Paralegal

Property Finance, Winchester

Paris Smith LLP is one of the South’s leading law firms with a clear strategy and vision for the future. We are committed to ensuring that clients have a positive experience with the Firm, and to inspire our people to reach their full potential aligned to our values. We are based in offices in Southampton, Winchester and Bournemouth with 40 partners and employing over 170 members of staff.

The Role

We are looking for a Paralegal to join our exciting and growing Property Department to work within our Property Finance Team. The right candidate will demonstrate high levels of personal responsibility and accountability, be positive and proactive, have a firm desire to learn and develop their skills / knowledge, the ability to work autonomously and with minimal supervision, and a commitment to the performance of the Team and their colleagues.

This is a full-time role, and will report directly to the Team Leader of the Property Finance Team.

Principal Duties & Responsibilities

Undertaking work under supervision of lawyers as delegated by them, to include:

Team tasks

• Responding to quote requests;

• Reviewing initial instruction from client banks;

• Undertaking such other tasks as are allocated by lawyers within the Team.

Transactional tasks

• Following the steps set out in the relevant manual (re-mortgage or purchase; standard or title insured), including utilising / tailoring the prescribed precedents, to achieve the swift completion of the transaction. The steps will potentially – depending on the specific transaction – include following:

o An assessment of costs and communicating a quotation to the client;

o Compliance with regulatory and firm client onboarding requirements; o Initial correspondence with the relevant parties;

o Regular communication with all relevant parties e.g. bank, borrower / borrower’s solicitor, broker, throughout the transaction;

o Procuring and reviewing necessary documentation including loan agreement, valuation report, Land Registry documents, applicable property forms, building insurance documentation, tenancy documents, conveyancing searches, and transactional documents;

o Populating template bank security documents and corresponding reports;

o Arranging for bespoke title indemnity insurance;

o Complying with the checklist applicable to the bank’s title insurance policy;

o Preparing a report for review by a supervising solicitor at specified points during the transaction and attending to all actions identified by them;

o Preparing a report outlining our findings for the borrower and / or bank

o Arranging for and verifying the valid signature of the bank’s security and documents ancillary thereto;

o Undertaking pre-completion searches;

o Preparing a statement setting out the financial credit and debits into the firm’s client account on the transaction and identifying the sum payable to or due from the borrower / borrower client;

o Arranging for the redemption of the existing loan and transfer of the loan balance (remortgage) / purchase monies (purchaser) to the relevant party and attending to the completion of the relevant documentation.

o Attending to the necessary post completion tasks including the required registrations with the Land Registry and Companies House

o Accounting to the client(s) with the relevant documents once all post completion matters have been attended to.

The Candidate

The successful candidate would ideally possess the following attributes:

• High levels of personal responsibility, accountability and integrity

• A proactive approach to their tasks

• A firm desire to learn independently and develop their skills / knowledge

• A commitment to the performance of the Team and their colleague

• The ability to

o work autonomously and with minimal supervision

o manage multiple tasks and prioritise accordingly

o analyse information, identify issues, and devise solutions

o work well under pressure to tight deadlines

• Excellent

o attention to detail

o written and verbal communication skills (including confidence on the telephone)

o numeracy

o IT skills (including the use of Word, Excel, MS Teams and generative AI)

• Prior experience of managing multiple projects i.e. tasks, transactions or cases taking several weeks to complete, simultaneously and the contribution of individuals involved in them.

In return we offer a competitive salary, a comprehensive range of benefits and a first class working environment within a leading regional law practice.