Legal Assistant

POSITION TITLE    LEGAL ASSISTANT

DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION

EMPLOYMENT CATEGORY      REGULAR

EMPLOYMENT LEVEL      STAFF

DEFINITION

Under supervision, provides responsible and confidential legal secretarial support to the professional legal staff in the City Attorney’s Office.

SUPERVISION RECEIVED AND EXERCISED

Receives direct supervision from the City Attorney.

EXAMPLES OF ESSENTIAL DUTIES

Duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Types a variety of legal and technical material from drafts, dictation, and forms. 
• Transcribes dictation of a legal and confidential nature, including witness statements; transcribes verbatim transcripts from recordings of public meetings and hearings. 
• Proofreads and corrects material for proper form, accuracy, and completeness. 
• Prepares all facets of document discovery and document management; performs preparation and filing of documents in administrative proceedings, state and federal courts and trial preparation; prepare and compile administrative records. 
• Types and proofreads state and appellate court briefs, ordinances, resolutions, contracts, deeds, and other legal and technical material for proper form, accuracy and completeness. 
• Predetermine and schedule court dates for depositions, court and administrative hearings and trials; assemble and prepare trial binders, and send notices notifying interested parties. 
• Compute suspense dates and deadlines for timely filing of litigation documents and maintain a tickler system. 
• Serve as liaison between professional legal staff, witnesses, law enforcement agencies and the general public. 
• Screen telephone calls, assist the public by providing technical information as required and refer inquiries as appropriate. 
• Take complaints from citizens and give information to the public and city employees concerning standard office policies and law not requiring attention of an attorney. 
• Operate standard office equipment, including information/word processing equipment, electronic mail, calendaring, and case/matter databases. 
• File and index office records, legal documents, and library materials. 
• Receive and itemize mail on a word processing log. 
• Perform related duties as required. 

Knowledge of: 

Legal terminology, documents and procedures related to the court system and civil process. 

• Familiarity with the types of documents and work encountered in a municipal law office; e.g., corporate and business law, land use, real estate, eminent domain, legislative, public finance, procurement, capital projects, contracts and agreements, code enforcement, Public Records Requests and economic development. 
• Legal citations, court filing procedures and other legal research skills necessary for development, drafting and filing legal documents in administrative proceedings and with state and federal courts. 
• Standard office practices, procedures and equipment. Automated filing and record keeping system. 
• Operation of standard office equipment, including information/word processing equipment, electronic mail, calendaring, and case/matter databases.

Ability to: 

• Type accurately at a speed necessary for timely completion of assigned duties. 
• Complete, make grammatical and spelling changes, proofread documents from drafts, forms or dictation, and appropriately process them by indexing, filing, and distributing to the client or appropriate entity. 
• Organize and plan the day-to-day clerical and administrative activities; maintain a calendar of filing dates, meetings and appointments, and keep attorneys apprised of deadline dates for timely filing of legal documents and project timelines. 
• Multi-task and handle complex and/or multi-faceted projects and follow through with limited time constraints. 
• Compile, organize and maintain confidential complex and extensive records and prepare appropriate reports; complete complex document editing instructions while maintaining the correct organization of components such as sequence of report and number of exhibits and attachments. 
• Interpret and apply operating principles and procedures of the function to which assigned, and understand the Legal Secretary’s role in the assignment. 
• Become familiar with and follow the organization, procedures and operating details of the City Attorney’s Office. 
• Understand the organization and operation of outside agencies as necessary to assume assigned responsibilities. 
• Understand and follow complex written and oral instructions and efficiently prioritize work and complete assignments within designated time deadlines. 
• Work with advanced formatting features, such as, footnote citations, table of authorities, and redline versions and track changes. 
• Establish and maintain effective work relationships with those contacted in the performance of required duties. 
• Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Must be age eighteen (18) by date of application.
• Equivalent to completion of the twelfth grade.
• Possession of a valid California Class C driver license.
• Three (3) years of increasingly responsible legal assistant experience performing the full range of legal assistant duties as it relates to municipal law and practice.
• Type at a speed of 50 NWPM.