TAIONI COKE
London
Summary
Future Trainee Solicitor (HFW, March 2027) with a Quintile 1 performance in SQE1, seeking a 6-month Fixed-Term Contract Paralegal position commencing August 2026. Offers a practical operational foundation from HSF Kramer and Baker McKenzie, with hands-on experience in iManage, Intapp Time, and legal billing workflows. Experienced in managing regulatory casework under FCA guidelines, supported by certified legal research skills in Westlaw UK and Practical Law. Fully available to provide dependable, high-quality support to fee-earning teams, with a strong foundational understanding of international trade, insurance, and commercial dispute resolution.
Overview
3
3
years of professional experience
3
3
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Junior Practice Assistant
Baker McKenzie
London
2024.03 - 2024.12
- Cross-Practice Operational Support: Provided seamless administrative and operational support across high-volume transactional, contentious, and advisory practice groups within a top-tier global law firm.
- Pensions Team & Knowledge Management Liaison: Acted as the sole, dedicated liaison for the Pensions Sub-Practice Group's Knowledge Lawyers; coordinated the collection, input, and structured formatting of legal precedents and current awareness materials into the firm’s global knowledge repository.
- Partner Inbox Management & Correspondence: Managed and screened senior partner email inboxes; triaged high-volume, confidential client communications, flagged urgent matter-related queries, and drafted routine professional correspondence.
- Risk Management, KYC & Conflict Compliance: Handled client intake, matter openings, and initial phases of onboarding, verifying Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation, monitoring immigration compliance tracking, and processing conflict checks.
- Business Development & Pitch Tracking: Assisted in the production, drafting, and legal formatting of client alerts, industry pitches, trainee development materials, and marketing campaigns; actively logged pipeline data and tracked ongoing opportunities within the CRM.
- Complex Travel & Diary Logistics: Managed highly complex, multi-jurisdictional diary coordination and extensive international travel arrangements for senior fee earners, handling visas, itineraries, and fluid meeting logistics across virtual and hybrid platforms.
- Revenue & Matter Lifecycle Management: Administered daily time-entry tracking, billing support, complex vendor invoice processing, and expense reimbursements to facilitate seamless practice group financial workflows.
Practice Team Assistant
Herbert Smith Freehills
London
2023.04 - 2024.03
- Legal Document Production & Bundle Management: Prepared, amended, and quality-checked court bundles, counsel bundles, and legal documents to exacting standards, collaborating with specialised trial-preparation teams and utilising iManage for strict version control.
- Revenue & Financial Operations Management: Managed end-to-end billing administration processes, sorted expense claims, and entered billable time for fee-earners; transcribed partner audio dictations and voice recordings into formal Intapp Time entries to ensure swift daily billing cycles and prevent time leakage.
- Digital Dictation & Document Support: Utilised advanced dictation software to manage high-volume audio queues; typed up and edited attendance notes for client meetings or hearings from verbal records and coordinated external document translation services.
- Virtual Data Room (VDR) & iManage Support: Assisted with corporate transactions and litigation reviews by securely transferring data files from iManage to external Virtual Data Rooms, maintaining structured file organisation and indexing.
- Meeting Coordination & Stakeholder Logistics: Liaised confidently with firm clients and stakeholders to organise internal and external meetings, including mediations; communicated directly with counsel regarding case requirements and disbursement provisions.
- Compliance & CRM Administration: Coordinated the New Business Intake (NBI) process, entering initial client onboarding data and managing client and matter amendments in the CRM system in line with firm information barrier protocols.
- Information Governance & File Lifecycle: Archived closed matters and logged physical files, maintaining accurate electronic records within iManage in strict compliance with firm protocols and data privacy policies.
- Key Achievement: Solely managed the end-to-end billing administration for 7 key insurance litigation matters; spearheaded a comprehensive bill auditing and review project in partnership with a Paralegal, successfully identifying and resolving critical disbursement inaccuracies and legacy billing disputes for a major corporate client while collaborating directly with fee earners to streamline revenue recovery.
Complaints Handler
Zilch Technology Limited
London
2022.05 - 2023.03
- Complex Case Investigation & Statutory Timelines: Investigated and resolved complex consumer credit and regulated lending complaints, ensuring strict compliance with FCA DISP rules and meeting statutory eight-week final response deadlines.
- Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) Casework: Managed end-to-end contentious casework escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service; drafted comprehensive business response submissions and compiled structured evidence bundles to defend the firm's position.
- Information Governance & Audit Quality: Maintained meticulous, audit-ready regulatory case logs and digital evidence trails, protecting data integrity and demonstrating absolute adherence to regulatory record-keeping standards.
- Conduct Risk Reporting & Business Insights: Prepared detailed internal case reviews and reports on escalated conduct matters, analysing root causes to share key regulatory insights and risk trends across different business units.
- FCA Consumer Duty Compliance: Assessed customer outcomes against FCA Consumer Duty standards, actively identifying potential areas of consumer vulnerability or systemic detriment during the dispute lifecycle.
- Cross-Functional Dispute Support: Collaborated closely with internal Operations, QA, and merchant-dispute teams to review complex chargeback mechanics, technical product glitches, and merchant categorisation code anomalies.
- Key Achievement: Identified recurring systemic issues across Consumer Credit Act (CCA) files and worked in partnership with Senior Compliance Managers to update standard response templates, helping to create a more consistent firm-wide process for handling irresponsible lending complaints.
Education
LLM Legal Practice - SQE1 & 2
University of Law
London 2025.09 -
PGDL -
University of Law
London 2025.01 - 2025.08
BA - History & Development Studies
SOAS University of London
London 2018.09 - 2021.07
Skills
Legal technology proficiency
Legal research certification
Risk compliance administration
Document preparation
Matter logistics management
Financial Operations: Competent in end-to-end legal billing processes, sorting itemised invoices for fee-earner expenses, and managing vendor claims
Professional Competencies: Demonstrated legal accuracy and attention to detail under tight deadlines, independent problem-solving, and clear professional communication with counsel and internal stakeholders
Timeline
LLM Legal Practice - SQE1 & 2
University of Law
2025.09 -
PGDL -
University of Law
2025.01 - 2025.08
Junior Practice Assistant
Baker McKenzie
2024.03 - 2024.12
Practice Team Assistant
Herbert Smith Freehills
2023.04 - 2024.03
Complaints Handler
Zilch Technology Limited
2022.05 - 2023.03
BA - History & Development Studies
SOAS University of London
2018.09 - 2021.07