Linda Palin Heath - Virtual Assistant
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Linda Palin Heath - Virtual Assistant

North Wales
in Wales

Linda Palin Heath

Member Since: February 2008

Short Description:

First-class honours BA, a distinction at Masters and a postgraduate diploma in law. An Executive PA to the Senior Partner at Head Office in a large law firm. Expert in all Executive PA administration legal documentation. IT skills are superlative.

Long Description:

Postgraduate Diploma in Law 2004 Pass The College of Law
IT Diploma IT 1998 Pass University of London
MA Philosophy 1998 Distinction University of London
BA English with Sociology 1996 First Class Hons University of Middlesex
LCCIB Business Studies Distinction NW Kent College of Business Studies
LCCIB Office Practice & Management Distinction
LCCIB Office Communications Distinction
LCCIB Shorthand/typing Distinction
RSA Shorthand X 4
GCE English Lit. A Wilmington Grammar School for Girls
GCE English Lang A
GCE History B
GCE German B
CSE French 1
GCE Maths C
Accustomed to Seminar running/Tutorials/Public Speaking

1999 to date Property Developer & Part-Time Law Lecturer 8 Years
Conveyancing knowledge. Advertising and letting expertise, budget management, planning and forecasting Microsoft Office skills. Business accounts.

Lecture, one evening a week, at the local FE college in law. Apart from the teaching, I cover all the administration connected with this role, writing the lectures and researching via texts and electronic means.

1999-2000 Private PA to Senior Law Consultant and Lecturer/Academic Oxford 12 months
This role necessitated all account preparation, VAT submission, diary management, lecture preparation, proof-reading and editing, travel arrangements and Party Political Conference attendance.


May 1987 to March 1999 Executive PA to Senior Partner
Robin Thompson & Partners in London 12 Years
In Brief Managing department: Liaison with clients; press; politicians; government officers; trades union executives; legal professionals; medical experts; court personnel, from Lord Chancellor to clerks, on individual, legal and social event matters. Inter-department communication via meetings, telephone and correspondence. Personal correspondence/sensitive material handled discretely and unsupervised. Proof-reading, drafting and editing reports and legal documents, including those with medical terminology. Acting as Office Manager of Head Office, when needed. All administration: meeting minutes; diary co-ordination; large event organisation; account calculations; conference organisation; team-building/staff development programmes; HR/staff/partner portfolio; international travel/hotel/sport arrangements; political memoir editing; report sharing with legal/medical experts. Developing superlative inter-personal skills.

Some Points Expanded Lateral problem solving and working to extremely tight deadlines, where attention to detail had to be excellent, became second nature. When acting as Office Manager, I was accustomed to the daily and forward planning of several departments support staff, whilst running my own department for the Senior Partner, dealing effectively with staff discipline, complaints and absences.

Organising social events, from intimate client dinners to events where over 1,000 would be in attendance at one function, with separate functions following. This included guests from the US and mainland Europe and necessitated careful planning and liaison with their own Assistants. An annual conference was held each year, where seminars were run for staff development and motivation. I have dealt with all aspects of recruitment. I have been responsible for department recruitment, including my own replacement/maternity cover, from advertising and providing profiles for agencies to interviewing and selection. I assisted in the maintenance of the recruitment portfolio and in organising staff development programmes to be participated in by staff and partners of the firm.
Systems within departments, and the firm as a whole, were constantly evolving and it was my responsibility to develop and disseminate these within the department and to the firm as a whole.


April 1979 to March 1986 Sales Director’s Secretary/Marketing Administrator
Wiggins Teape Plc 7 Years

Key to this role was the ability to prioritise tasks and yet provide consistent support to all members of the team.
The ability to act unsupervised and on own initiative was also imperative as the Team spent most of their time in the field and all sales enquiries and customer support and liaison fell to me.
I was involved, actively, in HR from the outset both in terms of Team development and recruitment of junior support staff.
I had to adhere to strict deadlines as a matter of course but also be sufficiently flexible to deal with unscheduled, emergency situations.
I handled all social event organisation.

