Information & Research Assistant

Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.

With offices in London, Oxford, Manchester, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.

Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.

The Library & Research Centre (LRC) at Lewis Silkin is growing! We’re looking for a new Information & Research Assistant to join our small and friendly London team providing a full service across all Lewis Silkin offices. The Information & Research Assistant will assist in the delivery of our curated current awareness and enquiries service, and will support aspects of procurement, training, resources management, as well as the opportunity to get involved with project work. The hybrid role will suit someone with a proactive approach, good attention to detail and the ability to work to deadlines.

Overall Objective

To support the Information & Research Manager and the wider Knowledge Management team in the delivery of information services for all internal stakeholders and external clients.  Consistently deliver high quality services on time, with a focus on responsiveness, satisfaction, effective communication and service orientation.  To assist in identifying and implementing process improvements that maximise efficiency and effectiveness in delivering products and services to meet stakeholder’s objectives and business needs.

• Resource Procurement
• Enquiries and Research
• Training & Guidance
• Current Awareness
• LRC Intranet and related Knowledge Systems

Resource procurement

• Processing of new books (classification/cataloguing and updating LMS).
• Journal subscriptions and administration.
• Reviewing new publications list.
• Administrative support around renewal of materials.
• Provide data to support electronic resource renewal/adoption.
• Password administration.
• Physical library management (including admin support for satellite collections, distribution of new materials, liaising with post room).
• Organising and maintaining shelving, tidying and archiving old editions.
• Providing admin support for budgeting where required.

Enquiries & research

• Responding to basic information requests and enquiries from stakeholders.
• Demonstrate strong writing skills and the ability to distil and present research work produced in a concise, professional manner.
• Proactively assess research requests and ensure that research meets stated and anticipated needs, consulting with senior team-members when needed.

Training administration, including

• Tracking requests.
• Updating central training records.
• Booking training sessions with internal stakeholders.
• Updating and maintaining new joiner materials and sending materials to promote the service.

Current awareness

• Assist with creating current awareness tools, and curating newsletters and alerts (including circulation) for ongoing monitoring of legal developments, clients, industries, and events.
• Experience with carrying out news searches and using a current awareness aggregation service, such as Vable is also desirable including administration of the software including content curation.
• Newsletter circulation.
• Journal list maintenance and circulation.
• Adding or updating search terms or news sources.
• Experience of organising information and updating electronic records.

Intranet/knowledge management

• Updating/maintaining LRC intranet pages and regular posts (e.g., new books lists, communications) as directed by the Information & Research Manager.

General support

• Support the Current Awareness service (e.g., compiling and sending reports, pulling together simple requests, emailing regular alerts).
• Providing passwords.
• Support on production of marketing materials for the service.
• To assist with ad hoc projects as and when required.

Desired experience

• Minimum of one to two years’ experience in a research/information service in a law firm, or professional services environment, or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• Experience of organising information and updating electronic records.

Desired skills

• Excellent IT skills and good level of numeracy.
• Familiarity with key UK legal materials and databases including Practical Law UK, Westlaw UK, and Lexis Library UK is essential, along with strong online search and retrieval skills.
• Experience with company and business research sources is highly desirable.
• Develops and maintains effective professional relationships internally and externally.
• Strong communication and listening skills with the ability to articulate opinions clearly, effectively and objectively (verbally and in writing).
• Organised and methodical.
• Ability to adapt to changing responsibilities and new situations.
• Effective problem solver, able to anticipate and resolve problems before they happen.
• Dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal stakeholders and external clients. 
• Demonstrates creativity and unique ideas to problems and encourages the creative initiatives of others.

At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.