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SUMMARY: To provide all aspects of responsible legal and administrative support for attorneys and other staff within the office. Maintains positive contact with clients and upholds all confidentiality of client matters. EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE: Associate Degree in Legal Administrative Assistant (or other like 2-year degree) or equivalent work experience. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Prepares and formats correspondence, pleadings, memoranda, emails, court documents, forms, and other legal documents from written, emailed and oral drafts; drafts standard correspondence, emails, court documents and other documents as required by the attorneys, paralegals and staff. Proofs documents for accuracy from matters returned from file openers/file clerks. Responds to cold calls, gathering necessary information to complete conflicts checks. Provides customer service to incoming clients, vendors and colleagues through email, telephone, voicemail. Provides timely and effective follow-up and follow-through on outstanding matters.
• Reads, sorts and dates, delivers incoming mail, scanning and saving to DM. Saves attorney’s Outlook emails in DM, maintaining DM naming integrity. Ensures that outgoing mail is delivered. If necessary, routes mail to specific delivery service and follows up on timely delivery.
• Establishes and maintains calendar and diary deadline reminder systems; utilizes master calendar and docketing systems. Contacts Court to schedule hearings or for various other matters.
• Opens new matters utilizing firm computer program; prepares physical files for new matters; performs conflict of interest checks and maintains all client and general files. Conducts periodic review for possible storage of older files; prepares files to be closed.
• Reviews daily new file emails and corrects any discrepancies; confirms or declines new matters per the direction from the attorney(s).
• Prepares and submits court filings through Electronic Case Filing (ECF) in State and Federal Courts; prepares paper files as needed. Performs e-filing/service of legal documents.
• Maintains client summary list; maintains expert retention; maintains pleadings and discovery retention and index. Prepares regular client correspondence.
• Develops, prepares, and maintains standard forms for practice group.
• Receives clients and visitors; maintains good public relations with clients; observes confidentiality of attorney-client relationship.
• Makes appointments for attorney(s) and paralegal(s). Makes travel arrangements for attorneys and creates/submits reimbursement/expenses reports to accounting department upon completion of travel.
• Processes bills; proofs billing sheets; reviews and edits bills. May assist with WIP review process/follow up. Ensures that attorney time sheets are provided to accounting department in a timely manner. Prepare attorney(s)’s non-billable report for annual review.
• Organize and monitor attorney(s)’s CLE credits to prepare and submit reports for licensing in respective states.
• Works closely with all administrative support and operations staff (including accounting, technology, human resources, marketing, facilities, receptionists, etc.). Performs additional legal assistant duties as needed, including organizing conference calls, reserving conference rooms and providing needed beverages, ordering lunches, etc.
• Performs overload typing, filing, photocopying, training support or reception relief as time permits and as requested by the Human Resources Director.
• Ability to follow policies and procedures, maintain regular attendance, complete administrative tasks correctly and on time.
• Perform any other job-specific duties as requested.
QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:
• Ability to read and write to proof and perform editing (e.g., punctuation, grammar, spelling) of routine law office correspondence and legal case matters. Perform non-complex arithmetic calculations when verifying calculations on forms and documents; maintain records and filing systems.
• Approximately one to two years on the job experience necessary to gain an understanding of law office policies and procedures and produce accurate legal documents with minimal supervision.
• Ability to transcribe legal documents, correspondence and reports from rough draft or dictation at a level of 70 wpm.
• Ability to organize and prioritize numerous tasks and complete them under time constraints.
• Ability to proofread typed material for grammatical, typographical, or spelling errors.
• Interpersonal skills necessary to communicate and follow instructions effectively from a diverse group of clients, attorneys and staff to provide information with ordinary courtesy and tact.
• Familiarity with legal terminology, state and federal court filing rules, basic legal procedure and law office protocol.
• Work occasionally requires a high level of mental effort and strain while producing a high volume of information with an intense pressure for excellence in attention detail while performing all duties.
• Requires technology expertise to provide support through Microsoft Office Suite, Document Management, Time & Billing, Calendar & Docketing, Transcription, and Desktop Publishing & Videoconferencing.
• Normal office environment.
• Ability to retrieve and distribute print volumes, push and pull packages, and books weighing up to 20 pounds and ability to retrieve and replace objects from shelves of up to 8 feet high.
• Work occasionally requires more than 40 hours per week to perform the essential duties of the position; may require irregular hours.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision. Regularly required to sit for lengths of time; use of hands and fingers to type, handle or feel must have the ability to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl when retrieving files.
