Compliance / Operations Manager

About Woodfines

Woodfines is a progressive, growing firm, well-established in the ‘Oxford-Cambridge arc’, and offering flexible working in modern, spacious offices. We have offices in Milton Keynes, within walking distance of the shopping centre, theatre district and the train station; Cambridge, within walking distance of the train station; and Bedford, within walking distance of the shops, train and bus stations.

As a firm, we pride ourselves on our friendly, approachable nature, to both staff and clients, and we offer competitive salaries and genuine progression opportunities. Our staff are given autonomy in an organisation that focuses on the delivery of practical solutions.

Woodfines is a full-service legal firm, with over 140 staff and high staff retention. As well as our well-established reputation in Commercial and Private Client Law, we specialise nationally in Road Transport and Logistics Law and, more locally to our rural clients, Agricultural Law.

About the Role

The role of Compliance / Operations Manager will provide support and assistance to the Partners and Senior Management Team.

Responsibilities will include:

  • Drafting developing and implementing firm-wide compliance policies and procedures.
  • Managing all aspects of firm compliance (including SRA, Lexcel, GDPR and Health & Safety).
  • Providing risk and compliance training.
  • Responding to compliance queries and providing advice.
  • Assisting in claims and complaints handling, maintaining registers, and providing advice on mitigating associated risks.
  • Managing the risk registers.
  • Project to include preparation for Lexcel audit, which is a re-accreditation audit.
  • Oversee the facilities department to include management of: Archiving / storage, office facilities, office / desk moves, office painting & decorating, etc.
  • Office contracts, including outsourcing, printers / scanning, etc.
  • Project management, including: moving to paperless working, office refurbishment (open plan) for Bedford and Cambridge, reducing cost of storage, etc.
  • Manage the IT contract with IT outsourcer.
  • Work with IT outsourcer on managing a replacement equipment programme after initial purchase of new IT, as part of the project.
  • Manage the mobile phone contract.
  • Manage the telephone contract with telephony outsourcer and leased lines.
  • Manage implementation of telephone and IT upgrades.
  • Provide IT training as part of IT upgrade.
  • Implement new mobile phone policy, including purchase of phones.

About You

We are looking for someone with the following skills and experience:

  • Sound knowledge and experience of working in Compliance within a regulated sector, ideally legal.
  • Project Management experience.
  • Excellent attention to detail.
  • Excellent organisation skills.
  • Effective communication skills.
  • Able to work on own initiative.
  • Able to work under pressure to set deadlines.

Contract type: Full Time, Permanent
Salary: £Competitive
Location: Bedford

To Apply

Please click here to apply.

Company Commercial Solicitor – Milton Keynes

We are currently investing in and expanding our Commercial team across our offices to reflect both our current workload requirements, but also the firm’s regional ambitions for the future. We are looking at for a Solicitor with at least 6 years PQE to be based in our Milton Keynes office, who is committed to the vision that we have for servicing clients and their own personal development in a supportive environment.

To find out more about the role, please download our job specification.

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter detailing your experience to Karen Jobbling at kjobbling@woodfines.co.uk

Company Commercial Solicitor – Cambridge

We are currently investing in and expanding our Commercial team across our offices to reflect both our current workload requirements, but also the firm’s regional ambitions for the future. We require an experienced Senior Solicitor to lead transactions and the development of Commercial legal services from our Cambridge office.

To find out more about the role, and the Commercial department, please download our job specification.

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter detailing your experience to Karen Jobbling at kjobbling@woodfines.co.uk

Legal Secretary, Commercial Property – Bedford

Why Woodfines?

We are a progressive, growing firm, well-established in the ‘Oxford-Cambridge arc’, offering flexible working in modern, spacious offices. This role is based in our Bedford office within walking distance of the high street and the train and bus stations.

As a firm, we pride ourselves on our friendly, approachable nature, to both staff and clients, offer competitive salaries, and genuine progression opportunities. Our staff are given autonomy in a firm that focuses on the delivery of practical solutions.

Woodfines is a full-service legal firm, with over 140 staff and very high staff retention. As well as our well-established reputation in Commercial and Private Client law, we specialise nationally in Road Transport and Logistics law and, more locally to our rural clients, Agricultural law.

Job description and Required Skills

An opportunity has arisen within our Commercial Property department in Bedford for a Legal Secretary. This is a very busy role working for 2 or more solicitors.

Skills Required:

  • Clear demonstrable experience as a legal secretary, ideally within Commercial Property
  • Excellent IT skills with good working knowledge of Microsoft Office
  • Previous experience of using a case management system would be desirable
  • Proven ability to use own initiative and work well under pressure
  • A positive, proactive, can-do approach
  • Willingness to work well as part of a busy team
  • A commitment to providing excellent customer service

Daily Duties:

  • Carrying out a secretarial role to support fee earners in the Commercial Property team.
  • Assisting with a broad variety of administrative tasks
  • Having direct client contact, via telephone, email and face to face
  • Ensuring departmental systems and firm-wide procedures are followed.

Salary is commensurate with experience and we offer additional staff benefits including pension, income protection scheme, group life cover, cash plan and 34 days holiday.

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter to Karen Jobbling, HR Manager, at kjobbling@woodfines.co.uk

Work Experience

Woodfines Solicitors offers work experience placements across its offices in Bedford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge during July, August and September each year.

“I would like to thank you very much for arranging the work experience for me. I found it very, very useful and really enjoyed it as well. I appreciate the time you took out to talk to me and I have learnt a lot from you and the other members of the department in my time there. You all made me feel very welcome and comfortable and it was a pleasure working with you all.”

Placements are usually for one week at a time but spaces are extremely limited. As a result, we will generally give preference to applications from individuals who are currently in their second or third year at University.

We also consider applications from sixth form students, offering a maximum of two days experience at the firm.

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