We are looking for a dynamic and professional individual to join our Court of Protection Support Team (CST).

The role:

The CST team is responsible for providing support to our Court of Protection department by way of administrative duties. In your role as Administration Assistant, you will provide an effective, timely and efficient service as part of the wider team and assist in the maintenance of the department's high professional standards and smooth running. You will be tasked with producing quality documentation for the department, while ensuring the confidentiality of the firm’s and clients’ information.

This role will involve administering general office duties such as:

• File opening and file closing
• Scanning and assisting with distribution of daily post
• Organising outgoing post including by hand or special deliveries
• Printing, scanning, photocopying and archiving documents and files
• Assisting with office supplies monitoring and ordering
• Liaising with archiving personnel regarding retrieval and return of archived files
• Filing and organising the filing system
• Assisting in collating documents for the litigation team
• Updating data on the case management system
• Taking phone messages and making telephone calls to check bank details
• Requesting and collecting cheques/liaising with the accounts department
• Attending and contributing to team meetings and assisting in the organisation of meetings
• Assisting with new starters/work experience personnel

About you:

We are looking for candidates who have a strong work ethic, great teamwork skills, attention to detail and a positive attitude.

We welcome applicants from non-legal backgrounds including payroll, accounts, tax and other professional services and/or administrative backgrounds, as full training will be provided to the successful candidate.  

To be successful in this role you should be able to demonstrate:

• A good level of IT literacy (i.e. Word, Excel and Outlook)
• Strong typing skills
• Excellent telephone matter
• An ability to work autonomously and as part of a team
• A positive attitude
• Strong previous administrative skills or work in professional services (desirable)

The Department & work:

Our Court of Protection (CoP) department is nationally recognised as one of the largest, specialist and most diversified CoP teams in the country. All team members are experts, specialising solely in property and financial affairs CoP work, going above and beyond for their clients. Our team’s sustained growth of both caseload and team size as well as our client and staff retention is testament to our proven level of experience and success. With this comes ample opportunities for new starters’ personal development and progression, as well as gaining exposure to highly varied, interesting and complex CoP work.

The team work with almost all types of vulnerable adults, including those with the most profound injuries or illnesses and significantly reduced life expectancy. This includes mental health illness, learning difficulties age-related degenerative conditions such as dementia, acquired brain injuries, traumatic brain injuries, substance abuse, psychological injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, disabilities as a result of clinical or other negligence, birth injuries such as palsy and other cerebral hypoxia. Our deputy and PI trust appointments range from multifaceted, complex and high value matters- many of our appointments involve estates between £5 to 75 million, numerous pieces of litigation, business interests, complex jurisdictional issues in cross border disputes, financial abuse and reporting to the Court.

The team:

There are four deputies in the team- Megan Christie-Copeland, the Head of CoP department, Andrew Cusworth, an OPG Panel deputy specialising in cross-border, financial abuse and local authority deputyships and both Katherine Smith and Rebecca Brown, deputies specialising in deputyships for children and adults with multi-million-pound, personal injury/clinical negligence compensation awards.

Both our COP department and our partners are ranked in both UK Chambers and Legal 500 as a top firm for CoP and we won awards for ‘COP team of the year’ nationally and regionally at the Manchester Legal Awards in 2022.

The department are dedicated members of numerous professional bodies, including; the Society of Trust and Estate (STEP) Practitioners and Solicitors for the Elderly (SFE), Court User Group (CuG), Law Society Private Client Section, the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS), Birmingham Solicitors’ Group (BSG), as well as being a founding member for the Professional Deputies Forum (PDF), and having a founding member, Vice Chair and Strategy and Operations Manager for the Court of Protection Practitioners’ Association (CoPPA).

Team feedback:

A snapshot of team members’ feedback about their CoP department from a 2023 anonymous survey: “Everyone is friendly, supportive and there’s great team camaraderie… Great breadth of knowledge and experience, everyone willing to assist and share their knowledge... Clients are clearly priority and at the forefront of everything the team does… What we have in this team is very special- it’s not the industry norm from the people to the standard of work…Brilliant team to work in…Great work and social life balance…Despite the size of the team we have that close team feeling and team spirit… We’re listened to and supported by the team leaders and managers… Warm and welcoming team ethos… Very open to sharing ideas and receptive to new ways of thinking… Great quality work, no two days are the same…”

Career opportunities:

The team is known for its consistent growth and success - growing from 14 to 62 team members and 170 to 900 cases in 4 years, presenting ample opportunities for new starters to enjoy career development and progression (e.g. in 2023/4 there have been 19 promotions).

Working for JMW:

As well as a rewarding career, JMW offers its colleagues many other opportunities and benefits, including:

• A minimum of 25 days' annual leave (increasing with length of service) plus office closure between Christmas and New Year
• Employee Pension Scheme – SMART pension scheme
• Travel Insurance – covering you and eligible family members
• Death In Service - 3 x basic salary
• Private Medical Insurance (subject to opting in) and option of contributing to add eligible family members
• Income Protection - cover of up to 75% of salary
• Access to an interest free travel pass/parking loan
• A one-hour early finish, one Friday a month
• Two days a year to do charitable work, with a huge variety of events to get involved in
• The opportunity to participate in sports teams, hobby clubs, and social events
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders
• Annual promotions process open to all
• Work and employee referral schemes

More information including a full list of our benefits and company culture can be found on the careers home page, and via our social media channels – X, Instagram, LinkedIn.