Legal Secretary 1

***THIS RECRUITMENT MAY CLOSE WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS RECEIVED. APPLICANTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE***

The Department of Administration, Hearings Division, is seeking a Legal Secretary 1 to underfill a Legal Secretary 2 position in Las Vegas. This role serves as the judicial secretary to a Hearings Officer (HO) and is responsible for calendaring duties, including reset dates, notices, and stacked hearings. The position also acts as the direct liaison for telephone status checks, providing the HO with case updates and requesting further instruction as needed. The Legal Secretary provides skilled legal clerical support by creating and monitoring all court correspondence, pleadings, motions, orders, resets, stipulations, applications, and decisions for HO signature. Additional responsibilities include prioritizing and routing files to the appropriate courtroom and ensuring all changes are accurately reflected on the HO’s daily calendar. The position also serves as a liaison to the general public, attorneys, employer representatives, and other stakeholders. Duties include performing all necessary clerical and administrative tasks related to case processing. In addition, this position may serve as a backup secretary to assist during extended absences and to support future vacancies.

Legal Secretaries perform specialized secretarial duties for attorneys, administrative law judges, and/or  hearings/appeals officers including preparing legal documents and correspondence; calendaring;  maintaining  records; and providing assistance  on routine problems and inquiries which are not  of a legal nature.

Graduation from high school or equivalent education and two years of clerical experience, one of which was performing legal secretarial work in a trainee capacity; OR one year of experience as a Legal Secretary Trainee in Nevada State service; OR an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Maintain current knowledge of assigned caseload and status of cases; provide  general information to the  public, State and local governments, attorneys, court personnel, and various  office personnel; act as  liaison between professional legal staff, departmental  personnel, and the public; determine what  information may be provided and which requests must be referred to professional legal staff; refer calls  to another office if  necessary.

Provide clerical support  to assigned professional legal staff; receive and screen visitors and telephone  calls; respond to inquiries on a variety of matters such as the status  of pending cases; open and review incoming mail and determine priority of professional legal staff’s attention when routing; mail items according to postal and statutory requirements; maintain a calendar for  professional legal  staff’s appointments, due dates for documents, court  appearances, conferences, meetings and other engagements; schedule meetings and training and make travel arrangements.

Draft routine correspondence, reports/statistics and other materials requiring specific knowledge of operational methods, policies and procedures for  professional staff review; prepare and type requisitions and purchase orders, as required; process requests for payment and travel claims.

Format, prepare and type legal documents and correspondence in final format according to jurisdictional requirements, from rough draft, electronic documents, dictaphone, template or  notes; proofread and review for proper citation format; prepare  and attach exhibits, special sections  such as indexes, table of points and authorities, certificates of service, and brief covers.

Process and file documents with appropriate courts or quasi-judicial bodies in accordance with the specific procedures of each body, including manner of filing and established timelines; track responses and receipts due upon or  after  submittals, and  dates for other required actions subsequent  to submittals.

Gather, compile, organize, and prepare relevant material for professional staff to use in legal proceedings; review  files  and  references to obtain information needed by  professional  legal staff;  locate  and verify/abstract information from legal files and records; and verify the accuracy of citations and quotations by checking legal sources.

Establish and maintain  legal and general correspondence filing and cross filing systems as necessary; record case inventory information in order to maintain accurate records and provide for efficient retrieval of  information; prepare files for archiving and storage in compliance with established retention schedules.

Maintain a library of references including  legal publications, law digests, reports, opinions and court decisions.

Distribute or assign appropriate clerical work to lower level  staff; provide instruction and guidance and review work completed by clerical personnel.

Under direct supervision, incumbents  perform the duties outlined in the  series concept in a continuing  trainee capacity. Progression to the  journey level may occur upon  meeting the minimum  qualifications,  satisfactory job performance  and with approval of the appointing authority.  

Perform related duties as  assigned.

This job specification lists the major knowledge, skills and abilities of the job and is not all inclusive. Incumbent(s) will be expected to have knowledge, skills and abilities from a previous level. 

General knowledge of:  legal practices and procedures  for various courts and judicial districts; legal terminology; clerical requirements for preparing a nd typing a  variety of complex legal documents, forms, and other related materials; procedures for processing and filing documents with courts, boards and/or  commissions; proper format for legal citations; legal office procedures.

Ability to:  accurately prepare, type,  format, process and file a variety of complex documents in accordance with established timelines and procedures with appropriate court, board or commission;  maintain accurate calendaring of documents and court appearances;  compose  general correspondence  and forms; read and comprehend court  rules and  provisions of State law; proofread documents for correct format, grammar and punctuation; maintain accurate time records for various projects; set up and maintain legal files; differentiate between public and  confidential information; work as part of a team and act as a liaison with other entities; perform a variety of tasks often  changing from one  assignment to another.

Recruiter Contact Information: Jenn Trachet - jtrachet@admin.nv.gov

The State of Nevada is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building diverse, inclusive, and innovative work environments with employees who reflect our communities and enthusiastically serve them. All applicants are considered without regard to race, color, national origin, religion or belief, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, domestic partnership, genetic information (GINA), or compensation and/or wages.

Please send direct Inquiries or correspondence to the recruiter listed on this announcement.