawyers, including updates to Firm client relationship management systems as may be required.
• Requesting reports from client relationship management systems and keeping track of client preferences, meetings, and meeting notes.
• Drafting, revising and organizing a variety of practice management, business development and client related documents.

Other

• Maintaining and updating job knowledge and technical skills by identifying and participating in education opportunities.
• Supporting other practicing Lawyers and backing-up other LSS team members as needed.
• Supporting assigned lawyers’ responsibilities may require availability beyond regular working hours to manage and respond to requests in a timely manner.
• Managing Firm and client confidential information.
• Other duties as may be applicable to this role.

As our ideal candidate, you will distinguish yourself by the following profile:

• Legal Assistant diploma or college certificate or university degree in Business Administration or equivalent.
• Minimum 5 years of experience as a legal assistant or as an assistant with experience ideally acquired in a professional services environment.
• In-depth understanding of the legal practice of Business Law is beneficial.
• Intermediate-Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) as well as familiarity with other tools such as HiQ, iManage, Salesforce.
• In-depth knowledge of business and legal terminology.
• Strong attention to detail and superior word processing, spelling, proofreading and editing skills.
• Capacity to perform duties with speed and accuracy.
• Critical thinking skills required to plan, organize and problem solve proactively.
• Strong time management, organizational and multi-tasking skills, assessing priorities among multiple competing requests, delegates to other support resources, and ability to work under pressure to meet important deadlines.
• Provides a high level of service to clients (external) and colleagues (internal), demonstrates tact, respect, and professionalism in all interactions.
• Commitment to provide a high level of service to clients (external) and colleagues (internal), demonstrate tact, respect, and professionalism in all interactions.
• Ability to follow-up on files and delays with minimal supervision.
• High level of discretion and confidentiality and capacity to handle extremely sensitive information.
• Flexibility to occasionally work overtime.
• Exceptional communication (written/spoken) and interpersonal skills.
• Bilingualism (French and English, oral and written).

As a member of the McCarthy team, you will have access to:

• Outstanding benefits from day one, including insurance premiums paid by the Firm and wellness and technology reimbursements.
• Competitive compensation, paid overtime and generous time off, including a day off to volunteer and a day off for your birthday.
• A commitment to professional development and growth opportunities for our people at all levels, supported by a culture that fully embraces and encourages two-way feedback.
• Strong community involvement and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• A collaborative, cohesive culture that connects lawyers and business teams through collective purpose.

We thank all applicants for their interest in McCarthy Tétrault; however, only chosen applicants will be contacted. We regret that we are unable to respond to individual inquiries about application status. McCarthy Tétrault is an equal opportunity employer that fosters an inclusive, equitable, and accessible environment. Please notify us if you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process.