August 1978 to April 1979 Director’s Secretary Project Planning
Patterson Ewart Group in London 9 Months
As with the previous employment, I handled all administration and office management unsupervised.
The Director's department was responsible for seeking out and planning new sales/export opportunities internationally. I was responsible for researching/preparing/disseminating reports on various regions, including those in Africa, and the optimum way in which to maximise market opportunity. This required careful analytical skills, preparation of reports to deadlines and the handling of sensitive material discretely.

Personal Statement
I left employment with Thompsons, in 1999, to undertake my PhD but my husband became terminally ill and I left my research to care for him until he died in 2000. Following that I concentrated on property development as I needed a more creative base to my career. My personal circumstances have made me resilient and adaptable. Very little fazes me. I also obtained my postgraduate diploma in Law, in 2004, and feel that it is now appropriate for me to return to my career, having re-married with all the support that entails. I can handle just about anything. My sense of fun and humour carry me through situations that would floor others.

I am looking to re-enter the employment market and am seeking a challenging opportunity that provides me with the chance to combine all my skills - academic, professional, personal – in one arena. I want to return to a company-based environment, principally, because I want to work as part of a team again but in a challenging and dynamic workplace.

I am used to working under extreme pressure, often for more than one department simultaneously, in large organisations at the forefront of professional/client expectation. In both my academic and professional life, I am accustomed to meeting deadlines, often last minute and extremely tight, coolly and without fuss. My multi-tasking skills are superlative and gaining qualifications, whilst working and running a home, has only served to augment them. Developing property has allowed me to keep up to date in a commercial arena as has undertaking the PgDL and subsequent law lecturing. I have had to use many of my PA skills and learn more.

Is there anything EXTRA you can bring to your employment?
I am well versed in medical/legal/psychology/sociology/philosophy terminology and phraseology. I have gleaned these during my professional life, in personal injury case report writing, and my own academic research. For example, I have written on the subject of FGM/psychoanalysis/educational psychology/cognitive psychology/child psychology/sociological theory and practice/philosophy of difference/genome project/post-modern cultural theory/performance art/marketing strategies and many other academic areas. This enables me to move effortlessly between several professions and to communicate with experts in many realms. I believe that this would stand me in good stead in many employment sectors as I am able to adapt this knowledge and expertise according to audience and arena.

I am used to communicating, effectively and respectfully, with people from all backgrounds, whether verbally or in writing, in a professional or social setting. I was married to a Senior solicitor and was required to accompany him to social events, including some in Paris and Zurich, for conferences and sports events, to represent his firm in corporate hospitality. Clients were also entertained in our home. Other legal professionals and politicians were invariably present. Consequently, I am comfortable in the presence of people from all backgrounds and can converse with them effortlessly.

My Masters and PhD are centred upon ethical dealings with people and why organisations and institutions need to master ethical relations with people, no matter what race/sex/religion. This aids my abilities in handling difficult or sensitive material in a suitably respectful and discrete manner. When this is added to my professional experience, I know I have the ability to be aware of my own role, its place within my department but also the larger picture, with respect to place in market/politics/country. I believe this brings a particular maturity, tact and discretion rarely provided.

When I was undertaking my postgraduate diploma in Law, I also participated in pro bono work for the College of Law. I researched, organised and delivered a workshop for children, teenagers, who had been excluded from school. The workshop was drama based to encourage the young people to participate. It was structured in a 'soap opera' style and proved so successful if enabling them to understand their legal rights on homelessness that we were asked to design further such workshops and travel around the country with them. The College of Law changed its policy on allowing similar workshops to run in their pro bono work. I would like to continue to participate in such programmes, whenever possible.

Services and Skills offered by this Virtual Assistant

Secretarial/Administration

• Articles
• Audio Typing
• Copy Typing
• Correspondence
• Data Input
• Desk Top Publishing
• Diary Management
• Editor
• Electronic Forms
• Email Administration
• Event Management
• Executive Assistant
• Faxing
• Invoicing
• Medical Transcription
• Minutes
• Newsletters
• Office Management
• Personal Administration
• Personal Assistant
• Phone-in Dictation
• Photocopying
• Presentations
• Proof Reading
• Reminder Service
• Research
• Resumes / CVs
• Secretarial Services
• Transcription
• Travel Arrangements
• Word Processing

Legal

• Legal Secretary
• Teaching

Contact Details

Name:
Linda Palin Heath