Paralegal

Performs responsible professional paralegal work in assisting the City attorney with handling the legal affairs of the City; conducts research, drafts legal documents, and performs related administrative work as required.   Work is performed under the general supervision of the City Attorney.

• Drafts a variety of routine legal documents, including ordinances, resolutions, pleadings, legal notices, advertisements, and draft contracts.
• Prepares District Court Civil Actions to collect monies owed to the City, to enforce Housing Code, Nuisance Code, and Zoning Code as directed; processes evictions from city owned properties, conducts condemnation proceedings, and provides litigation assistance.
• Performs scheduling and maintains calendars, monitors and provides notification of deadlines, appointments and meetings.
• Review’s contracts, ordinances, resolutions, policies and other legal documents for proper form, accuracy and completeness.
• Files or records pleadings, lis pendens, liens, ordinances, variances, and conditional zoning documents.
• Routes requests to annex City real property and to un-dedicate streets, alleys and easements and then prepares appropriate agenda item for Council action.
• Assists City staff with questions regarding State statutes, City ordinances, city policies and code enforcement procedures.
• Assist City Attorney in preparation for quasi-judicial hearings.
• Performs special research projects and prepares corresponding memoranda.
• Assists the City Clerk and Deputy City Clerk with receiving telephone calls and personal callers for  Administration.
• Maintains real estate files, title files, litigation files, and other records as instructed by the City Attorney.
• Takes and transcribes correspondence and dictation, composes routine correspondence, types a variety of reports and materials.
• Processes Public Records Requests: and performs related tasks as required.

Graduation from a North Carolina Qualified Paralegal Studies Program by the North Carolina State Bar, with an associate’s degree in paralegal studies or any equivalent combination of education, training and experience.   Moderate experience as a paralegal, municipal or local government environment preferred.  Substantial experience in advanced level PC applications (Word, Excel, Power Point), 50 words per minute typing skills. Valid driver’s license. Possession of Commission as a Notary Public in the State of North Carolina within 6 months. Board of Paralegal Certification. 

Thorough knowledge of legal practices and procedures, including judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings; ability to perform all aspects of public records research to analyze, interpret and apply research performed and to formulate recommendations as required; working knowledge of municipal law and City organization, functions and procedures; comprehensive knowledge of legal terminology; ability to interpret and apply federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations; ability to organize and perform tasks independently; ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with City staff, the public and other members of the legal community; ability to communicate clearly both verbally and in writing, comprehensive knowledge of North Carolina real estate law; ability to perform and organize work independently; ability to type, take and transcribe dictation accurately and at a reasonable rate of speed; and ability to prepare effective correspondence on routine matters and to perform routine office management details without referral to supervisor.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable an individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

This work requires the occasional exertion of up to 10 pounds of force; work regularly requires using hands to finger, handle or feel and repetitive motions, frequently requires sitting and occasionally requires standing, walking, speaking or hearing, stooping, kneeling, crouching or crawling, reaching with hands and arms and pushing or pulling; work has standard vision requirements; vocal communication is required for expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word and conveying detailed or important instructions to others accurately, loudly or quickly; hearing is required to perceive information at normal spoken word levels and to receive detailed information through oral communications and/or to make fine distinctions in sound; work requires preparing and analyzing written or computer data, operating machines, operating motor vehicles or equipment and observing general surroundings and activities; work has no exposure to environmental conditions; work is generally in a moderately noisy location (e.g. business office, light traffic).